A Barrel Full

The crap that politicians spout is never ending, and the case of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico is no exception. The whole demeanour of the Obama administration has been about trying to look tough, rather than to find solutions or understand what really happened.
Now this idiocy has crossed the atlantic.
The EU Energy […]

It seems the only news worth talking about these days is gaseous, and top of the heap is always the unconventional gas. So news of a couple of potentially important deals in coal seam gas is about par for the course.
First we have Shell’s interest in the Australian company Arrow.
Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. (Shell), […]

We don’t know yet whether it will turn out to be Russia’s worse nightmare, or just a useful diversification of Poland’s energy needs. Polish Shale Gas is certainly not short of interested parties these days though.
Canada’s Talisman is the latest.
San Leon Energy PLC is pleased to announce that its decision to enter into the Baltic […]

Another refinery has changed hands for a very low price. This time in Belgium.
Vitol Tank Terminals B. V. and its wholly owned subsidiary Eurotank Belgium B.V., part of the Vitol Group of companies entered today into a share purchase agreement with Universal Holding B.V. and Petroplus International B.V., subsidiaries of Petroplus Holding A.G.  to acquire […]

Gas storage in Europe is an ever growing need, and its not just those scared of the Russians who are interested in it. The Russians are as well.
The Bergermeer Gas Storage project consortium, today signed an agreement with Gazprom export for provision of gas storage services in exchange for the delivery of cushion gas for […]

In order to avoid Ukrainian territorial waters, the Russians want to place part of their South Stream pipeline in the Turkish area of the Black Sea. Turkey is a sponsor of the Nabucco pipeline, which is a competitor to South Stream, so it was not a forgone conclusion. The media is announcing that agreement has […]

Following on from its delivery of LNG in Chile, BG has announced yet another start up for an import facility.

BG Group today announced the delivery of the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Dragon LNG import terminal in Milford Haven. 
With domestic production of gas falling the UK will become ever more […]

The Russians are now trying to buy up all of Azerbaijan’s natural gas.
State-controlled Gazprom and Azerbaijan’s national energy company Socar signed a memorandum of understanding on gas sales from 2010 
If Gazprom buys all of Socar’s gas, then there will be a lack of gas to fill the Nabucco pipeline. This project is important to reduce […]

An interesting end to the story of OMV and MOL.
OMV spent much of last year, trying to buy its central European Rival MOL. In the end, despite the Hungarian government indulging in some very non community friendly actions, the EU decided that it was a deal that would damage competition, therefore effectively siding with the Hungarian government.
Meanwhile, OMV had […]

The Norwegian government squirrels away a large chunk of the nation’s oil earnings for a rainy day. The acorn pile was particularly large in 2009.
The Norwegian state’s most hands-on oilfield entity has posted record earnings of 160 billion kroner ($22.4 billion) for 2008, or 47 billion kroner ($6.6 billion) more than the prior year after […]