Alaska Dispatch

Many people have known that Russian-owned gas giant Gazprom entered the U.S. gas market on Oct. 1, opening a branch in Houston. The Financial Times (London) posted a useful piece at that time, here. But the story has more to it now. According to Bloomberg, Gazprom is considering acquiring a U.S. gas firm familiar with drilling in shale gas deposits in order to gain the expertise necessary to exploit Russia's "huge shale reserves." Specific acquisition targets weren't mentioned. Read more from Bloomberg here. Also, according to Reuters, Gazprom has said that it aims to have a 10-percent share of US nat. gas market in 10 years. The announcement follows the company securing import capacity and preparing to sign several pending supply deals with U.S. companies. The LNG shipments will come from Gazprom's Sakhalin II project in the Siberian Far East and from its planned Shtokman project in the European Arctic. Gazprom doesn't intend to send any gas to the U.S. market for at least a few months, however, because of current low prices. Read much more from Reuters here.