For 500 years, commodity traders have been trying to conquer the treacherous waters of the Russian Arctic passage – aware of its potential as a lucrative short-cut shipping route.The path is blocked all winter and only smaller cargo vessels manage to navigate through the icebergs for two to three months each summer. But last week, the first commercial supertanker has succeeded in traversing the strait. Carrying 70,000 tonnes of gas from Murmansk in Russia destined for Ningbo in China, the feat has moved the difficult Northern Sea Route a step closer to rivalling the dominant Suez Canal in the south.

Gazprom president Alexei Miller has said Gazprom is completing construction of the mainline gas pipeline from Sobolevo to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the capital of Kamchata region in Northy Eastern Russia. "This is a key component in the work to get the whole region connected", he told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the president's residence in Gorky last week. "The pipeline will come on line in September, in just a few weeks’ time. The first site to be connected will be Steam Power Plant-2," the Gazprom chief said.

European news agencies say the French company “Gas de France Suez” has officially joined the Nord Stream as the fifth and the last member of the gas pipeline project, Voice of Russia has reported. According to the French company’s financial report on the results of the first six months of the year, the transaction to acquire a 9% stake in Nord Stream AG is closed. The amount of the transaction is not disclosed. The original memorandum covering the company's participation was signed in Paris in March in front of Presidents Medvedev and Sarkozy. An agreement was signed in July.

Exxon Mobil Corp. will begin oil production from Sakhalin-1’s Odoptu field off Russia’s Pacific coast, at the end of September, spokeswoman Dilyara Sydykova said. The field will add 30,000 barrels a day of oil to Russia’s balance during the month, according to a report released today by the International Energy Agency.

Gas bills settled, supplies to Belarus resumed

The Kremlin said Thursday that Russia had completely restored the flow of natural gas to Belarus after the country settled its debt of nearly $200 million in unpaid energy deliveries. Belarus said that it in turn had received payment from Gazprom, which uses pipelines across Belarus to pump gas to third countries.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said gas supplies would be resumed in full at 1000 local time (0600 GMT).

European officials on Wednesday accused Belarus of restricting energy supplies through its territory in what one official described as an “attack” on the European Union.

Belarus restricted natural gas supplies flowing into neighboring Lithuania, a European Union member, by at least 40 percent, the official, Günther Oettinger, the European Commissioner for Energy, said.

“We have an expectation that this crisis and these politics between Russia and Belarus should not come to Europe,” Mr. Oettinger said in Brussels. “This is not only a problem for this one member state; it’s a problem, it’s an attack against the whole European Union.”

Lithuania receives all of its gas through Belarusian pipelines. Lithuania’s national gas firm, Lietuvos Dujos, issued a statement saying the cuts would not hinder supplies to Lithuanian customers but could lead to gas reductions in Kaliningrad, an island of Russian territory cut off from the mainland that also depends on Russian gas piped through Belarus.

Poland and Germany also rely partly on supplies from Belarus. Poland reported a slight dip in gas deliveries on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Germany was unaffected.

European officials have maintained that any gas shutoffs through Belarus would have little effect because of low summertime energy consumption. But the conflict has raised questions about Russia’s ability to reliably deliver gas to its customers in the European Union, just as Moscow has been seeking to boost its image as a dependable business partner in the West.

Throughout the four-day dispute with Belarus, Gazprom officials have issued statements attempting to reassure Europe that gas would continue to flow. Ukraine agreed to begin pumping additional gas through its pipelines into Europe should Belarus continue to cut supplies.

That option remains open to Gazprom.

Russia increased the price of gas supplied to Belarus from $150 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas last year, to $169.20 in the first quarter of 2010 and $184.80 in the second.

But Belarus had continued to pay at $150.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Belarus was still getting its gas cheaply.

"I would like to point out that the Belarusian partners are receiving Russian natural gas at the lowest possible price. No consumers of Russian gas enjoy prices lower than that," he said.

Russia supplies about a quarter of the gas consumed in the EU, and 42% of the EU's gas imports.

About 80% of Russian gas bound for European countries goes via Ukraine.

Russia starts cutting off gas to Belarus

Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday ordered Gazprom to cut deliveries of natural gas deliveries to Belarus over unpaid debts, a step which could jeopardize supplies to Poland and other European countries.