“Please look into the construction of a gas liquefaction enterprise in southern Russia on the Black Sea coast as a potential element in the implementation of the South Stream project,” Putin said at a meeting with Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko.

TNK-BP, a Russia-based vertically-integrated oil company, has announced plans to build an integrated installation of oil and gas, or UKPNG, on Zagorsk group of fields in Novosergievskom area within the framework of the integrated Orenburg project.

Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin has given instructions to speed up all decision-making activities for starting the construction of a modern oil refinery in the Primorsk krai, which will be able to produce up to 10 million tons of product annually.

OAO Gazprom’s deputy chairman of the Management Committee Alexander Medvedev and Hans Engel, board member of BASF responsible for the Oil & Gas Division, have signed a memorandum in St. Petersburg for Achimov deposits development at the Urengoy field.

TNK-BP has announced plans to build a second line and the railway terminal on the Zaykinskom gas-processing plants with an investment of USD 200 million.The commissioning of the facility is scheduled for May 2012.

The Russian coal mining industry is gradually recovering after the 2008-2009 economic slowdown and a major disaster at the Raspadskaya mine in 2010. The sector is likely to reach the pre-crisis level of development already this year, according to analysts.

The possibility of the involvement of Germany’s Wintershall AG in the South Stream gas pipeline raises the chances for gaining E.U. support for the project, the CEO of Italy’s Eni, Paolo Scaroni, told the Wall Street Journal.

Russia is re-addressing the USD 6.5-billion Khabarovsk – Sakhalin – Japan energy bridge project, which involves laying an underwater cable, in view of the fact that Japan’s energy sector has suffered major damage due to the earthquake and the tsunami.