According to ITAR-TASS, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has commented that Russia does not object to selling energy resources using domestic currencies.  How done is the Russia-China gas deal? wonders the the FT.  Gazprom will buy 500 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan next year.  The Times has a piece on the 'take-and-pay' system which is now causing friction between suppliers and buyers.  Norway's Aladdin has signed a five-year contract to provide gas from a field in the Komi republic to a Gapzrom subsidiary.  ConocoPhillips is apparently 'non-committal' on a possible sale of its 20% stake in Lukoil.  Serbia expects as much as $13.4 billion to be invested in modernizing its energy sector by 2015, and is working with Gazprom.  Iraq has given a consortium led by Eni the right to develop its ...

The Russian government looks set to raise oil duty by 39% on July 1.  Oil firm Lukoil has announced that VEB has bought up a stake in the company, though it has not specified when this transaction took place nor how big the stake is.   TNK-BP has announced that the two candidates proposed for the position of CEO have been appointed executive vice presidents.  Following the suspension of gas supplies during January's 'gas war', Europe's imports of LNG from Russia fell by 35%.  Apparently Total is hoping to develop more projects in Russia with Gazprom.  Bloomberg reports that Spain is attempting to build up reserves of gas that could reduce European dependence on Russian imports, but their plans are hindered by a lack of pipelines.  TNK-BP will hire a large number of foreign staff from ...

Despite Vladimir Putin holding a meeting to discuss the Ukraine gas problem as the deadline for paying their bill approaches, 'the situation remains unresolved'.  The European Commission will send a team to Moscow and Kiev on a 'fact-finding' mission to analyze the problem since Russia has said it may suspend gas supplies.  The EU Trade Commissioner says the dispute requires 'a commercial solution'.  Russia has warned Bulgaria that should Ukraine fail to pay for gas pumped into underground storage, then Russia may stop gas supplies.  An article in the Economist suggests that oil cannot be the panacea the Kremlin would hope it to be.  Gazprom has announced that the company has 'all conditions to start purchases of Azeri gas soon'.  Viktor Vekselberg has declared that TNK-BP intends to increase its investments this year by $400 ...

On June 10, 2008, Alexei Miller, CEO of Russia’s Gazprom, told a French audience that crude oil prices would reach $250 a barrel in 2009. His former Gazprom cohort and then freshly minted Russian prime minister Medvedev did him one better… pegging crude oil prices at $500. Was it wishful thinking? Did the gentlemen overdose on “hard-money” investment newsletters and Peak Oil Theory? We may never know.

After dropping from $147 last July close to $30 this past winter, crude oil is now trading within a reasonably tight track around $40 and $57.

Now it’s on the move again, breaking through $60 right at the beginning of the summer driving and hurricane seasons.

But oil companies’ proud profit margins of yesteryear have disappeared… along with the easy credit that allowed investment banks and hedge funds leverage crude prices to record highs.

Suddenly, not even the most pink politician is talking punitive taxation against

...

Hungarian President, Laszlo Solyom, is reportedly 'worried' about the circumstances under which Surgutneftegaz bought a stake in MOL, fearing the possibility of 'creeping control'.  After a two-month suspension of activity, Exxon Mobil's Sakhalin-1 project has been approved by the Russian government.  Gazprom will offer $2 billion worth of 10-year eurobonds to investors.  The Russian gas giant and Royal Dutch Shell have come to a series of agreements for the purchase of LNG from Sakhalin II over the next twenty years.  Italian utility giant, Enel, will keep its promise to invest $2.8 billion in Russia by 2013.  Lukoil has denied yesterday's reports that the company is in talks with Polish refiner PKN Orlen.  Lukoil vice-president, Leonid Fedun, has commented in the Financial Times that 'antagonism' from eastern European countries is driving Russian investors away.  Turkmenistan has ...

The markets were down for the second day in a row, as the NASDAQ dropped -2.81% to close at 1561.61.  The Dow and S&P were both down over -2%, closing at 7789.56 and 815.55 respectively.  The 10-year Treasury saw prices increase an ended the session with a yield of 2.898%.  Oil was down settling at $49.15 while gold contracts were up settling at $883.30.

Leading the downward slides in the market today were energy stocks.  The price of oil fell below $50, negatively impacting energy companies.  Worries about the economy still are prominent in the sector as inventories are still on the rise.  Driving the sectors downward was Lukoil who announced a fourth quarter loss of $1.6 billion.  Lukoil was hurt by sinking oil prices and rising taxes, as it paid $3.8 billion in taxes.  Net income fell -3.9% from a year ago, and the Russian company also saw a fall in exports

...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /blockquote“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”br /Tolstoy/blockquotebr /Well this strongis/strong an interesting little fable of modern family life, even if all the families involved may not be ones which many of my readers would normally wish to belong to.br /br /As is now reasonably well know Russian private oil company Lukoil is currently making a bid for the shares in Spanish energy company Repsol which are owned by the deeply indebted Spanish property company Sacyr Vallhermosa.br /br /Shares in what is Spain's fifth biggest builder, and which currently occupies the somewhat ignominious position of being Spain's worst-performing stock this year, jumped the most in two years last Thursday (20 November) on reports they were about to sell their 20 percent stake in Repsol YPF to the Russian oil company OAO Lukoil. Sacyr, which said last week it ...

Today the Lex column at the FT points toward the massive redistribution of assets happening in Russia as a result of the global financial crisis, and the routing being experienced by a number of the country's most wealthy oligarchs (Oleg Deripaska had to give up his stake in Hochtief). However, unlike the 1998 Russian financial crisis, the government appears set to dramatically extend its influence over the economy. Even so the Russian rout is triggering a redistribution of assets as some oligarchs are forced to sell assets to repay loans or meet margin calls. This time however – unlike Russia’s infamous 1995 loans-for-shares scheme and 1998 financial crisis – the state is set to increase its influence over the economy, continuing the Putin-era trend. First, the Russian government has channelled extra liquidity through state-owned banks Sberbank and VTB. Some $50bn has been earmarked for Vnesheconombank, a third state ...

Wealth Bulletin25 September 2008 - Jason Corcoran in MoscowRussian oligarchs are nursing paper losses of $42bn (€28.6bn) from the dramatic sell-off in the Russian stock markets over the past two months.US publication Forbes calculated the net worth of Russia's richest businessmen last week and compared it to the end of July when widespread market falls were triggered by Prime Minister Putin's accusations of price fixing at miner Mechel.The Russian stock markets have since fallen 50% as the international banking crisis, falling commodity prices and the war with Georgia has taken its toll.The greatest losses were suffered by Vladimir Lisin, the steel magnate owner Novolipetsk Steel, who saw his portfolio holdings drop by $11.2bn since the end of July.The next biggest loser has been chairman of mineral fertiliser company Uralkali Dmitry Rybolovlev who has stacked up market losses of ...

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service is investigating LUKoil, Russia’s second-biggest oil producer, on suspicion that it barred a smaller rival from using its pipeline in the Komi republic. LUKoil is set to ask Russian anti-trust authorities to oblige aluminum firm United Company RusAl to pay more for the oil coke it purchases. BP is conducting secret, high-level talks with its Russian billionaire partners in TNK-BP, sparking hopes that a deal to settle their dispute may come within weeks. More details on Rosatom’s planned Kaliningrad nuclear power plant, due to be completed next year. Norway's StatoilHydro says it has made a new gas discovery in Algeria.