TEHRAN, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Iran is to scrap a number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in order to expand its capacity to export gas by pipeline, the oil ministry's Shana agency reported Monday.

ZAGREB, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Hungarian oil and gas giant MOL has obtained a 22.15-stake in Croatian oil group INA increasing its holding to 47.15 percent, the central depository agency (SDA) said on Friday.

In September, MOL launched a bid to buy 30 percent of INA for 1.2 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars).

DUBAI, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - United Arab Emirates-based firms Dana Gas PJSC and Crescent Petroleum announced on Saturday that they had begun producing gas under a deal with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region over Baghdad's objections.

MOSCOW, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at Ukraine Thursday for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart that ended in a draft agreement on gas pricing.

Putin sharply criticised the ex-Soviet republic over what he said was weapons used by Georgia to fight Russia during a brief conflict in August.

MOSCOW, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Russian gas giant Gazprom has delayed by at least two years the launch of the South Stream pipeline linking Russia to southern Europe, a newspaper reported Friday, citing a company document.

MOSCOW, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday arrived for energy talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, news agencies reported, after a domestic dispute almost scuppered her trip.

MOSCOW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at Ukraine on Thursday for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart over a sensitive gas deal.

MOSCOW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukranian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday reached a draft agreement in a bid to resolve a dispute over gas prices, the Kremlin said.

VIENNA, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The 'Stop the Bomb' alliance, which lobbies to enforce international sanctions against Iran, renewed criticism Thursday of Austrian oil and gas giant OMV for sponsoring a gas export conference in Tehran this weekend.

MOSCOW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russia and Ukraine have reached a draft deal aimed at resolving the sensitive issue of gas prices, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Thursday after meeting her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at Ukraine Thursday for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart that ended in a draft agreement on gas pricing.

Putin sharply criticised the ex-Soviet republic over what he said was weapons used by Georgia to fight Russia during a brief conflict in August.

MOSCOW, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Russia will for the first time charge European customers over 500 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres of gas in October after prices grew faster than expected, gas monopoly Gazprom said Wednesday.

MOSCOW, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Russian energy giant Gazprom and Italian counterpart ENI have agreed to work together to extract and produce gas in Libya, Gazprom said in a statement Monday.

The two companies made the decision after a meeting between their chief executives in Moscow: Gazprom's Alexey Miller and ENI's Paolo Scaroni.

KIEV, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will visit Moscow on Thursday for talks on the thorny issue of Russian gas deliveries to her country, the Ukrainian government said.

Nigeria orders oil firms to produce detailed gas
production plans as the oil and gas rich country battles shortages

BEIJING, Sept 21, 2008 (AFP) - Thirty-one miners died from gas inhalation in a coal mine in central China early on Sunday, and nine others were still missing, state media said.

The deaths occurred in the pre-dawn hours in a coal mine near the city of Dengfeng in Henan province, Xinhua news agency said.

PARIS, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - Gas prices will continue to rise this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted Thursday.

'Most likely upward pressures on gas prices will continue until the end the year,' the head of the body's non-petroleum division, Ian Cronshaw, told a news conference. 'Indicators show gas won't be cheap anymore.'

MADRID, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - One person was killed and several others injured Wednesday in an accident on a construction platform for an undersea gas pipeline between Spain and Algeria, authorities in southern Spain said.

ALGIERS, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Talks between Algeria and Russia are 'not necessarily' aimed at creating an OPEC-style gas cartel, though it is their right to form such a bloc, said Russia's ambassador to Algeria, cited in media Monday.

ZAGREB, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - The management of Croatian state oil group INA said Monday it was in favour of an offer by Hungarian oil and gas giant MOL to buy a controlling stake in the company.

'The board concludes that the offered price is higher than the required minimum price and, considering the current business environment, (is) acceptable,' it said in a statement.

BUDAPEST, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Alternative projects pose no threat to the European Union's flagship Nabucco gas pipeline, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Budapest on Monday.

'Other gas pipeline projects do not necessarily jeopardise the EU Nabucco pipeline,' he said after meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.

VIENNA, September 12, 2008 (AFP) - Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari on Friday warned Austrian energy giant OMV that it should sign a deal on the Nabucco gas pipeline soon or Tehran might look for other partners.

BEIJING, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - China may build a third west-east gas pipeline in a bid to meet strong demand along its economically vibrant eastern seaboard, state media reported Thursday.

BISHKEK, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Kyrgyzstan may have to pay more than twice as much as the current price for gas imported from neighbor Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov told reporters Thursday.

'So far the contract with Uzbekistan has not yet been signed,' but Bishkek plans to set the price 'at around 300 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres,' Chudinov said.

LA PAZ, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Demonstrators clashing with socialist President Evo Morales' government on Wednesday cut off Bolivia's natural gas supply to Argentina, a Chaco company executive told AFP.

ABUJA, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - The European Union wants to boost its ties with oil-rich Nigeria, its key partner on the continent, a top Brussels official said on Wednesday.

ZAGREB, 10 septembre 2008 (AFP) - Austrian company OMV has called for transparency in the sale of Croatian state oil group INA by Zagreb, which is in talks with Hungary's MOL over a share swap, a report said Wednesday.

BAGHDAD, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - Royal Dutch Shell will form a gas venture with energy-rich Iraq worth up to four billion dollars, the oil ministry said Tuesday of the first Western oil major to do a deal with the central government since the 2003 invasion.

BAGHDAD, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed a gas joint venture with Iraq worth up to four billion dollars, the Iraqi oil ministry and the Financial Times said on Tuesday.

The deal, which will see the gas extracted from Iraqi fields being both sold in Iraq and abroad, will be signed next month, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP.

LONDON, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to a joint venture deal worth up to four billion dollars (2.8 billion euros) to capture gas in Iraq, the Financial Times said Tuesday.

The deal, which will see the gas being sold in Iraq and abroad, will be signed next month, the FT said, citing Iraqi oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad.

CHITTAGONG, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - An acute gas supply crunch caused by lack of hydrocarbon exploration is threatening to derail Bangladesh's record industrial expansion, officials say.

PARIS, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - The EU may seek to pressure Russia on gas imports if it does not pull its troops from Georgia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was reported as saying Sunday on the eve of a European Union troika visit to Moscow.

LA PAZ, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Bolivia's opposition governors turned up the heat on President Evo Morales Wednesday, threatening that stepped-up protests against his socialist government could cut off exports of natural gas, the country's main economic asset, to Argentina and Brazil.

MOSCOW, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Russian gas giant Gazprom said Wednesday it has signed a cooperation deal on oil and gas exploration in Nigeria.

Gazprom said in a statement that the accord with Nigeria's national oil company covers exploration and production of oil and gas plus associated operations in several projects.

MOSCOW, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russia will fulfill all its contractual gas export commitments to the European Union, President Dmitry Medvedev told Euronews television Tuesday.

MOSCOW, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russia and Uzbekistan agreed on Tuesday to build a new pipeline to carry gas from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan to Russia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, quoted by news agencies.

THE HAGUE, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - A decades-long dispute between Romania and Ukraine over a zone of the Black Sea said to contain hydrocarbon deposits entered a new phase Tuesday when it came before the UN's highest court in The Hague.