Robert Amsterdam

The financial crisis is forcing energy companies to reduce their projected spending plans, with Gazprom Neft suggesting a drop of 10-20%, but state nuclear corporation Rosatom has just been granted a six-year, $83 billion finance program by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and Gazprom is planning a long-term program of oil production outside of Russia. Gazprom and Italy’s Eni are set to finalize an agreement on joint entry into the Libyan oil and gas market. Gazprom says its Sakhalin natural gas pipeline could be ready as early as 2011. Closer cooperation between OPEC and Russia ‘could see a bigger political risk premium priced into oil’.