MOSCOW, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk
PLC (POG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) forecast a “conservative” 18 percent increase in
gold output in 2011 because it wants to avoid disappointing
investors with further downgrades, its chairman said.

Petropavlovsk, which plans to produce 600,000 ounces of gold
in 2011 delivered slightly less than its final forecast of
510,000-530,000 in 2010, in a trading update issued on Thursday.

MOSCOW/DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Russia’s Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to develop over a billion tonnes of Black Sea oil using $1 billion of ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) funds in a deal struck just days after an Arctic tie-up with Britain’s BP.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who is also the chairman of Russia’s top oil company, signed the deal along with Rex Tillerson, Chief Executive of U.S. No. 1 ExxonMobil, at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

MOSCOW/DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Russia’s
Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to develop over a billion tonnes of Black
Sea oil using $1 billion of ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) funds in a deal
struck just days after an Arctic tie-up with Britain’s BP.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who is also the
chairman of Russia’s top oil company, signed the deal along with
Rex Tillerson, Chief Executive of U.S. No. 1 ExxonMobil, at the
World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – BP’s $16 billion share swap with state-controlled Rosneft means energy tsar Igor Sechin has delivered on one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s boldest dreams: taking Russia’s national champions global.

The deal, which gives Rosneft a 5 percent stake in BP, cements both Deputy Premier Sechin’s position at the peak of world energy politics and his clout as Putin’s top dealmaker.

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (Reuters) – A Russian billionaire set the
terms on Monday for a merger of Russia’s top two producers of
potash, Uralkali (URKA.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Silvinit (SILV.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to create the
world’s No. 2 player.

The deal marks another step in consolidation in the global
potash business, where a battle for dominance spurred BHP
Billiton’s (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) attempt to take over Canada’s Potash
Corp (POT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which ultimately failed. [ID:nSGE6AE01K]

MOSCOW/LONDON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Russian mobile operator
Vimpelcom (VIP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris may be
poised to unveil a deal combining their telecoms assets ahead of
President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Algeria next week.

One source familiar with the matter said an announcement
relating to Vimpelcom and Sawiris could come as early as Monday,
without specifying what the statement would address.

MOSCOW, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Russian oil company LUKOIL
(LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) led Russian shares lower on Monday on investor
disappointment that it failed to buy out all the LUKOIL shares
held by its strategic investor, ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Russia’s No. 2 oil producer said on Sunday it had exercised
an option to buy 42.5 million of its own shares from U.S. oil
major ConocoPhillips, which once owned 20 percent of the Russian
oil company.

NICOSIA/MOSCOW, Sept 23 (Reuters) – A Cyprus court has
frozen $6 billion worth of Russian assets including Suleiman
Kerimov’s stakes in potash producer Uralkali (URKA.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) and
mining group Polyus Gold (PLZL.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), court documents showed.

The injunction on behalf of Russian member of parliament
Ashot Egiazaryan also covers holdings in the Moskva Hotel, a
piece of prime real estate adjacent to the Kremlin which has
been undergoing redevelopment in recent years.

MOSCOW, Sept 20 (Reuters) – A Russian deal to satisfy
China’s growing thirst for fuel will top the agenda as Moscow’s
top oil official visits China on Tuesday, but a deal to sell
Russian gas to Beijing may remain elusive.

Amid Asia’s clamour for the world’s newest crude — Russia’s
ESPO blend, delivered from new East Siberian fields to Pacific
markets as far away as the United States — the voice of China,
with its soaring oil demand, is among the loudest.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The fortunes of Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska have taken a stomach-churning plunge on the rollercoaster of world markets over the past two years, but he says an upward turn is just around the corner.

From metals to cars to insurance, “we try to stay in a sector which we believe will develop more in the next phase of growth,” Deripaska told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit this week.