Global Food Price Hikes Could Spark Unrest

WASHINGTON, (RIA Novosti) - Mounting inflation, especially food price hikes, could spark unrest in developing countries, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has said.

Food prices have been rising steadily in low-income countries, especially in Africa, due to food shortages. Governments in Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia, Haiti and some other countries are already facing social unrest due to food price hikes.

"Hundreds of thousands could starve and children would suffer from malnutrition," Strauss-Kahn said on Saturday at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The IMF chief urged the international community to address this problem more seriously.

"If we want to avoid this huge rise in commodity prices, and especially food prices, having terrible consequences, then we need to do much more about this problem than has been done until now," Strauss-Kahn said.

Lukoil Exec Says Russian Oil Production has Peaked

LONDON (AFP) - Russian oil production peaked last year, the vice-president of Lukoil, the country's second largest oil group, said in an interview published Tuesday.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Leonid Fedun said Russia's oil production of 10 million barrels a day was the most he would see "in his lifetime."

He added that in terms of production in Russia's oil-rich western Siberia region, "the period of intense oil production (growth) is over" and compared the region to the North Sea and Mexico, where oil production has declined.

Lukoil said last week its 2007 net earnings rose 27.1 percent to more than 9.5 billion dollars from 2006, attributing the rise in net income to "favorable market conditions, high refinery margins... as well as effective cost control."

Government Hands Major Gas Field to Gazprom

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government has decided to give a major natural gas field in the country's northeast to energy giant Gazprom without a tender, Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrei Dementyev said on Monday.

Gazprom will pay at least $340 million for the license to develop the Chayanda gas field with proven reserves of 1.24 trillion cubic meters of gas and 50 million metric tons (about 370 million barrels) of oil, and will start its development in 2008, Dementyev said.

The deposit was included in the list of the country's strategic deposits in early December last year. The Chayanda field in Yakutia is intended to supply natural gas to Asia and Pacific countries.

Alexander Ananenkov, deputy chairman of the Gazprom management committee said in late December that annual gas exports from Russia's Siberian and Far Eastern regions to the Asia-Pacific region could eventually top 50 billion cubic meters.

Russian Companies Raise $31 Billion from IPOs

■ MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) - Russian companies raised a record $31 billion from initial and secondary public offerings (IPOs/SPOs) in 2007, the Moscow Inter-Bank Currency Exchange (MICEX) said on Tuesday.

The survey, prepared by the MICEX Stock Exchange, said that Russian companies made an increasingly larger number of share offerings on the domestic market.

"The Stock Exchange registered considerable growth in share offerings on Russian trading floors largely due to increased liquidity of the Russian market and growth in the asset value of Russian institutional investors," the survey said.

Russian trading floors accounted for about 38 percent of total share offerings worth $17 billion compared to $1.2 billion in 2006.

The sectoral structure of share placements also underwent considerable changes: "Russia's modern stock market is shifting, along with the economy as whole, from a raw material basis to greater diversification."

Financial, electric power companies and developers were beginning to dominate the structure of share offerings, the survey said.

Georgia Inks Black Sea Port Development Deal

TBILISI, (RIA Novosti) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed a document on Tuesday to build a free industrial zone in the Black Sea port town of Poti.

Under the deal, Ras Al Khaimah, an investment company based in the United Arab Emirates, will build an industrial zone on 1,000 hectares. Georgia will lease the port and the adjacent area to the Arab company for 49 years. Up to 500 companies will be given economic privileges in the free industrial zone.

The Arab company will control 51 percent of the port, with the remainder to be owned by the Georgian government. The Arab investor plans to invest a total of $1.5 billion on the entire project.