ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP - News), JSC National Company KazMunayGas (KMG) and Mubadala Development Company PJSC (Mubadala) today announced that they have signed project agreements allowing the joint exploration and development of the Nursultan Block (N Block) located in offshore Kazakhstan.
KMG as majority owner will hold a 51 percent interest in the subsoil use contract and [...]

Calcutta News.Net
Central Asian republic Kazakhstan Saturday became the fourth nation after the US, France and Russia to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is on a four-day visit to the country ahead of India’s Republic Day parade where he is the chief guest, was present at the delegation-level talks [...]

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Senior U.S. energy officials have criticized Russian natural gas projects during a visit to energy-rich Azerbaijan.
A U.S. special envoy for Eurasian energy issues said Thursday that Russia’s planned South Stream pipeline to Europe will be expensive and difficult to build. C. Boyden Gray said the project currently is not competitive with two [...]

By ROBERT WIELAARD
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — The EU’s top energy official will travel to Turkey and Azerbaijan Wednesday to show Europe’s commitment to a pipeline that would transport natural gas from the Caucasus westward in 2013, keeping it out of Russia’s grasp.
EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will make a push for the Nabucco pipeline, [...]

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The first shipment of Kazakh oil has been pumped through a strategic pipeline that bypasses Russia on its way to Western markets, an Azerbaijani official said Monday.
The shipment from the massive Tengiz field is a significant step toward connecting Central Asia’s gas and oil resources to Western markets. Most of Kazakhstan’s [...]

The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. and U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips said Sunday they have signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s national oil company to drill in a potentially lucrative oil and gas region in the Caspian Sea.
The memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas tentatively gives Houston-based ConocoPhillips and Mubadala, one [...]

By William Courtney And Kenneth Yalowitz
RUSSIA’S INVASION of Georgia in August inflicted a potentially severe blow to global energy security by threatening export routes for Caspian energy. Russian President Medvedev’s declaration on Aug. 31 that Moscow has “privileged interests” - read, a sphere of influence - in bordering countries underscores that Moscow’s [...]

Martin B. Malin, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
As the presidential nominees’ debate on national security issues approaches, there is one issue on which both sides agree - preventing nuclear terrorism and proliferation must be a top priority.
The nominees also have converged on another theme - using Russia as a rhetorical punching bag to look tough [...]