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Austria, Slovenia May Sign
Russia is close to signing up Austria and Slovenia for its South Stream gas pipeline to Europe, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Friday.
Slovenia will sign the deal in June, Slovenian Economy Minister Matej Lahovnik said in Ljubljana on Friday. Austria's economy ministry confirmed that it was in talks but declined to say at which stage the talks were.
Russia also said it wants the European Union to make South Stream one of its 10 "priority projects" in energy policy, Shmatko said after an EU-Russia summit. (Reuters)
Oil Output Won't Decline
Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said there were signs of growth in the country's oil production this year and that oil production this year would be at least as high as last year's.
"I'm glad that we can confidently speak of a stable, dependable situation in the country's oil complex," Shmatko said at a meeting of the Group of Eight's energy ministers in Rome, RIA-Novosti reported. (MT)
Shares Prepared for Sale
Bailiffs in a $1.7 billion case against Norwegian telecom group Telenor are preparing to engage a specialist to set out the procedure of the potential sale of Telenor's Russian assets.
The Federal Bailiff Service said in a statement that the resolution to engage the specialist was passed on Friday but gave no other details. Telenor has a 29.9 percent voting stake in Russia's No. 2 mobile-phone operator and was ordered by a Siberian court in February to pay the group $1.7 billion in compensation for allegedly holding back its business in Ukraine. (Reuters)
RusHydro's $613M Loss
RusHydro posted a 2008 net loss on Thursday of 19.48 billion rubles ($612.6 million) compared with a net profit for the state-controlled company of 5.47 billion rubles in 2007. Its revenues, however, increased 33 percent last year to 107.67 billion rubles, the company said in its results to international standards.
RusHydro said the loss resulted mainly from a 20 percent increase in operating costs to 84.7 billion rubles in 2008, as well as an impairment charge of 32.5 billion rubles. (Reuters)
Gazprom Lowers Dividend
Gazprom's board recommended a 2008 dividend of 0.36 rubles ($0.011) per share on Friday, it said in a statement, down from 0.37 rubles announced earlier in the week.
The statement on its web site did not explain why the approved recommendation was 1 kopek lower than the figure announced on Monday. (Reuters)
Committee to Pay
Gazprom may be paid for gas supplies to Eastern Europe in the 1990s after the government sets up a special committee this week to resolve the matter, Kommersant said, citing unidentified government officials.
East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria signed agreements from 1985 to 1987 to build gas infrastructure in the former Soviet Union in exchange for 83.8 billion cubic meters of gas that Gazprom supplied the following decade, the newspaper said.
The company wants $280 million for the difference between the value of the gas it provided and the infrastructure that it received under the deal, Kommersant said. (Bloomberg)
1% Fall in Oil Exports
Russia plans a 1 percent decrease in daily shipments of Urals and Siberian Light crude from six Baltic and Black Sea ports in June.
Russia will ship about 2.81 million barrels a day of crude oil from the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Gdansk and from Novorossiisk, Yuzhny, Odessa and Tuapse in the Black Sea, according to 's loading schedule. Exports were originally scheduled at 2.84 million barrels a day in May. (Bloomberg)
Gazprom May Cut Output
Gazprom may cut production to as low as 450 billion cubic meters of gas this year because of declining demand, deputy CEO Alexander Ananenkov said Friday.
Output, given the real consumption on the market, could be between 450 billion and 510 billion cubic meters, he said, Interfax reported. (Bloomberg)
Fund to Buy Foreign Stock
Russia may start selling the shares that it purchased in local companies and use the money to buy foreign securities, Vedomosti reported.
The National Welfare Fund has earned an annualized return of 42 percent on its local investments, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said, the newspaper reported Friday.
The money received could be invested in foreign companies' stocks and bonds, the paper said, citing two other ministry officials that it didn't identify by name. (Bloomberg)
Severstal Bids for Miner
Canada's High River Gold Mines said has proposed to make a cash offer of 18 Canadian cents a share to its minority shareholders.
High River said the outlook for the company remains uncertain in the absence of further financial support, and there can be no guarantee that such an offer will be made at this stage.
High River, which has operations in Russia and West Africa, said it has formed a special committee of independent directors to oversee discussions with Severstal and evaluate any proposal that may be made. (Reuters)
New Kazakh Accord Sought
Kazakhstan sought a new accord on transit of gas via Russia during a visit by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to allow the country to sell directly to Europe, Kommersant reported.
Kazakhstan wanted an agreement to sell as much as 15 billion cubic meters of gas from the Kashagan deposit directly to Europe after production begins in 2014, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people in the government and Gazprom.
The Central Asian country already sells directly to Europe, because Gazprom's German division purchases Kazakh gas on the border, the newspaper said, citing a Gazprom official. (Bloomberg)
For the Record
, the country's second-largest potash producer, said its board agreed to approve remuneration for 2008 only for independent directors and will not pay the rest of the board members. (Bloomberg) The Deposit Insurance Agency has proposed allocating 119 billion rubles ($3.8 billion) to bail out brokerage KIT Finance, agency chief Alexander Turbanov said, Interfax reported. (Bloomberg) 
