Russia's EU ambassador says his country aims to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 25% through to 2020. Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko, has written an open letter to Dmitry Medvedev, asking him to change the terms of agreement on gas supplies.  The move 'appeared designed to embarrass his political rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko', says Reuters, alhough things will likely be tense enough ahead of Tymoshenko's meeting with Vladimir Putin today, as she has already announced that the transit price of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian territory will be doubled as of January next year.  Tymoshenko says the meeting's agenda does not include gas issues.  RusAl is pulling out of the construction side of the Boguchanskaya hydroelectric plant, its joint project with RusHydro, although says it will not withdraw funding. The venture has already been the focus of disputes ...

Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand its Transco natural gas pipeline to serve markets in the southeastern United States.  On approval from FERC, Williams expects the Mobile Bay South II Expansion project to provide services by spring 2011.   Through the expansion project, Williams expects to add 380,000 dekatherms of southbound, year-round firm transportation capacity on the Mobile Bay Lateral from Transco's mainline at Station 85 near Butler, Alabama, to its interconnect with Gulfstream Natural Gas System in Coden, Alabama.   Williams estimates that the project will require a compression addition of 8,180 horsepower at Transco compressor station 85 and facility modifications at Station 83. It expects the project facilities to cost approximately $36 million.   Recently, the company’s Mobile Bay natural gas processing plant returned to service, processing between 100 million and 200 million cubic feet ...

The last week of October was a tense time for the bureaucrats at Minprirody, Russia's Ministry for the Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources, and naturally for Minister Yuri Petrovich Trutnev. He went all the way to Cape Town, South Africa to participate in the work of the eighth session of the mixed intergovernmental committee for trade and economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Africa.

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From there, a mad dash to Namibia, to a meeting with Namibian President H. Pohamba and Prime Minister N. Angula, as well as with first president S. Nujoma and Minister of Mines and Energy E. Nghimtina.

And it wasn't questions

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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 ...

The Financial Times enumerates Gazprom's problems: are its ambitions to increase production any more than pipe dreams?  Competition for energy reserves in the Arctic Circle could prompt friction between Russia and NATO, a new commander at the alliance has warned.  Bloomberg reports that the holder of the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, Turkmenistan, is ready to export natural gas to European collaborators if they build a pipeline across the Caspian Sea to transport the fuel.  According to Oil and Gas Eurasia, Russia needs a total of $310 billion to fully carry out its program for the analysis and exploration of its continental shelf, a deputy natural resources minister has announced.  Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has said that Russia has been invited as an observer to the December meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  Finnish environmental ...

Gazprom is apparently making plans to construct and run power plants in Turkey in partnership with the country's own Aksa.  Kazakhstan will postpone a feasibility study for a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast to Russia until 2010 while the line's capacity is figured out.  Ukraine has reassured investors that Naftogaz will not default on the payments of its $1.6 billion loan.  Gazprom has completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in SeverEnergia from Italy's Eni and Enel.  Debt-addled EDF is close to agreeing a major asset swap with E.ON, although it may also consider selling a 20% stake in nuclear operator British Energy.  Oil output in Russia may reach 530-535 million tons by 2030, a figure which is apparently not a projection, but a target.  Oil and Gas Eurasia reports that South Ossetia's new gas ...

Ria-Novosti reports that GDF Suez will, by the end of October, become a shareholder in the company building the Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, Gazprom's deputy CEO has announced.  Norway's StatoilHydro is looking for new exploration possibilities in the Russian Arctic and said the investment climate in Russia is 'acceptable' for new projects.  A joint American-Canadian mission exploring the Arctic has mapped out considerable parts of the continental shelf for the first time.  E.On and Gazprom have put a project to build a power station in Lubmin, in eastern Germany, on ice.  The Financial Times reports that Gazprom has signed a deal with Bglobal, the smart meter and energy data provider, demonstrating its desire to enter into the British energy market.  India is apparently looking to expand its cooperation with Russia in ...

Yesterday I saw this note on FT Lex which essentially argued for the Italian energy company Eni to be split up into two separate companies in order to maximize value.  Today they are running another piece about the activist investor group Knight Vinke, who are eager to see the same thing happen - they even cite the energy security issue as one reason for Eni to be broken in half.  In the past, the lurching energy dinosaurs of Europe have fought off any attempts at unbundling from the European Commission by pointing to the conveniently threatening spectre of Gazprom, arguing that they've got to stay big in order to negotiate with such a monster.  The rub is that a split ...

RusHydro has sold investors 3.5 billion of 7.5 billion new shares in a public offering, with the rest bought by its own unit for a later resale.  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has approved a Russian-Turkish draft protocol on cooperation in nuclear power engineering.  The Economist examines the historically fraught relationship between Turkey and Russia, recently soldered by energy agreements.  A marriage of convenience, but how long will the honeymoon last?  At today's meeting with President Medvedev, it is expected that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will focus on Nord Stream, in which Germany is Russia's principal partner.  Turkmenistan has announced it will open a new gas pipeline to Iran in December, a maneuver that will push Gazprom to settle a four-month gas trading dispute with the Central Asian state, says the FT.  Gazprom Neft has increased its stake in Sibir ...

A few days ago the Russian mainstream media were talking about all the agreements reached with Turkey during the most recent visit of the Prime Minister, hailing the accords as the latest Putinite achievement. Supposedly positive but vague results were achieved with respect to negotiations on the construction of the South Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines; on the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline, as well as the construction of nuclear power stations. In covering the Turkey visit, they showed the joy of Turkish and Italian prime ministers in signing these deals, and the unintelligible babble of the Russian one, who was able to clearly express a thought about how the Turks - are "difficult negotiators."

But so many gas pipelines -

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