Oil giant BP is cutting 5,000 jobs following a year that its chief executive said he “will be glad to leave behind”. The company’s talks with Gazprom over the Kovykya gas field have been stalled, meanwhile, “because it’s Russia, because it’s a complicated deal.” BP is also in talks with the Iraqi Government about a plan to boost oil production at the huge Rumaila field on the border with Kuwait. The presidents of Russia and Uzbekistan will meet to discuss the development of the natural gas transportation infrastructure in the Central Asian region. It was agreed last year that they would modernize the 1974 pipeline. Russia has called on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program pending the outcome of negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency over “complicated points” in its nuclear program.