Russian President Vladimir Putin last week clinched a deal that, at least on paper, ensures that his country will remain the world's largest natural-gas exporter for many years to come. Whether Russia will be able to capitalize on the short-term political dividends it may expect from this arrangement remains unclear, however.

Leading U.S. and Georgian officials are issuing fresh warnings about the dangers to Europe of relying too heavily on energy supplies controlled by Russia. The warnings follow an agreement between Russia and resource-rich Central Asian states Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to build a new pipeline to carry natural gas to Europe via Russia.

The speaker of Georgia's parliament has called on Europe to diversify its energy resources and back oil and gas pipelines that bypass Russia. Nino Burjanadze said it was important not to depend on a single source for energy and that Tbilisi had suggested Europe use alternatives such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.

The European Union said that it will strengthen its cooperation with Black Sea nations in the fields of energy and other. Europe is quite troubled with Moscow's influence over this energy-rich region.

Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited has released the information below:

Rosneft subsidiary won the bidding for several Yukos units on Thursday with an offer of 175.7 billion rubles (US$6.8 billion; 5 billion EUR), the latest chapter in the piece-by-piece liquidation of the bankrupt oil company.

Two Orange County residents accused of orchestrating a "pump-and-dump" scheme involving two thinly traded oil and gas companies have been indicted by a federal grand jury in a scheme that cost investors $6 million

The recent meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) has again reignited fears that the organization will emerge as a gas OPEC. These fears have been further fuelled by plans to set up a price formula working group. However, according to independent market analyst Datamonitor (DTM.L), the ability of the GECF to emerge as a gas OPEC, at least in the short to medium term, remains limited.

PetroChina, one of the two leading onshore oil producers in China, reported oil and gas production of 277 million tons of oil equivalent in the first quarter of the year, a growth of 3.7 percent, a company statement said today.

Oil and gas industry representatives of Australia are calling on the government to provide bigger tax incentives to encourage the discovery of new projects.

Oil prices fell Monday amid relief over last week's release of British sailors detained by Iran, but concerns over the tight demand-supply balance and other geopolitical issues supported prices.

Representatives of the world's leading natural-gas exporting states have opened a two-day meeting in Qatar to discuss ways to cooperate more closely.