April 3, 2008 By Citizen M

Energy Blast, April 3, 2008

Swiftly following Vladimir Putin’s meeting with a group of Italian businessmen, Italian power company Enel has announced that it plans to invest around €9 billion ($14 billion) in the Russian economy over the next five years. The staff at OGK-4 and OGK-5, both bought out this year by European investors, are complaining of heavy-handedness from their foreign owners. Evraz, a Russian coal producer and steel maker, said annual profit rose 53% on 2006, to $2.2 billion. One British journalist builds a case against shifting to coal. Gazprom has placed $1.5 billion in Eurobonds under its program of foreign borrowing to raise funds for corporate development and short-term debt refinancing. The Chief Executive of BP is on his way to Moscow for a meeting with Gazprom. Industry sources say that security officers who raided TNK-BP‘s headquarters last month were looking for files relating to Gazprom. The company’s Director General, Alexander Medvedev, has announced that “Russia is the only country that can substantially increase gas supply to Europe”.