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Sanctions Over Ukraine Cause Headaches in the Energy
Sector<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/business/international/sanctions-over-ukraine-cause-headaches-in-the-energy-sector.html?ref=energy-environment>
*-
(NY Times)*

- Relationships between Russian state-owned businesses and large
multinational companies look increasingly complicated.

- As part of the latest round of sanctions over the Ukraine crisis,
the Obama administration on Monday took aim at Mr. Sechin, the president
and chairman of the management board for Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil
giant. The administration’s measures, and similar ones in Europe, have
focused on companies, officials and wealthy businessmen with deep ties to
the Russian government and Mr. Putin. The energy sector has been a
particular priority: The latest American sanctions cover 17 companies
largely clustered in oil and gas construction and financing, as well as Mr.
Sechin and six other people.

- American investors will most likely be able to continue to own
shares in a company with a chief executive who is subject to sanctions. But
it is unclear whether portfolio managers can take part in a quarterly
conference call or other meetings with a person on the list, lest it be
seen as a form of commercial interaction.

- The sanctions could slow capital investments in Russia’s oil
sector and affect future output and could pinch American companies such as
equipment suppliers.

A European Energy Executive’s Delicate Dance Over
Ukraine<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/international/a-european-energy-executives-delicate-dance-over-ukraine.html?ref=energy-environment>–
*(NY
Times)*

- European executives, especially in the energy industry, have been
notably wary of ratcheting up economic tensions with Russia over the
Ukraine crisis. They see their business interests as too intertwined to
risk stiffer sanctions.

- Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of the Italian energy giant ENI
(leading distributor of Gazprom Gas in Europe) met in Kiev with the
Ukrainian energy minister, Yuri Prodan, to discuss ways to supply more gas
to the country from sources other than Gazprom as a way to relax the
Russian stranglehold.

- The goal is to be able to ship gas to Ukraine at an annual rate of
more than three billion cubic meters by the time the heating season begins
in the autumn, increasing the flow to up to 10 billion cubic meters
annually by next spring. Last year Ukraine imported nearly 30 billion cubic
meters of gas.

- Mr. Scaroni’s biggest worries now is ENI’s deep engagement with
Gazprom. He’s a partner on a planned new gas pipeline called South Stream
that would run from Russia under the Black Sea, avoiding Ukraine to run
through countries like Bulgaria and Hungary and ending in northern Italy.

G-7 Energy Ministers Focus on Energy Security Amid Ukraine
Crisis<http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140506-710589.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_middleHeadlines>
*(Wall
Street Journal)*

- Energy ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations
said Tuesday they are ramping up efforts to strengthen energy security as
tensions ratchet higher between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

- Concerns have grown in recent weeks that Russia could cut off gas
supplies to Ukraine because of unpaid bills. Ukraine's arrears to Russia's
state-controlled OAO Gazprom are now estimated at around $3.5 billion.

- Any halt to supplies to Ukraine could harm Gazprom's European
customers, since around 15% of Europe's gas supply transits Ukraine.


Authorities Block Flights Into Eastern
Ukraine<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/world/europe/ukraine.html?ref=europe>
*–
(NY Times)*


- The Ukrainian authorities apparently blocked all international
flights into the embattled eastern region of the country on Tuesday

- The authorities also canceled at least 20 flights from Kharkiv,
eastern Ukraine’s largest city, and Donetsk, a regional capital. By
midafternoon, all air traffic within Ukraine appeared to have ceased.

- Vehicle checkpoints had been established at strategic points
around the capital of Kiev as a precaution against attacks