In a meeting with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin made a surprise announcement that the South Stream pipeline, a joint project between Gazprom and Italy's Eni, could be finished before its official start-up date of 2013.  Plans for South Stream's expanded volume were discussed by Russia's Energy Ministry in Bulgaria this week, as was the controversial plan to use the existing Bulgarian gas transit network to aid this expansion. Transneft says it will complete its China pipeline by the end of the year. Russia's Energy Minister is leaving the question of Rosneft's privatization open, with the possibility of selling a 75% stake not to be considered until 2011. Canada-listed mining group SouthGobi Energy Resources has secured a $300 million loan from CIC (China Investment Corp). More on Russia's surging oil industry.  ...

Italian President Silvio Berlusconi has been unabashed about taking the credit for getting Turkey to participate in the South Stream pipeline deal, seeing it as a reflection of his gift for 'great commercial diplomacy'.  For a timeline of important dates concerning Nabucco and South Stream, see Reuters.  Construction of the South Stream pipeline may begin in November 2010.  The Russian government has apparently canceled the 2010 deadline for bidding on reserve capacities as demand is falling.  Tatneft may begin syndication of a three-year syndicated loan for its Nizhnekamsk refinery by the end of the month.  Although hosting colossal gas reserves, could Russia lack the infrastructure to exploit them effectively?  With Gazprom planning to open an office in Rio it looks like energy may be a major factor in stronger ties between Brazil and Russia.  According ...

Oil fell to below $65 a barrel today, Monday and touched a five-week low earlier in the session, pressured by doubts over the prospects for a recovery in the global economy and energy demand.

The U.S. jobless rate reached a 26-year high and Euro zone unemployment is at the highest in a decade, reports showed last week. Oil fell even after militants attacked oil installations in major African exporter Nigeria.

“There’s a general retreat caused by lack of risk appetite,” said Mike Wittner, oil analyst at Societe Generale. “For a couple of months, we perhaps got a bit too optimistic and several markets got ahead of themselves.”

U.S. crude fell $2.24 from Thursday’s close to $64.49 a barrel by 1412 GMT. It traded as low as $63.40, the lowest intraday price since May 28. Brent crude fell $1.30 from Friday’s close to $64.31.

NYMEX floor trading was closed on Friday because of the U.S. Independence Day

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With all of Silvio Berlusconi's torrid scandals in recent weeks, one may expect the colorful prime minister to hold some regrets and seek national reconciliation, while asking the country to put the past behind them.  Here's a quote from the AP:"We want to forget (the past) and resume total cooperation on all the issues on which we have decided to collaborate," Mr. Berlusconi told journalists on his arrival at the meeting. But no, Berlusconi wasn't talking about Italian politics or his allegedly high-priced houseguests.  He was talking about the resumption of NATO-Russia diplomatic relations, which had been severed since the war last August.  The NRC Summit held in Corfu was only attended by two European heads of state - Mr. Berlusconi and Greek PM Costas Karamanlis, and while an important issue, this is just one stop on a ...

by Manuel Alvarez-Rivera, Puerto Ricobr /br /An election is currently taking place in the 27 member countries of the European Union, to choose 736 members of the European Parliament for a term of five years. Some countries went to the polls on June 4, 5 and 6, but most are holding the election on Sunday, June 7. In addition, one of the smallest members of the EU, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, will hold a parliamentary election simultaneously with the EP poll.br /br /The European Parliament a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2009/default.htm"2009 elections website/a bills the event as "27 countries, one election," but it would be more appropriate to speak about 27 separate elections that happen to be held simultaneously across a four-day period. Even though all EU countries use proportional representation to allocate EP seats since 1999 (when Great Britain proper switched from first-past-the-post to PR), the rules vary from country to country, ...

Better late than never for me to hit this story.  Back in April 2008, Vladimir Putin was enjoying himself immensely with one of Russia's strongest supporters in Europe, Italian President Silvio Berlusconi, at what was called the "Spaghetti Summit of Sardinia."  Amid all the sex jokes and uncomfortable references to the infidelities of his marriage, Berlusconi also helped parry the advances of the press on Putin by pretending to mow down the offending reporter with an imaginary tommy gun (or Kalashnikov, what have you).  By this point, Putin was of course no stranger to the salacious side of the media, having already done the Marlboro man thing, but the questions last year began hitting a nerve when one newspaper spread the rumor that Putin was having an affair with the olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.  During the spaghetti summit, ...

With car sales down by almost 60% this year in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is making a big push to encourage citizens to buy locally produced automobiles, such as various models of the Lada brand.  To help push the message, Putin personally drove up to his meeting last Friday with inimitable Silvio Berlusconi to sign the South Stream deal in an impressively decked out Lada Niva.The boys over at the car-obsessive blog Jalopnik are in love with Putin's ride, even if the staging forgot to hide the American made tires: The car is as much a publicity stunt as anything else, with Russia's de facto leader posing in the car in order to encourage buyers ...

Interesting that Berlusconi and Putin are signing the South Stream deal in Crimea - perhaps a little reminder of who's boss.  Eni, however, is a little surprised that after all they've done for Russia (including selling back Gazpromneft, which was purchased in a Yukos auction), that they should get such a raw deal.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Friday in Crimea and may sign an agreement on South Stream.

A dispute has erupted between Eni and Russian state-controlled Gazprom over the role the Italian oil company will play in the South Stream gas pipeline, Reuters said last week, citing an unidentified person within the Italian government.

The person said Eni wants to be able to market gas

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /There is no doubt about it: Italy's economic situation has worsened considerably during the current quarter. Only last week the OECD forecast that Italy's gross domestic product is likely to fall by 4.2 percent in 2009. This follows hot on the heals of an earlier statement where the OECD said the situation in Italy this year and next was "much worse" than it had previously thought, and that Italy would not come out of its recession until "sometime" in 2010 at the earliest. According to the earlier forecast the OECD expected GDP to fall this year by one percent and then by a further 0.8 percent in 2010.br /br /The Bank of Italy has also changed its forecast, and now suggest that GDP this year will fall by 2.6 percent. In January (the last time they revised their Italy forecast), the IMF forecast ...

A meeting between Dmitry Medvedev and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has led to a series of agreements in the energy sector - as well as the usual criticisms of Berlusconi’s style. TMK, which produces steel pipes for the energy sector, has signed a supply deal with India’s ONGC. Gazprom is to begin drilling for natural gas off the coast of Venezuela today. Is another oil price spike on its way?