Energy Blast, April 1, 2008

Gazprom has warned that plans to boost gas production at home depended on signing long-term contracts with Europe. Tatneft is considering a joint project with Chevron after the head of the US oil major’s Russian operations met the president of Tatarstan. According to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Russia received an additional $475 billion in revenue as a result of high global oil prices between 2000 and 2007.

The Russian Finance Ministry has unveiled a series of tax break proposals for oil and gas industries as part of its fiscal policy strategy for 2009-2011, including proposals to cut the mineral extraction tax, change excise duties on high quality oil products and introduce tax breaks for exploration on the continental shelf. The draft document will be reviewed by the government on April 3.WORLD ENERGYIndian oil and gas exploration group Cairn Energy has “returned to the black” with a $1.5bn full-year, pre-tax profit against a previous $91.8m loss.