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EXCLUSIVE: The Russian natural gas company Gazprom, which supplies much of Europe’s gas imports, is at the center of a secretive cabal of mostly state-owned natural gas companies that has been operating for two decades under the aegis of the United Nations, according to a first-ever audit of the operation obtained by Fox News. Even though it is a U.N. entity, the group, known simply as the Gas Centre, runs on a budget funded by its corporate members. Its supervisory Executive Board has never been approved by the U.N. agency of which it is nominally a part, the United Nations...

US Shale Plays to Watch in 2014 by  Karen Boman | Rigzone Staff | Wednesday, November 27, 2013 The U.S. shale exploration and production boom has dramatically changed the U.S. energy landscape, unlocking enough natural gas resources to turn the country into a future exporter of liquefied natural gas while reversing the decline seen a few years ago in U.S. crude oil production.While unconventional plays such as the Eagle Ford and Bakken are well-known, DrillingInfo CEO Allen Gilmer told Rigzone he sees potential for exploration and production activity in 2014 and beyond for some emerging U.S. shale plays.These plays...

Bridge Magazine, a publication of The Center for Michigan, had a recent series of articles on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), and while the author provides some value, including good interviews with residents and a look at the externalities of drilling, the pieces make some errors — one in particular is egregious enough that it should be corrected. The author cites the anti-fracking film, "Gasland," and references an infamous scene in the movie where a man is shown lighting methane coming out of his faucet on fire. This has become a defining scene for the anti-gas left. In the piece, author Jacob...

Ukraine's Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged the European Union on Tuesday to block Russian South Stream gas pipeline, currently under construction and expected to transfer Russian oil and gas to central and southern Europe via Black Sea bypassing Ukraine. "We call on the European Union to block the South Stream. Ukraine is a reliable transit country, we have fulfilled and will continue to fulfil our obligations," Yatsenyuk told the parliament. Aiming to diversify Russia's gas supply routes to Europe due to Ukrainian gas debt of $3.5 billion, which Russia fears may lead to possible transit disruptions, Russian gas giant...

Note to new readers: This article explores the consequences of using so much fuel to produce our food. If you come out of it thinking it’s telling you to drive rather than get some exercise, you didn’t read it!

<p>Ukraine's gas company, Naftogaz, announced at a European Union-mediated meeting in Berlin Friday with Gazprom and the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers that it has transferred $786 million to Gazprom, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said. That covers deliveries in February and March, a period for which the price charged to Ukraine is undisputed, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said.</p>

We now know how much Sen. Mark Udall was willing to sell Colorado out for- $15 million (give or take). The eco-extremist Tom Steyer is hoping to have a $100 million dollars to spend in just seven races this election cycle. That means if Steyer distributes his hoped for funds evenly, it only took less than $15 million dollars for Udall to choose a San Francisco eco-extremist’s wishes over what is best for Colorado ... Opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is nothing but an extremist issue pushed by those on the margins of the Democratic Party. The chance to...

China signed a landmark deal Wednesday to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow's ties with Asia. Price negotiations on the 30-year deal continued into the final hours of a two-day visit by Putin to China, during which both sides had said they hoped to sign an agreement. Putin was in Shanghai for an Asian security conference where China's president called for a new model of Asian security cooperation based on a regional group that includes Russia and Iran and excludes the United States. The gas deal...

After 10 years of negotiations, Russia's Gazprom and China's CNPC have finally signed a historic gas deal which will provide the world's fastest growing economy with the natural gas it needs to keep pace for the next 30 years. The total value of the contract is $400 billion, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said. However, the price of gas stipulated in the document remains a "commercial secret." Assuming the overall price of the contract includes only the cost of supplies of Russian gas, then the $400 billion price tag means China will pay about $350 per 1,000 cubic meters. Delivery price...

