Energy Blast – September 20, 2010

Reuters reports that apparently the Macondo well, whose rupture prompted the worst oil spill in US history, has been fully plugged.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told ABC’s ‘This Week’ program that Iran is ‘ready’ to discuss its nuclear program with a handful of countries, including the US.  European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has apparently forwarded the idea of a united policy for EU member states on the purchase of gas from a third party and emphasized the need to reduce dependence on Russian gas.  In a move to outdo monopoly Gazprom, Russia’s second largest gas exporter, Lukoil, may sign a deal with China National Petroleum Corporation, which would see it channel its supplies from Uzbekistan eastwards.  Rosneft will not have the reduced export duties for its Vankor oil deposit it sought from the Finance Ministry, on the basis that the project already enjoys enough privileges.   Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has suggested that Russia may collaborate more with OPEC, despite bouts of sparring between the cartel and the Kremlin.