Energy Blast – September 18, 2009

The New York Times suggests that antagonism regarding issues of sovereignty over Arctic waters has had a deleterious effect on the RUSALCA Arctic Sea mission.  Bloomberg reports that BG Group will seek to recover at least $700 million in export duties from the Kazakh government at a hearing in London later on this month.  Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has said that the country’s gas agreement with Russia could be modified at ‘any moment’ and has given his backing to the idea of Naftogaz Ukrainy’s repaying or exchanging $500 million of eurobonds.  Russia has said that OPEC has accepted an invitation to hold an oil summit in Moscow to discuss ways of increasing cooperation and limiting variations in oil prices.  ‘We agreed that Russia and OPEC are still interested in developing partnerships in the near future’, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has said.  Gazprom’s Shtokman project in the Arctic will produce only liquefied natural gas in the third phase as the state monopoly attempts to reduce its dependence on pipelines.