Energy Blast, Jan. 2, 2007

Gazprom has offered to purchase state-owned Petroleum Industry of Serbia, having reportedly offered the Serb government €400 million for a 51% stake. Russia is reportedly looking to cooperate with Uruguay on nuclear energy. Gazprom has announced that Russia’s natural gas will be supplied to Belarus in the first quarter of 2008 at the price of $119 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Grupa Lotos, Poland’s second-largest refiner, signed a $196 million contract to supply oil to the Polish unit of Russia’s Lukoil.World EnergyFears that Iran could use its huge gas reserves as an economic weapon have been raised after it cut off most of its gas supply to Turkey.“It’s a necessary evil.” Britain is expected to give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations next week.A Thai unit of ExxonMobil is set to have an initial public offering in March after plans were approved by the government.Norwegian energy group StatoilHydro will sell $243 million worth of assets in the Gulf of Mexico to US company Mariner Energy.The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a $400 million loan for a liquefied natural gas project in Peru whose total cost of $3.9 billion makes it the biggest ever private investment in the country.