Scotland will vote on a referendum to secede from the UK this September. A major component of that decision involves the future of the massive Grangemouth refining and petrochemical complex and oil reserves located in the Scottish portion of the North Sea. “Mr. Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, is banking on North Sea oil to underpin the country’s economy. His government claims that more than 90 percent of Britain’s oil reserves might become Scotland’s after independence because they lie under Scottish territorial waters.” [New York Times]

As newly independent and oil rich South Sudan struggles with internal conflict, “foreign minister, Barnaba Benjamin, has announced that he will visit Khartoum on Monday to deliver a letter from President Salva Kiir to his Sudanese counterpart, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, relating to the current situation in South Sudan.” [Sudan Tribune]

The AP details several Russian legal cases against people with anti-Kremlin or generally dissenting views, including one of Khodorkovsky’s business associates and the 30 Greenpeace activists that attempted to disrupt Russian oil drilling operations. [AP]