Energy Blast, Dec. 28, 2007

Gazprom took control of Shell’s Sakhalin-2 project last year, and now appears to want a stake in ExxonMobil’s Sakhalin-1 venture as well, according to new reports alleging that Gazprom held talks to join the oil and gas project earlier this year. Russia’s state-controlled Rosneft says it will raise oil output by 11% in 2008. The Middle East‘s share of Japan‘s crude imports fell to 84.3% in November from 89.4% a year ago, partly due to a surge in crude imports from Russia and Vietnam.

World EnergyThe chief executive of Edison, Italy’s second-largest utility, has warned that Europe needs to increase its nuclear power capacity to relieve its overdependence on gas.PetroChina and China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp. have agreed to inject $1.1 billion each into their joint venture developing the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China natural gas pipeline project.The South Korean foreign minister says that North Korea is likely to miss a year-end deadline to declare all of its nuclear activities and disable its main nuclear site.