Serbia may vote on deal for South Stream
Russian energy giant Gazprom delayed signing a deal with the state-owned Petroleum Industry of Serbia that included plans for the South Stream gas pipeline.
Serbian Economic Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mladjan Dinkic said the $508 million price for Gazprom to acquire a 51-percent share in the Serbian firm was too low. Parliament ratified the deal, however, in September.
Serbia had moved in January to go ahead with deals that give Gazprom majority control of its state-owned firm, known by its Serbian acronym NIS, in exchange for plans to include Serbia in the South Stream pipeline planned to transport Russian natural gas to Italy.
Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said the deal would be concluded no later than the end of December, adding the entire project could be finalized by 2014, The Moscow Times said.
The deal is seen as largely symbolic, as both countries are longtime allies. Russia backed the Serbian measure earlier this year to block autonomy for Kosovo.
The acquisition will mark one of the last for Balkan energy firms. It was not clear why the deal was postponed.
The Serbian government is expected to consider the proposal Monday.
PetroChina expands northeast infrastructure
PetroChina, a division of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., said it signed a deal to build a 137-mile gas pipeline through Jilin province.
The $176 million plan will go toward development of the PetroChina infrastructure in the northeast Jilin province, the communist English-language China Daily said.
The pipeline will terminate at a facility in the provincial capital, Changchun, and have a design capacity of 74 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year.
PetroChina began construction in February on a network that will carry natural gas reserves from Turkmenistan.
The pipeline ultimately will shore up domestic gas shortfalls during winter months.
Pakistan plans IPI talks in Tehran
Pakistani energy officials plan to visit Tehran to discuss outstanding issues surrounding the Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline, Iranian media said.
Asim Hussain, the lead adviser to the Pakistani minister for petroleum and natural resources, is scheduled to visit Tehran following the four-day Muslim holy celebration of Eid al-Adha, the privately owned Fars News Agency said, citing unnamed sources in the Pakistani media.
Pakistan imports roughly 58 million barrels of oil per year and had hoped to secure gas reserves through the planned IPI pipeline, though negotiations on the energy route from the South Pars gas field have proved difficult, in part because of disagreements over price mechanisms.
For its part, India has faced its own energy crunch as domestic demands far outweigh supply as the country struggles to retool its infrastructure for cleaner fuels and compressed natural gas.
Initial supplies through the planned 1,724-mile pipeline will approach 777 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
Turkey at crossroads of energy diplomacy
Turkish and Russian ties and negotiations regarding ascension to the European Union will impact the contentious but likely Nabucco pipeline, an analysis says.
Europe and Turkey need a unified vision of their relationship amid growing geopolitical concerns over trade, security and energy. If talks collapse over the next decade, the implications will have a dramatic effect on Europe, with secondary effects on the United States, an analysis from the Turkish daily newspaper Today's Zaman said.
The European Union is pushing for the development of the planned 2,050-mile Nabucco pipeline from the Caspian region through Turkey to European markets as part of the effort to move away from a dependency on Russian natural resources.
But while Russia has moved aggressively in the energy sector, notably in its conflict with Georgia, several European states, such as Germany and Hungary, have nearly unbreakable energy ties to Russia, complicating any broader geopolitical moves, the analysis said.
Meanwhile, energy giant Gazprom would face a dire economic future should Europe succeed in cutting its energy imports from Russia as the EU is its top customer, followed by Turkey and Asia, which gets only 4 percent of its energy from Russia.
Turkey hosts several major energy arteries, notably the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route, the second-longest oil pipeline. Despite growing belligerence from Russia in the energy sector and duplicity from Iran, the Nabucco pipeline is too important to not embrace, the report said.
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