Energy Blast – June 29, 2010

According to the Moscow Times, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin caused a storm when he said that BP CEO Tony Hayward would soon quit and reveal his successor during a visit to Moscow.  BP apparently defended its CEO in response.  An aide to Sechin affirmed that the future of the BP CEO was not discussed with talks during the meeting between the two men, says Bloomberg.  The beleaguered company has apparently pledged its shares in Rosneft to secure a $2 billion loan to help fix the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Russia has complained to the Security Council about what U.N. diplomats said was Germany’s seizure of items bound for a nuclear power plant in Iran.  Overview of the countries working in and those stepping away from Iran here.  Ukraine is maintaining that any joint gas-transit project between Naftogaz and Gazprom would need European involvement.  Rosneft will apparently accept the decision from the Dutch High Court requiring the company to pay $420 million related to the seizure of Yukos.  A new oil tax idea has drawn complaints from industry executives.  Mikhail Gutseriyev, the formerly-exiled founder of Rosneft, has been reinstalled as its president as the authorities attempt to use his influence to quell insurgency in his native Ingushetia.