A Serbian oil company controlled by Russia's Gazprom Neft announced that it secured a multimillion-dollar contract to drill for oil in Turkmenistan.

• January 13, 2011

Azerbaijan agreed to export at least 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to Iran, its southern neighbor, the day before meetings with the European Union on a new fuel transit corridor.

• January 13, 2011

Ukraine in 2010 cut export of electric energy to the European countries by 59.4 percent against 2009 to 1.173 billion kWh, the Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Ministry said

• January 13, 2011

The Russian president on Saturday ratified a civil nuclear energy pact with Japan that allows the transfer of Japanese technology to Russia and the sale of more Russian uranium to energy-poor Japan. President Dmitry Medvedev ratified the pact after it was passed by the lower and upper houses of the Russian parliament in December last year, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.

• January 11, 2011

An agreement allowing U.S. companies to export nuclear technology to Russia is to take effect Tuesday after the U.S. ambassador and a deputy Russian foreign minister exchange diplomatic notes.

• January 11, 2011

The situation with power supply in Latgale Province has grown worse and is bleak, Latvenergo CEO Aris Zigurs informed the Cabinet of Ministers this morning.

• January 10, 2011

The European Union has turned down an offer from Iran to tour its nuclear facilities, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said on Friday, but remains optimistic about talks with Tehran later this month. Iran has sent letters to a number of ambassadors to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, inviting them to visit two sites - the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water complex - in the coming weeks.

• January 8, 2011

U.S. laws limit the burning of coal here, and Washington state has a strong green influence. Passenger rail in Seattle and beyond would suffer consequences from shipments to Bellingham. But the financial firepower lined up in favor of shipping coal from Washington ports to China is gigantic.

• January 8, 2011