Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat said his government has established a commission to investigate the cause of an explosion on a natural gas trunkline that supplied the Balkans with Russian gas.

Russia’s OAO Transneft has proposed dividing its East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline into three export tariff zones, according to a company official.

Turkmenistan, now negotiating with Russia’s OAO Gazprom, is seeking to ban the Russian firm from re-exporting the natural gas it purchases from the Central Asian nation.

Russia’s OAO Transneft will begin operating a railroad oil terminal on Oct. 15 in Skovorodino, end point of the first phase of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, official sources said.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) awarded a $12.4 million contract to Insituform Technologies Inc.’s Mexican joint venture United Pipeline de Mexico de CV (UPM) for construction, replacement, and rehabilitation of about 40 km of pipelines in Mexico’s Chicontepec oil region.

Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. announced the start of operations of the Oleoductos de Los Llanos (ODL) pipeline, which connects the Rubiales heavy oil field with the Oleoducto Central (Ocensa) pipeline for onward transmission to the Caribbean export terminal of Covenas.

Tesoro Corp. announced shipment of the first barrels of oil through the reversed 81-mile Petroterminal de Panama trans-Panamanian pipeline from the Atlantic side of the isthmus to the Pacific.

The pipeline linking Fos-sur-Mer to Germany leaked 3,000 cu m of oil, polluting a natural fauna and flora reserve in the Provence region in southern France.

Vietnam’s state-owned Petrovietnam has begun operating a natural gas pipeline to electric power plants and industrial parks in the country’s southeastern region from its Su Tu Vang oil field offshore on Block 15-1.