Energy Blast, Feb. 21, 2008
According to one UK newspaper, the Nord Stream project is either “the answer to Europe’s energy needs, a multibillion-pound black hole, [or] a Kremlin conspiracy.” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has met with Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, although it is being reported that they did not discuss the recent gas deal, apparently because it has been satisfactorily settled. “When we set to talking over these problems, it was found that they all are solvable, we have no deep contradictions and we have never actually had for any of them,” Putin commented. Finnish utility Fortum has signed a pioneering deal to buy more than 5 million carbon dioxide emissions credits from Russian electricity producer TGC-1. Russia “has the potential to become the second biggest source of the credits after China.”
Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam-Hussein Nozari has announced that Tehran will soon close a deal with Gazprom to form a joint company for implementing energy projects “with the participation of a third country.”Rosneft has called its largest ever tender to sell crude oil, changing the usual three month term to six months and inviting a total of 11 majors to bid. The company will start working on two fields in Algeria this year with a view to extracting oil there by 2011.World EnergyEnergy supplier British Gas has reported annual profits of £571m at its residential arm, up from £95m in 2006, despite the fact that the company last month said it would raise the amount it charges for gas and electricity by 15%.Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly instructed state-owned Pertamina to prepare to take over the development of the Natuna D-Alpha gas block from international oil major ExxonMobil, intending to scrap ExxonMobil‘s rights to operate the block.Bush and ExxonMobil vs Chavez and VenezuelaPHOTO: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko meet in the presidential residence Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow February 20, 2008. REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Kremlin (RUSSIA)
