Russia

Gazprom, BASF Extend Romania Gas Deal to 2030

Helene Ryding — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:22:00 GMT

2005-11-24 16:43:36

A joint venture between Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom and German Wintershall, a unit of chemical major BASF , has agreed with Romania to extend their gas supply deal until 2030, Gazprom said on Wednesday.
Gazprom and Wintershall supply the bulk of gas to Romania via the 50/50 venture, Wintershall Erdgas Handelshaus Zug Ag, and the previous contract was due to expire in 2012.
Romania heavily depends on Russian gas and Gazprom, the country's export monopoly, supplied Romania with 4.14 billion cubic metres in 2004, down from 5.10 bcm in 2003.
In the first 10 months of 2005 supplies stood at 3.78 bcm, up from 3.49 bcm in the same period of 2004.
Gazprom said the venture supplied Romania with a total of over 40 bcm of gas since the start of operations in 1993, but did not give the volume of planned supplies under the new long-term deal.

Source: Reuters

www.seeurope.net

BULGARIA: TPP to be Sold Off to Russian State Company

Helene Ryding — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 06:05:00 GMT



	2005-10-11 14:38:51

	The privatisation deal with Russian state-owned company RAO EES for the thermal power plant (TPP) in Varna will be finalised within the week, according to "Dnevnik a.m." reports. The sell-off contract will be endorsed this week. The privatisation deal is close to a wrap-up after no less than 5 extensions to the deadline for the sell-off negotiations. Initially, Bulgaria had put up for sale the TPPs in Varna, Rousse and Bobov Dol. The offers of the candidate buyers were unsealed in April. RAO EES led the bids for the stations in Rousse and Varna. Greece's PPC pitched 70.9 mln euro for TPP Bobov Dol but that facility was later dropped from the procedure under pressure form the trade unions and the owners of coal mining companies. Bulgaria's Commission for the Protection of Competition later barred the Russian company from buying both power stations and RAO EES decided to pursue only the acquisition of the Varna TPP. The PA is appealing the ruling of the anti-trust watchdog. The privatisation deal for TPP Varna is expected to yield proceeds of around 578 mln euro, including the cost of a capital raise. Source: Dnevnik English edition
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Participants Being Chosen for Burgas-Alexandroupolis Project

Helene Ryding — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:40:00 GMT

2005-09-29 11:07:48

A project to build the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline has reached the stage where participants are being chosen, Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce President Yevgeny Primakov said Wednesday. "One of the priorities for cooperation between Russia and Greece is cooperation in the energy sphere, let's not drag out the implementation of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project," he said.

Primakov told Interfax that the consortium of companies that will finance this project has not yet been set up, but this process is underway.

Asked whether the deadline for setting up an operator company for the project by the end of the year will be met, Primakov said: "We've said we will, so we will set it up."

"At the moment we only have political agreement for the project, and we also plans to turn Greece into a distribution center for electricity and for gas to the Balkans," Primakov told journalists.

The Burgas-Alexandroupolis project involves creating a new, additional route to transport oil from Black Sea ports to markets in Europe, the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region, through Bulgaria and Greece.

The pipeline may have a capacity of 35 million tonnes per year, which may be increased to 50 million tonnes per year.

Representatives from the Russian, Greek and Bulgarian governments signed a cooperation memorandum for this project on April 12 this year.

Source: Interfax International