Below is a summary of the main energy-related events in Russia, the CIS and neighboring countries on December 5, 2005
* A Russian parliamentary committee recommended that the lower house approve a bill lifting the "ring fence" from around shares in Gazprom in the second and third readings
* Iran's government announced it would build a nuclear power plant in the southwestern province of Huzestan; Russia is expected to bid in the tender for the contract
* The Russian Energy Agency said oil production would grow by 2.4% year-on-year in 2005
* The Russian Federal Energy Agency said it supported the construction of an oil refinery in the Far Eastern city of Nakhodka near a 2,500-mile oil pipeline project
* Russia's Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources said it would hold more than 200 auctions for contracts to develop mineral resource deposits in eastern Siberia by 2012
* China confirmed its intention to buy 20 billion cu m of natural gas annually from the Kovykta deposit in eastern Siberia starting in 2010
* Russian natural gas giant Gazprom subsidiary Gazexport supplied 4.15 billion cu m of natural gas to Azerbaijan in January-November 2005, down 3% on last year
