TransCanada Corp. and Phoenix Energy Holdings Ltd., a unit of PetroChina Co. Ltd., agreed Oct. 29 to develop a $3 billion, 900,000-barrel-per-day oil pipeline from oil-sands projects in northern Alberta, Bloomberg reported.

Gazprom will invest $38.2 billion to develop an East Siberian natural gas field and to build a pipeline to feed a planned liquefied natural gas plant in Vladivostok, Gazprom head Alexei Miller told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 29, Reuters reported.

Crude exports from Iran will fall by 1 million barrels per day, to between 1.3 million and 1.4 million bpd, within the next few months, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Ghalebani said Oct. 25, Reuters reported.

Web users on the Iranian Esfahan e Farda website reported Oct. 24 that drivers of fuel tankers in Iran's central Esfahan province have gone on strike to demand higher pay.

Egypt has reached an agreement with Algeria to import natural gas, though the amount that will be imported is still under negotiation, Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil said, Reuters reported Oct. 24. Kandil added that Egypt is also in talks with Qatar to import liquefied natural gas to meet Egypt's energy needs.

Russian gas firm Gazprom has expressed the strongest interest among bidders looking into the privatization of Greek gas firm Depa, sources in the Greek energy industry said Oct. 23, Euractiv reported Oct. 24.

Nigeria will hold its first oil exploration bidding round for five years by the end of 2012, while license renewal talks with Shell and Chevron over existing onshore fields are in their final stages, Nigerian Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said Oct. 23, Reuters reported.