Rep. Jared Polis’s decision to sponsor a barrelful of anti-fracking initiatives is threatening to make a tough election year even rougher for Colorado Democrats, starting with Sen. Mark Udall. Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper is attempting to broker a deal that would persuade Polis to pull his proposed anti-fracking initiatives, but if the governor can’t get it done, every Democratic candidate will face pressure to take a stand this year on an issue that has badly divided the state party. That starts with the Democrat Udall, who’s already under fire for refusing to stake out a position on whether to construct...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed multiple European states that Moscow will not supply gas to Europe through Ukraine as of June 1 if Kiev does not pay its bills, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday. Fico, speaking to reporters after meeting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the most pressing threat facing Slovakia was the question of deliveries from Russia that pass through Ukraine. "Today, multiple member states including Slovakia were informed by President Putin that as of June 1, if Ukraine does not pay for supplied gas, it will not be supplied to the European...

There is something unusual (and cynical) that the occupation of Ukraine by Russia is combined with simultaneous demand to pay out billions of dollars to Russia for past and future supplies of Russian gas in not yet occupied part of Ukraine. Actually in the occupied as well, as the Russian gas was supplied in the Crimea and Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Hunter Biden, the younger son of Vice President Joe Biden, will be joining Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, the company announced in a statement. “The company’s strategy is aimed at the strongest concentration of professional staff and the introduction of best corporate practices, and we’re delighted that Mr. Biden is joining us to help us achieve these goals,” Alan Apter, Burisma Holdings’ chairman of the board of directors, said in a statement, which was reported by The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Biden, joining the board, will be in charge of the legal unit, the company said and will provide support...

Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, has expand edits Board of Directors by bringing on Mr. R Hunter Biden as a new director. R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency,...

If Kiev does not pay its gas bills by June 2, exports to Ukraine will be halted the next day, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said. Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev meanwhile urged demanding advanced payment from Kiev as early as Tuesday. Miller told Medvedev on Monday that Gazprom will issue a preliminary June bill to Ukraine’s Naftogaz on May 13. According to Miller, Kiev already owes the company more than $3.5 billion, which compares to Gazprom’s annual gas supply to Poland. “In case Ukraine does not pay for the June supplies, Gazprom will notify the Ukrainian side, before 10am on June...

Russia ordered crisis-hit Ukraine on Thursday to pay upfront for all its future natural gas deliveries because of billions of dollars in outstanding debts. The largely-anticipated announcement imperils supplies to a large swathe of the European Union because nearly 15 percent of all Russian gas consumed by the 28-nation bloc transits through Ukraine. Ukraine has refused to meet the deadline in protest over Russia's decision to nearly double the price it charges its neighbour for gas imports following the February overthrow of a Kremlin-backed regime in Kiev.

Senate Democrats are refusing to let supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline to use an energy efficiency bill as a vehicle to attempt winning congressional approval for the controversial project. Majority Leader Harry Reid used a parliamentary move Wednesday to block a Republican amendment on the pipeline as well as a measure to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing new greenhouse gas regulations on coal-burning power plants.

The plan to void 60 western Colorado energy leases.. is a looming BLM-caused disaster. Hundreds of citizens from Mesa County and other affected areas gathered May 1 in De Beque to protest a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to void existing contracts the government made with private individuals and companies. The meeting in De Beque, a little town dependent almost entirely on gas, oil, coal and cows, was not originally planned by the BLM. Since half of the imperiled leases are in Mesa County, the Mesa County Board of Commissioners joined with various associations and individuals to demand that...

In a memo to the White House in July 1981, advisers in the Ronald Reagan administration urged opposition to a new pipeline from Russia’s oil- and gas-rich regions to Europe, warning that it would weaken the West’s bargaining hand. “Our strategy is aimed at limiting Soviet economic leverage over the West,” Pentagon aides told the White House in the memo. The Trans-Siberian Pipeline, which crosses modern-day Ukraine, was built nonetheless, and it helped transform Russia into an energy superpower that nurtures the European Union’s dependence on its fossil fuels. Nearly 33 years later, the warning from Reagan’s defense advisers stands...

At least two inmates died and more than 100 other people were injured when an apparent gas explosion collapsed part of a county jail in Pensacola, Florida, on Wednesday. The blast occurred at the Escambia County Jail's Central Booking Facility at around 11 p.m. local time (midnight Thursday ET), officials said. Kathleen Castro, the county’s public information officer, confirmed the deaths to NBC News and said the both prisoners and corrections officials were among the wounded. About 600 prisoners were in the building at the time. Uninjured inmates were being moved to other detention facilities, authorities added. A victim of...