Energy Blast – May 23, 2008

BP may have to repay its Russian venture, TNK-BP, more than $400 million after Tetlis, a minority shareholder, sued in Siberia to annul an employment contract between the two oil producers. Relations between BP and its partner in the venture “appear to be worsening amid a warning from the operation’s chief executive that recent legal action will be damaging to all shareholders.” United Energy Systems is selling off its assets in an “internet yard sale”, and has sold 25% of its Russian Communal Systems to Integrated Energy System, owned by Viktor Vekselberg. “It’s nuclear power, not oil, that worries the Middle East.” “The spread of civilian nuclear technologies brings the risk of nuclear proliferation.”