Russia

The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Russia is funding groups opposed to shale gas development, part of a strategy designed to keep European states dependent on Russia for natural gas supplies. The allegation was dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” and “amusing reading” by some.

Lawmakers in both houses of Congress took up the issue of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States in separate hearings on Tuesday, and aired discussion of a House bill that could fundamentally change the way the Department of Energy (DOE) grants approval to export to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries.

Analysts said economic sanctions from the United States and the European Union (EU) designed to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine were "modest" at best, and could potentially damage business relationships that western oil and gas companies spent years building with OAO Gazprom and OAO Rosneft, Russia's state-owned gas and oil companies.

A Canadian unit of California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. said Thursday it has inked an exclusive agreement with Russian Machines Corp. (RM) to provide compressed natural gas (CNG) equipment and expertise to bolster the alternative fueling infrastructure network in Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Energy is looking to U.S. energy companies for an infusion of cash and advanced drilling technology in an attempt to kick start development of gas and oil fields in remote areas of the Arctic and eastern Siberia, according to Sergio Millian, president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA (RACC).

With Russian conventional oil and gas production in natural decline, producers have turned, in part, to West Siberia and unconventional plays there that are said to be similar in ways to the Bakken Shale and Permian Basin in the United States. Ruspetro plc is among those looking at the Bazhenov Shale.

Units of Russia’s Gazprom and Pangea LNG B.V. have struck a tentative 20-year offtake agreement for the sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be produced from a floating facility sourcing gas from the Tamar and Dalit fields offshore Israel. The terminal, if constructed, would be the world’s first project-financed floating LNG (FLNG) facility.

With nuclear power generation being phased out, coal considered too inflexible and the potential for shale gas to overcome current negative connotations in parts of Europe, natural gas as a source of electricity generation is drawing increased interest in Germany, which is rapidly moving toward total reliance on renewable sources for power generation.

Russia’s OAO Rosneft apparently no longer is considering BP plc as a partner for its planned Arctic development. The strategic alliance had included an Arctic exploration joint venture as well as a stock swap (see NGI, Jan. 17) BP’s current Russian partner TNK-BP objected and legally blocked the alliance (see NGI, May 30). BP CEO Bob Dudley, who had helped craft the proposed alliance, said the company was “moving on,” readying the launch of 30 global projects by the end of 2016 and returning to work in the Gulf of Mexico.