Editor's Letter

Gazprom Calls Up the Heavy Artillery

Pat Davis Szymczak

It's one thing for Gazprom to snatch a share out of the Sakhalin Energy project; to play hard ball with TNK-BP in Kovykta, or to talk tough with ExxonMobil. It's another thing to steal the big idea I got at New Year for my next editorial - Russia needs to hire a consortium of the best western PR agencies it can find ... quickly!

While watching Gazprom (and Russia by association) shoot itself in the foot this New Year for the umpteenth time on international television, I found myself...

Today's Top Story --- Yukos Shareholder to Take Legal Action against Asset Buyers

The potential buyers of the remaining Yukos assets which include a 9.44% stake in Rosneft set to go under the hammer tomorrow with the starting price of $7.5 billion are now running the risk of having lawsuits filed against them by the GML, formerly known as Group Menatep, still a majority shareholder of the bankrupt oil company. The director of the GML Tim Osborne said that “anybody buying assets at auction should think long and hard about it; we say that Yukos was stolen by the Russian Federation and anybody that buys its assets at auction is receiving stolen goods.”

Russia's Drilling Rig Industry Struggles to Cope

Russia's domestic drilling rig market is consolidating as domestic manufacturers attempt to stay competitive in a world where the demand for drilling equipment, fueled by high oil prices, outstrips the supply.