1. Austria - Hungary: OMV Launches Court Action Against MOL over Shareholder Meeting
Austria's OMV has filed a law suit against takeover target MOL seeking to annul all resolutions that were made by MOL shareholders at the Hungarian company's annual meeting in April. MOL has remained adamantly opposed to the takeover and has built up an alliance of supporters within its own shareholder structure, overcoming a 10% voting cap, in a bid to block a potential takeover offer. OMV has argued that the alliance agreements mean that the shares held by MOL's allies should be deemed de facto Treasury shares, and in May sought a declaratory court ruling to affirm they should be treated as such. The new lawsuit sees OMV continue with its argument over the validity of the MOL shareholder agreements; the first scheduled hearing for the case has been set for 21 January 2009.

2. Russia: Lundin Petroleum Announces "Major" Oil Discovery in Russian Sector of Caspian
Lundin Petroleum said yesterday that it had made a "major" discovery at its first exploration well at the Lagansky block in the Russian sector of the northern Caspian Sea. The Swedish oil company said that an exploratory well at the Morskaya structure of the block "has encountered a major oil accumulation...minor amounts of gas were encountered in the overlying Albian reservoir". News of the discovery sent Lundin's stock soaring, climbing as much as 15% in early trading. Lundin had been facing a threat to its licence for the Lagansky block until reaching a deal with Gazprom last year under which the Russian gas giant has an option to buy a 50%-plus-one stake in the project. Lundin has its own option agreement with a minority partner in the Lagansky project that will allow Lundin to secure an indirect 50%-minus-one stake in the block if Gazprom exercises its option.

3. Canada - India: Canadian Oil Sands Targeted by Indian Firms for Multi-Billion-Dollar Investments
Companies involved in oil sands projects in Canada could be on the receiving end of significant flows of capital from Indian firms, if comments made by India's Oil Secretary MS Srinivasan pan out. The official suggested that investments of up to US$2.5 billion could be made, though Indian firms would most likely be seeking to acquire stakes, rather than companies outright.

4. Brazil - China: CNOOC Invites Petrobras to Explore Offshore in China
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) is to extend an invitation to Petrobras this year to help it drill for oil in coastal deepwaters in the China Sea. The comments were made by CNOOC's president Fu Chengyu and have been widely reported. The explicit basis for the invitation is that China recognises the potential of its offshore regions and that Petrobras, which quite recently announced the sizeable Tupi deepwater discovery in Brazil, "is the company that's best able to identify it." In return, China would like to become involved in oil exploration offshore Brazil.

5. Nigeria: Nigerian Oil Minister States 625,000 b/d of Crude is Shut-In
Nigeria's Minister of Energy (Petroleum) Odein Ajumogobia has told Dow Jones that the country is currently shutting in 625,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude. Ajumogobia said that the shut in figure has fallen from 1 million b/d. Nigeria has suffered a couple of serious militant attacks in the past two weeks, which has disrupted supply. An offshore floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel operating in Shell's deepwater Bonga field was invaded in June by the militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). This was soon followed by the sabotage of Chevron's Abiteye-Olero crude pipeline in the Niger Delta, cutting about 120,000 b/d of output. Shell and Chevron both called force majeures. A force majeure indemnifies a company from lawsuits for not meeting contractual obligations as a result of an event, such as sabotage to a pipeline, that is beyond its control.

6. Ecuador - Venezuela: Ecuador to Sign Refinery Deal with Venezuela; Rejects Argentina's Offer to Develop Field
The board of directors of the state oil company Petroecuador have rejected a proposal by the Argentine state energy company Enarsa to develop the Oglan field. The Argentine company had reportedly offered to invest US$460 million in the project. According to local press reports, the offer appears to have been rejected because Enarsa's offer did not specify how large the state's participation would be and because the inclusion of a reserve evaluation in the Argentine company's offer was considered to be outside the remit of a strategic alliance. However, the board of directors has indicated that it will consider an offer from Ivanhoe Energy to develop the Pungarayacu field and that the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA will participate in a project to raise production from Petroecuador's largest field, Sacha. The Venezuelan and Ecuadorian NOCs are also due to sign an accord on 15 July to create a mixed company for a project to build a refining and petrochemical complex in Ecuador. The proposed refinery will have a 300,000-barrels-per-day processing capacity.

7. Italy: Petroceltic Wins Nine Exploration Permits off Italy's Coast
Ireland's Petroceltic has been awarded nine exclusive exploration permits in the central Adriatic Sea, off Italy's eastern coast. The permits, named d492 to d500, are adjacent to existing oil and gas fields that have demonstrated three working hydrocarbon plays, including the recent Ombrina Mare discovery. Seismic data on the licence areas has indicated a number of prospects and leads. Petroceltic will now carry out further seismic surveying to determine locations for drilling. The licences have been awarded on a preliminary basis, and will be confirmed following Petroceltic's submission of an environmental impact study to the Italian authorities.

8. Australia: Santos to Spud Hudson-1 Oil Exploration Well in Australia's Cooper Basin
Australian oil and gas firm Santos will this week spud the Hudson-1 oil exploration well in Australia's Cooper Basin in Queensland. Upstream reports this will be the second in a seven-well drilling campaign. Santos operates the Cooper-Eromanga ATP-752P permit on behalf of partners Bow Energy, Avery, and Victoria Petroleum.