Energy Blast – June 2, 2009

Gazprom has demanded that Turkmenistan either reduce the price or the volume of its gas, as energy tensions between the two nations escalate.  The company is also apparently seriously worried by the pumping of gas into underground storage facilities in Ukraine.  Year on year, Gazprom has announced a 34% fall in production.  As Ukraine tries to settle its May gas bill, Sergei Shmatko has again threatened that failure to pay will result in Gazprom switching to 100% prepayments‘The price of a barrel oil went past $68 during the day on Monday June 1st, the highest level in seven months’: the Economist looks at the resurgence of oil prices, and the disadvantages that it may pose.  ‘The current oil price is the least comfortable for Russia’, says an economist on how Russia’s fates will change with the value of crude.  Abu Dhabi is in talks with Gazprom to help the latter finance its possible acquisitions of ‘distressed assets’.  The construction of the Nord Stream will apparently not be delayed by the economic crisis but the number of banks participating in the project may increase dramatically.