Russia has ordered the country’s airlines to stop using Tu-154B planes until the cause of a passenger jet fire and explosion that killed three people is determined.

IRISH oil and gas exploration company, Petroneft, has raised $43 million (€31.2m), via its second successful share placing in a little over 12 months.

Irish exploration company PetroNeft said today it has successfully placed $43m at £0.43 (pence) per share in a placing which was ‘substantially’ oversubscribed.

Irish-based exploration company Petroneft is to begin pumping oil from two fields in Western Siberia before the end of the year.

TWO explosions tore through Russia’s largest underground coal mine, killing 11 workers and injuring 41 others, an emergency services ministry official said.

PetroNeft Resources has today announced that it has signed an Initial US$5m (€3.7m) debt facility with Macquarie Bank Limited.

Dublin: Irish exploration company Petroneft has purchased a second licence in the Tomsk region in Western Siberia for $1.4m. The block has existing infrastructure and lies to the west of the Ob River.

A helicopter owned by the Russian state gas giant Gazprom crashed in the mountains of Western Siberia, killing eight aboard, emergency officials said today.

IRISH oil and exploration company, Petroneft has posted a retained loss for the first six months of this year of $532,626 (€422,149).

RUSSIA cordoned off roads and slaughtered hundreds of birds yesterday in a bid to contain the advance of a bird flu epidemic toward Europe.

Thirteen coal miners died after an explosion ripped through a coal mine early today in western Siberia, officials said.

A Royal Dutch/Shell Group venture said it had found oil after drilling an exploration well at the Upper Salym field in western Siberia which should allow the company to boost its reserves at the site.

British Petroleum’s Russian venture, TNK-BP, denied today that it might be forced to stop production at its largest Siberian field following reports that the energy industry’s regulator alleged the firm was developing the field in violation of the law.

British Airways CEO Rod Eddington has called on Russia to abandon charging all airlines for flying in its airspace.

Russian rescuers today used their hands to dig though the rubble of a Siberian mine shaft as hopes dwindled of finding any more survivors of a methane blast that killed at least 40 coal miners and left seven others missing.

Russia's anti-trust ministry has approved the merger of local oil firm TNK with BP. This removes the last obstacle for the two companies to create Russia's third largest oil producer.