The “Carbon Fat Cats 2011” study by the UK environmental non-profit Sandbag shows Czech power giant ČEZ to be an oddity among its European energy peers. ČEZ has a huge surplus of emissions allowances while most companies in the sector — including giants like Germany’s E.ON and RWE — are running huge deficits. Generous government treatment for ČEZ, which is set to continue, is seen as the main reason.

Leaks about Russian state gas company Gazprom investing in RWE could well center on the German energy giant’s Czech infrastructure assets, namely its gas pipeline company Net4Gas. Gazprom has tried before to get its hands on the strategic Czech pipeline — and a taking a direct stake in RWE appears to be out of the question — but the Russian giant might get further this time, given RWE’s financial problems.

Talk of merging two pipeline rival projects — the EU-backed Nabucco and Russia’s South Stream — was revived by an unlikely source. The US ambassador to Rome, David Thorne, said Washington was in talks with Italian oil and gas firm Eni, which is Gazprom’s partner in South Stream. Whichever pipeline is built, it will have a big impact on the politics of the regions it passes through.