Russia, Iran and Qatar discuss gas cartel

Iran, Russia and Qatar discussed the formation of an OPEC-style cartel among some of the largest natural gas producing nations, a prospect that has unnerved energy-importing nations in Europe and the United States. The meeting appeared to be the first serious talks about the creation of such a cartel since Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, first raised the idea in January 2007. The prospect has raised concern in the United States and around the 27-nation European Union, which depends on Russia for nearly half of its natural gas imports. Moscow, which controls many of the European pipelines delivering gas from Russia and Central Asia, already has a tight hold on supplies.

NoozzVIEW; Egypt’s oil bonus

Earlier this month, two UK-based oil and gas producers, Circle Oil and Premier Oil announced that they had struck oil in their onshore North West Gemsa concession, which lies southeast of Cairo in the Gulf of Suez Basin. In itself, the announcement did not rivet the world’s oil industry, which was focussed on the recent price falls and the threat of a global recession. But the discovery was symptomatic of an important trend – the steady revival of the Egyptian oil industry which first came into production in 1910 – and it helped bring Egypt’s daily oil production to 700,000 barrels, the highest point that it has reached for 14 years, and one that is expected to continue rising.

Abu Dhabi's Masdar buys into London wind project

Abu Dhabi's Masdar has bought part of German firm E.ON's stake in the 1,000 megawatt London Array offshore wind farm project for an undisclosed sum. Masdar will take a 20-per cent stake in the project, with E.ON retaining a 30-per cent share, in the first part of a wider renewable energy partnership between Masdar and EON. Denmark's DONG owns the other half of the project to build a 1,000 megawatt wind farm in the Thames Estuary near London. ""This is the first step of a number of projects that we will be working on which we will be able to announce in the coming weeks and months,"" a spokesman for EON said.

OPEC ponders choices as oil prices plummet

At the beginning of the year, OPEC producers felt confident that strong economic growth and tight supplies would keep oil prices high. When oil crossed the US$100-a-barrel threshold in February, the cartel's president blamed speculators and said there was not much OPEC could do. But now, panic is gripping producers as prices drop. Oil is down by half since July, and the speed of the decline has stunned oil-rich governments that have become dependent on high prices. As the global economy continues to weaken, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries faces its toughest test in years.

New gas cartel would force rethink of policy

Europe would have to rethink its energy policy if Russia, Iran and Qatar go ahead with an OPEC-style cartel on natural gas, the European Commission warned. EU spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny said the European Union prefers to see gas traded on a free and transparent market. He said the EU executive was not opposed to energy suppliers cooperating more closely on research but is opposed to price-fixing cartels in principle. ""If such a cartel was created, the Commission may review its energy policy,"" he said, refusing to give details of what that would mean in real terms.

NoozzVIEW; Iran and Bahrain closer on gas

The meeting between Bahrain, the bustling island state that has a population of 750,000, the majority of whom are Shi’a, and Iran provides important and strategically significant evidence of the improving ties between the two countries. The Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari headed a large delegation on an official visit to Bahrain earlier this month. Top of the agenda were talks with Bahrain’s respected Oil and Gas Affairs minister, Abdul Hussein Ali Mirza, on the key issue of cooperation in the oil sector, especially with regard to natural gas.

ConocoPhillips, Abu Dhabi win Kazakh oil rights

Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Co. and US oil giant ConocoPhillips signed a deal with Kazakhstan's national oil company to drill in a potentially lucrative oil and gas region in the Caspian Sea. The memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas tentatively gives Houston-based ConocoPhillips and Mubadala, one of the Gulf's most active government investment vehicles, the right to 49 percent of the hydrocarbons in a 8,100 square kilometre (3,130 square mile) zone near the Kazakh city of Aktau.