Gazprom, the largest Russian company, announced it was opening a regional office in Rio de Janeiro  on November 3 . . . Gazprom is the largest producer of natural gas in the world . . . the company already has partnerships with Venezuelan and Bolivian energy companies . . . this comes after joint Russian-British energy company TNK-BP had announced it purchased a 45 percent stake in HRT O&G, a Brazilian oil company that was exploring along the Amazon River basin, on October 31^st . . . TNK-BP had previously signed a deal in June with Petro Energia to explore other parts of the Amazon basin . . . Moscow views Latin America as an important source of energy . . . it likely views Brazil’s huge underwater oil reserves and a recent discovery of oil reserves off the coast of French Guyana as very appealing . . . opening the new office gives Gazprom greater control over its operations in Latin America.