Gazprom wants its two major projects – South Stream and Nord Stream – to be granted exceptions from the EU third energy package, seeking to retain control over their transportation capacity. A new version of an agreement on transnational energy transportation projects will be handed over to the  European Commission on Friday during a Russia-EU summit on energy issues, Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Monday. The agreement should regulate South Stream and Nord Stream projects instead of the third energy package which is criticized in Russia.

• December 18, 2012

During the thirteenth meeting of the Cooperation Council between the EU and Azerbaijan the sides confirmed their commitment to the negotiations with Turkmenistan on the construction of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline.

• December 17, 2012

Georgia says it will move to formally ask Russian peacekeepers to leave the breakaway region of Abkhazia following reports that they seized and beat five Georgian police officers.

• December 17, 2012

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed into law legislation that grants permanent normal trade relations to Russia and Moldova while also paving the way for sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

• December 17, 2012

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has given an interview to Interfax and Novaya Gazeta newspaper in the wake of a ministerial meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels in which he speaks about the results of the NRC meeting, prospects of NATO-Russia relations and the most pressing issues on the international agenda.

• December 15, 2012

Iran plans to sign some new gas export contracts in the near future, the Iranian oil minister announced.

• December 15, 2012

As at 10 December, 2012, customers have concluded 321,000 contracts with Estonian energy company Eesti Energia. According to Margus Rink, Management Board Member at Eesti Energia, the activity of Estonia's residents in choosing their electricity supplier is impressive – in terms of the rate of contracts concluded for the supply of electricity, Estonia is now already ahead of the Nordic countries, the energy company said in a statement.

• December 15, 2012

Turkmenistan has all the prerequisites to increase the volume of gas production and exports in the coming years, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov said in his message on the occasion of the Day of Workers of Oil and Gas Industry and Geology, celebrated on Friday.

• December 14, 2012