Japan agreed to study a plan to lay an underwater pipeline from Russia for gas deliveries. Japan agreed to study a plan to lay an underwater pipeline from Russia for gas deliveries, a Japanese lawmaker said Thursday. Shaken by a nuclear-power plant disaster caused by a nasty tsunami last...

... Turkmenistan — Senior officials in Turkmenistan say the energy-rich Central Asian nation plans to sign a natural gas sales agreement with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India this month. The deal would mark a decisive move toward construction of a pipeline crossing the four nations that backers hope will meet energy demands across the region. Two high-ranking officials, who cannot be named as they are not authorized to speak with the media, said they expect the agreement to be signed at an energy...

... in Russia when its subsidiary won an offshore-services contract from LUKoil. Italy's Eni scored another point in Russia when its subsidiary won an offshore-services contract from LUKoil. The subsidiary, Saipem, on Saturday signed a deal to lay pipelines that will carry oil and gas from an offshore Caspian Sea field. Saipem and LUKoil, which plans to launch the Vladimir Filanovsky field by the end of 2015, haven't named the price of the contract. Eni owns 43 percent of Saipem, whose shares trade...

... of a gas deal were agreed. "We have signed a buy-sell agreement with Gazprom," Jiang said, singling out the deal among successful ventures, including a loans-for-oil deal, under which China receives 300,000 barrels per day via a dedicated pipeline, and joint oil exploration in Siberia. Under the terms of the gas deal, which was nearly finalized last year, Russia would sell up to 68 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas per year to China, more gas than it ships to any single European customer...

... much longer for the marine ecosystem to recover from the impact of pollution. These three factors together make the sea uniquely vulnerable to oil spills, said Alexander Sutyagin, head of an environmental watchdog project called Monitoring the Baltic Pipeline System. "The Gulf of Mexico could handle oil spills of several thousands of tons — the shallow Baltic Sea wouldn't survive. Even an oil spill of 10 tons could have an impact on the marine environment; a spill of 100 tons would be very...

Enel's interest in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, project that aims to pump Azeri gas to Italy will boost TAP's chances of being picked as the pipeline of choice, analysts said. Producers in the Shah Deniz-2 field in Azerbaijan plan to ship about 16 billion cubic meters a year through...

... legally binding EU-Russia agreement, which it has been negotiating with Moscow since 2008. Relations between the two sides have often been tense as the commission seeks to reduce its dependence on Russia and to liberalize its internal market. Russian pipeline gas-export monopoly Gazprom has taken issue with EU law requiring a separation in ownership between suppliers and infrastructure, such as the Nord Stream pipeline, majority-owned by Gazprom and running from Russia to Germany. Gazprom is also...

... said. Statoil said earlier this spring that the partners sought to reduce the Arctic project's costs by at least 10 percent. As part of the effort, the companies involved are studying the idea of producing only liquefied gas, dropping the option of pipeline gas from the initial plan. Gazprom is raising investment even though its sales aren't growing as quickly. Gazprom could produce 1 percent less gas this year than it planned, said Vsevolod Cherepanov, the company's production department chief...

... Turkmenistan agreed Wednesday to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India, as it tries to free itself from reliance on gas exports to Russia. The deals offer major economic benefits to all three countries but depend on building and defending a U.S.-backed pipeline across chronically unstable Afghanistan. The route, particularly the 735-kilometer leg through the Afghan provinces of Herat and Kandahar, will need billions of dollars in funding. It presents significant security problems as the Western NATO...

... all the parties in the project agree on the final investment decision. "In St. Petersburg [in June], we can sign the basic terms of the new configuration of the project," Miller said. "First off, this will [make] changes to the ratio of pipeline/LNG production in favor of LNG." Located in the Barents Sea 550 kilometers off the shores of Russia, the Shtokman gas field is one of the world's largest. It has reserves of almost 4 trillion cubic meters, enough to meet global demand for...

... Gazprom holds a 51 percent stake in the project currently, with Total having 25 percent and Statoil 24 percent. De Margerie said costs for Shtokman could fall as an LNG project compared with its previous plan for exporting half of the output through a new pipeline and half on LNG tankers. "What we might lose with delaying the final investment decision could be totally or partially recovered during the construction period for the onshore part," he said. Last month, Statoil's chief executive Helge...

... payer among Russian oils," VTB Capital analysts said. "This is strongly positive for the company and the sector overall." Last month a senior Russian official questioned the company's dividend policy, saying it was underinvesting in its pipeline infrastructure, which resulted in oil spills in Siberia. (Reuters)

..., although on Tuesday a separate presidential decree placed the giant on a list of strategic companies that should officially remain in state hands. Rosneftegaz controls 75.16 percent in Rosneft, 10.74 percent in Gazprom and 7 percent in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. While Gazprom's privatization has not been discussed, selling down the state's stake in $65 billion-valued Rosneft has been included on earlier lists of assets to be auctioned. 179738

... between the two companies was mutually beneficial, lucrative for the state’s coffers and aided development in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district, it added. Bashneft needs LUKoil because of the oil giant’s presence in the area, including pipeline infrastructure and the Varandei oil terminal on the Barents Sea. LUKoil and Bashneft were due to invest 12 billion rubles ($400 million) in the site this year, Bashneft head Alexander Korsik said last week. Trebs and Titov contains about 140...

... the market in recent days, threatening a repeat of last year's fuel shortages following then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's order to oil companies to curb pump prices ahead of elections. However, it is unlikely to dent crude exports, as Russia uses pipelines as its main method of transporting oil abroad. Russia's transportation safety watchdog has banned the use of rail wagons designed to handle light oil products to ship crude and heavy fuel oil, following several rail accidents. That has cut the...

... broke even in March, was the start of gas deliveries to the domestic market. The gas — received by the government as royalty — goes to the power plant of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the island's capital, and into Gazprom's Sakhalin to Vladivostok pipeline. Sakhalin Energy also produced 5.76 million tons (45 million barrels) of oil last year. One more country, Indonesia, joined the club of the crude's buyers. 175768 179742

... remarkably open to companies from BRIC economies: There have been 33 Chinese companies already admitted, with 10 in the prime standard. Of the limited number of companies that managed to list last year in Frankfurt, three were Chinese and there is a long pipeline of other companies waiting to come to the market. As Russia continues to develop its SME sector to help meet the president's recent call for the creation of 25 million highly-productive jobs, and Russian private equity houses look to get rid...

... Sistema, one of the country's largest conglomerates with assets ranging from oil to telecoms, is looking at a range of possible deals as it seeks to diversify into new business lines such as agriculture and infrastructure. "Opportunities in our M&A pipeline range from transportation to logistics to infrastructure and forestry, mining and further agriculture assets, some of which we plan to announce in the near term," chief executive Mikhail Shamolin said. Shamolin also told a conference call...

... Vladivostok to lure investors who have spent big bucks on casinos that cater to Asian gamblers in the likes of Macau and Singapore, in particular cash-flush Chinese. Vladivostok, just 2 1/2 hours by plane from Beijing and known more for its oil and gas pipelines, will face competition from Asian countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines, which are setting up similar tourism and entertainment zones. Russia's state-owned Nash Dom Primorye said at the Global Gaming Expo in Macau on Wednesday that it...

... Concession Law has the role of acting as the main legislative framework for PPP projects in Russia. The Concessions Law applies to most types of infrastructure, including, inter alia, roads and roadside service facilities, public transport, railways, pipelines, sea and river ports, airports, hydraulic structures, public utilities, as well as medical, educational, cultural, sports and tourism facilities. However, prior to the latest changes, widespread use of the Concessions Law was impeded due to...