Energy Blast, Dec. 27, 2007

“We have received an extremely negative experience of foreign participation in exploration projects in Russia’s East,” said Gazprom’s deputy chairman. The company is against giving Russian subsoil to foreign companies to develop. In an attempt to reduce Russia’s dependence on Belarus for oil transit, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy and the pipeline monopoly Transneft have prepared a draft for the construction of a second pipeline leading to the Baltic port of Primorsk. Unified Energy System (UES) said its net profit had decreased 31%, year on year.

World EnergySouth Korea’s new president is set to increase the country’s efforts to overhaul its energy sector in 2008.Royal Dutch Shell has bought a 55% stake in a coalbed methane venture in China’s northern Shanxi province.The International Energy Agency has started work on a new study to be published next year that will rework its long-term projections for global oil reserves.(PHOTO: Gazprom sign in Moscow. (AFP/File/Alexander Nemenov))