Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Iran’s nuclear question is not going to be solved whilst sanctions are in place. First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov could be elected onto the board of Gazprom later this month, in spite of Dmitry Medvedev’s call to clear boards of state officials by October 1. India’s Petronet has agreed to buy up to 2.5 million tons of LNG per year. Will Gazprom seek to cash in on increased demand for liquid natural gas by expanding its Sakhalin projects? The company will bear the brunt of the gas tax burden (to the tune of $18 billion?), after Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that independent producers would not be subject to tax increases: ‘Gazprom has stopped being a sacred cow‘. Oil output reached a post-Soviet high last month as companies cash in on high crude prices. One month on from a sabotage explosion, gas supplies between Egypt and Israel have still not resumed: the Israeli company suspects ‘politics‘ and may sue. China’s Vice Premier acknowledges that his country constitutes a huge market for Russian energy.