Rosneft has been fined $180 million by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service for deliberately driving up wholesale prices for gasoline and other oil products in the first half of 2009, and Lukoil was warned that it could face a similar penalty…in which case, it’s going to need the $1.5 billion it is trying to raise by selling dollar-denominated debt to international investors.  The state-owned Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant was raided by riot police yesterday as part of a probe into an August flood that killed 75 employees.  Iran agrees with the ‘general framework‘ of the UN-brokered proposal that it send most of its enriched uranium to Russia for processing into reactor fuel, but plans to make some changes.  ’One common reaction is: ‘If the foreigners are prepared to agree to this, there must be something wrong with this from Iran’s point of view,‘ comments one analyst.  Russia, currently the world’s top oil producer, expects to top its own record next year thanks to production from two new oil fields.  OPEC may increase production targets in December to cope with the rising price of oil, which the Chief Economist at the IEA called ‘a significant risk to [global economic] recovery efforts‘.  The outcomes of gas talks in Poland are that Gazprom will receive a 50% stake in the Polish operator of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, and that Moscow will begin talks on increasing gas transit rates for Warsaw. 

Last 5 posts by Robert Amsterdam

• How Renaissance Capital Survived while Hermitage Was Stolen - November 24th, 2009
• The Russia Repetition Syndrome - November 24th, 2009
• Practicing Legal Nihilism - November 24th, 2009
• Energy Blast - Nov 24, 2009 - November 24th, 2009
• Today in Russian Business - Nov 24, 2009 - November 24th, 2009