"We are ready, upon official request from Russia, to grant extra gas to Europe," said Ukraine's Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko. In his interview to CNN, the Ukrainian minister explained that currently Ukraine receives 400 million cubic meters of gas per day on its eastern border instead of the required 500 million due to extremely cold weather in Russia. This caused a drop in the amount of gas Europe received through Ukrainian pipeline.

• February 10, 2012

Turkmenistan has unilaterally closed the border with Kazakhstan in the run-up to the presidential elections on Feb. 12. Security measures at the border were strengthened in connection with the upcoming presidential elections in Turkmenistan. Foreigners entering the country in a simplified manner will temporarily fail to do this from Feb. 8-15.

• February 9, 2012

Earlier this week I criticized Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice for their high-volume indignation over Russian and Chinese vetoes of a UN resolution that would have called on Syria's president to step down. And I still think Clinton and Rice were hypocritical, given America's long tradition of overlooking the atrocities of dictators who are as close to America as Bashar al-Assad is to Russia.

• February 9, 2012

Azerbaijan restarted natural gas deliveries on Thursday to Turkey from its giant Shah Deniz field, a spokeswoman for operator BP told Reuters.

• February 9, 2012

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev during bilateral meetings with the heads of leading economic unions, banks and companies of Germany, actively engaged in the process of bilateral trade and economic cooperation, called the heads of the German companies to more actively use existing reserves and potential of cooperation, the press-service of the president said on Wednesday.

• February 8, 2012

Over the past year the US has courted the former Soviet states of Central Asia as it bolsters its supply line to its forces fighting in Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, once considered a pariah state for allegedly shooting demonstrators and torturing prisoners, has become an important ally.

• February 8, 2012

France and Britain have expressed doubts about Russian efforts to mediate in the Syrian crisis. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he does not believe any commitments announced by the Syrian regime, including those made on February 7 to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Damascus.

• February 8, 2012

Within the framework of the IMEMO’s Oil and Gas Dialog Forum BP's chief economist Christof Rühl presented BP Energy Outlook 2030 to the audience of the Russian academics It was stressed that the outlook’s ‘base case’ reflects a ‘to the best of our knowledge’ assessment of the world’s likely path from today’s vantage point, drawing on expertise both within and outside the company. The outlook highlights the growing role of developing economies in global energy consumption, and the increasing share of non-fossil fuels in global energy supply. It emphasizes the central role markets and well-designed policy can play to meet the dual challenge of solving the energy needs of billions of people who aspire to better lifestyles, and doing so in a way that is sustainable and secure. It also notes the uncertainties attached to any long term projection. The discipline of building a numerical projection sharpens our thinking, but the precise numbers are less important than the underlying story of the challenges we all face and the choices we make in producing and consuming energy. To read the report please click EGF or BP

• February 8, 2012