Below is a summary of the main energy-related events in Russia, the CIS and neighboring countries on December 9, 2005
* Russia's lower house of parliament approved a bill in the second and third readings, lifting the "ring fence" from around common shares in energy giant Gazprom and ending foreign ownership restrictions
* According to EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, Russia and Ukraine have developed a draft protocol that will have Ukraine shift to a world gas price regime by 2010
* Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov will meet with his Russian counterpart in Moscow Monday to discuss pricing and natural gas shipments to Ukraine
* The Russian government is planning to review a draft of Gazprom's 2006 investment program December 22
* A third foreign partner in the North European Gas Pipeline Company (NEGPC) may obtain a 9% stake in the joint venture, with Russian energy giant Gazprom maintaining a controlling stake, the chairman of a German company involved in the project said
* Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was set to chair a committee of shareholders of the Russian-German joint venture for the implementation of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) project
* Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said natural gas from the giant Shtokman field on a Barents Sea shelf in Russia's north would be delivered to Europe via various routes, including through the 745-mile Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline
* BASF AG chief executive Jurgen Hambrecht said the cost of the underwater segment of the NEGP was estimated at four billion euros
* Mattias Warnig, the head of Dresdner Bank's Moscow office, will be appointed managing director of NEGPC January 1
* Russian steel company OMK said Gazprom's trans-Baltic pipeline to Germany will be the first pipeline project to use domestically-made large-diameter pipes
* Moscow's Arbitration Court of Appeals upheld the ruling to reduce 2001 tax claims against Russia's TNK oil company from 4 billion rubles ($138 million) to 4 million rubles ($138,000)
