Gazprom Reassures EU on Gas Supply
Alexei Miller, the head of Gazprom, told European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger on Tuesday that the Russian company "is a reliable supplier of gas to the European market and will remain one going forward," Gazprom said in a statement.
Amid a tense political dispute with Kiev and the West, Russia has threatened to decrease gas supplies to transit nation Ukraine if it continues to fail to pay its debts, but Moscow has also sought to reassure European consumers it will abide by all contracts. Gazprom said Ukraine now owes $2.2 billion. (Reuters)
Norway's Statoil Remains Rosneft's Despite Ukraine Crisis
BERGEN, Norway — Statoil is pushing on with all its projects in Russia, despite the uncertainty of the Crimea crisis, and still expects to drill a new well there this year, a senior executive at the Norwegian oil group said.
Statoil has several joint projects with Russia's largest oil company Rosneft, including deals to explore for oil and gas in Siberia and above the Arctic Circle, as well as shale oil in the south of the country.
Lars Christian Bacher, head of development and production international, said Statoil would go ahead with plans to drill one well with Rosneft this year and two in 2015 at the North Komsomolskoye heavy oil discovery in west Siberia.
Statoil is one of the select few international oil companies to explore for oil in Russia, along with ExxonMobil and Italy's Eni.
(Reuters)
Ukraine Opens Criminal Case Against Russian Bank
KIEV — Ukraine's state security service has opened a criminal case against officials at an unnamed Russian bank for "providing financing to terrorists," the SBU said in a statement on Tuesday.
The SBU said the bank transferred 45 million hryvnas ($3.75 million) between March and April for the financing of militant groups and had transferred between $200 and $500 per day to individual militants.
It said the bank had transferred funds to militants involved in the takeover of SBU offices in the eastern Ukraine city of Luhansk. (Reuters)
Real-Estate Developer Etalon Reports 53% Sales Rise in Q1
Russian residential real estate developer Etalon said Tuesday new sales rose 53 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014 as it launched apartment sales for three new projects.
First quarter sales rose to 9.1 billion rubles and the average price increased 3 percent to 83,234 rubles per square meter, Etalon said in a statement. (Reuters)