Natural gas may soon start to flow from Russia to Europe: the prime ministers of Russia and the Ukraine have agreed to a deal after a marathon series of talks.

Russia and its European customers are close to a solution to the natural gas transit dispute that led to a cutoff of supplies to the EU via Ukraine, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin informed European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday that Ukraine was blocking the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe.

An EU-brokered accord to resolve a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine has been thrown into doubt. Moscow accused Kyiv of altering the agreement and declared it null and void, but the latest reports indicate the deal may still be salvaged after all.

Natural gas, believed to be among the cleanest forms of fuel, does emit ultrafine airborne particulate matter when burned in home appliances such as stove tops and water heaters, according to a report in the December 2008 issue (Volume 25, Number 10) of Environmental Engineering Science journal, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Thursday after last-ditch talks on a 2009 contract failed late on Wednesday, but increased shipments to other European states, gas monopoly Gazprom said.

Ukraine's Naftogaz said Wednesday it could start confiscating Russian natural gas meant for European consumers after January 1 if no new contract is agreed for 2009.

The Iranian authorities announced yesterday their decision to join the Nabucco pipeline project.
The project is intended to pump 20-30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from Central Asia under the Caspian Sea, then through Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

The pipes that rise from oil fields, topped with burning flames of natural gas, waste fossil fuels and dump carbon dioxide into the air. In new work, researchers have identified the structure of a catalytic material that can turn methane into a safe and easy-to-transport liquid. The insight lays the foundation for converting excess methane into a variety of useful fuels and chemicals.

California electricity and natural gas customers will be charged $600 million over the next 10 years to fund a green think tank, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously voted on Thursday.

Russia and Bulgaria signed a $15 billion deal on Friday to build the South Stream natural gas pipeline, which is set to give Russia greater control over supplies to southern Europe.

Natural gas distributed throughout the Marcellus black shale in northern Appalachia could conservatively boost proven U.S. reserves by trillions of cubic feet if gas production companies employ horizontal drilling techniques, according to a Penn State and State University of New York, Fredonia, team.