Energy Blast - Oct 20, 2009

'Today's price of around $70 a barrel is increasingly viewed as a new floor for the [oil] industry.'  Perhaps the reason why Russia is wary of coordinating production limits with OPEC can be explained by the success achieve by Russian oil companies in upping production over a year of reduced output from OPEC producers and higher prices.  The Ministry of Natural Resources is looking for new measures that will bolster the country's crude output, which is already at record highs. The FT says the new Oando-Gazprom alliance is bad news for Brussels.  Lukoil has put in a bid for Iraq's West Qurna-1 oil field, which is preparing to award development rights within two weeks.  Ukraine's Naftogaz has had to restructure its $500 million eurobond and offer higher payout rates after failing to meet its September payout deadline.  China is planning to increase crude processing capacity to 11 million bpd by 2015.  The chief executive of E.On believes that Britain's target of generating one third of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and wave energy by 2020 is naive.