Energy Blast – September 28, 2010

Bashneft and Surgutneftegaz are apparently the only two companies, out of six contenders, which have been approved to bid for the lucrative Trebs and Titov fields.  It is apparently believed that the former is most likely to win the tender.  Rosatom hopes to triple sales to $50 billion by 2030 with a major increase in reactor sales to China and India, and nascent demand in the Middle East.  Turkmenistan has significantly increased the amount of gas it can transport to China by opening a natural gas compression station which will accommodate 60 million cubic meters of gas daily.  An overview here from the Moscow Times of the flurry of deals signed at yesterday’s meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao.  Poland may be looking to draw gas talks to a speedy conclusion, but apparently Russia is unwilling to compromise.  ‘[C]ould he possibly be serious?‘: Time magazine is incredulous about Putin’s recent rhetoric of peaceful cooperation in the Arctic sphere.  To operate any way other than peacefully in the resource-rich zone would be ‘madness’ argues this Bloomberg commentary.