Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is close to offering foreign companies a role in tapping its giant Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea, the company said Monday, marking an apparent policy shift.

Turkmenistan and Afghanistan presidents discussed prospects for a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan has started delivering natural gas from its Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to Turkey, the press service of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) said Tuesday.

India, Iran and Pakistan failed to reach a compromise on tariffs on natural gas deliveries and will continue talks on signing a tripartite gas pipeline agreement in July, the Indian press said citing government sources.

With the December deadline for signing a new gas-supply contract approaching, Ukrainian and Russian officials have been holding preliminary meetings to sound each other out.

Iran has invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to Tehran for signing a tri-nation deal on naturalgas, supply of which could start from 2011.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday the energy markets of Black Sea littoral states should be stabilized by long-term contracts.

Russia and Italy signed Saturday a memorandum on the construction of a new natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe across the Black Sea.

The negotiations on a new contract Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine would be held in October-December of the year, Russia's Prime Minister said Friday, according to the Itar-TASS news agency.

Petrobras' president, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, was in Qatar on June 17 for a series of meetings with local Government representatives to evaluate business opportunities there. Qatar is the world's biggest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) producer and holds nearly 5% of the global natural gas reserves.

Sinopec, one of China's two leading onshore oil and gas producers and the nation's largest oil refiner, has decided to increase its natural gas output goal in southwest China's Sichuan Province to three billion cubic meters for this year, company sources confirmed on Sunday.