Gazprom forever...

- spokesman
RIA NOVOSTI. May 2, 2006, 3:55 PM

MOSCOW, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) will announce partners for development of its vast Shtokman gas field in the next few days, the energy giant's official spokesman said Tuesday.
Sergei Kupriyanov said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station that the selection process, which Gazprom had hoped to complete in April, had been extended because each of the five bidding proposals was highly distinctive and detailed.
"The bids submitted are all very different ... in terms of structure," he said, adding that there were "a large number of points" to each.
Unveiled last September, the shortlist of companies to work with Gazprom on the Shtokman project comprises Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro, France's Total, and U.S. giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
The deposit, off Russia's Arctic coast, holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate.
Deputy Chair Alexander Ryazanov earlier said some $12-14 billion would be invested in the project's first phase and that production would start in 2011.  

* Sergei Kupriyanov, official spokesman for energy giant Gazprom, said the company would announce partners for development of its vast Shtokman gas field in the next few days


* Gazprom said it could maintain prices for natural gas supplies to Moldova in 2Q06 at $110 per 1,000 cubic meters  

mit welcher power und zielstrebigkeit gazprom abgeht.
die ganzen alianzen , joint-adventures und beteiligungen die die letzten
monate geknüpft wurden , gehen kursmässig im mai weiterhin gen norden .
 

RIA NOVOSTI. May 3, 2006, 8:35 PM

MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) - Energy giant Gazprom announced Wednesday that it had acquired a 51% stake in North European Gas Pipeline Company from ZGG GmbH, an affiliated company in Germany.
The package of shares was transferred to Gazprom's balance sheet on April 10, following the board's approval.
The joint Russian-German NEGP Company was formed for the construction of the underwater stretch of the North European Gas Pipeline project.
Construction under the 4.7-billion euro project, which is managed by Gazprom, began last year. The pipeline, which is to include two parallel legs measuring 750 miles each, will connect the Baltic seashore near the Russian city of Vyborg with the Greifswald region on the German coast.
The first leg of the pipeline is expected to have an estimated capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters, and the second will double the NEGP capacity to 55 billion cu m annually  

Friday, May 5, 2006.
 


By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer

Gazprom on Thursday denied reports that it had recruited former senior Israeli defense official Amos Yaron for an advisory position in the gas monopoly but acknowledged that the company had been in contact with the influential figure as part of its expansion plans to that country.

Israel's Ma'ariv daily on Thursday reported that Gazprom appointed the former director general of Israel's Defense Ministry as an adviser to Gazprom for negotiations to supply natural gas to Israel, Bloomberg reported.

Benny Steinmetz, an Israeli diamond magnate whose business interests also span real estate, energy and engineering sectors, is also being considered by Gazprom as a potential partner within Israel, Ma'ariv said, Bloomberg reported.

Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov denied that Yaron was given a job at Gazprom. However, Kupriyanov acknowledged that Yaron had been among the participants in negotiations to provide Israel with Russian gas. Yaron, dubbed the architect of the wall dividing Israel and the Palestinian territories, was a close ally of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,

Kupriyanov also confirmed that the talks with Steinmetz have taken place, but he did not elaborate. "We haven't named strategic or any other kind of partners. But we have talked to him," Kupriyanov said.

Gazprom has been in talks with Israel over gas supplies to the country via the Blue Stream pipeline, which currently links Russia to Turkey. Turkey and Israel are planning to construct up to four underwater pipelines to extend the Blue Stream pipeline and carry Russian gas further on to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon.

The volumes, the prices for gas and the time frame for the project are yet to be defined, Kupriyanov said.

The talks with Israel, apart from serving the commercial purposes, also represent a political move likely aimed at counterbalancing Russia's earlier controversial move to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow, said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank.  

Friday, May 5, 2006.
 


By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer  


 
The U.S. government appears to be stepping up its drive to secure energy supplies from Central Asia in a bid to counter Gazprom's growing clout and thwart a mounting challenge from China, as analysts signal the start of a tense new Great Game.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to push in Kazakhstan on Friday for a major new gas pipeline from the country to bypass Russia and take Kazakh gas westward through Azerbaijan and on to Turkey. Kazakhstan on Thursday gave an early signal it was interested in the project following talks between Kazakh officials and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

The new push comes as consumer nations grow increasingly nervous about future supplies, with energy prices soaring to all-time highs, and concerns mount about dependence on Gazprom. The gas giant has locked in a monopoly hold on gas supplies out of Central Asia and Russia, while it supplies Europe with 25 percent of its gas needs.

In a sign of the growing pressure, Cheney lashed out at Russia in a speech in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on Thursday for using its energy resources as "tools of intimidation or blackmail." In the strongest statement yet by a senior U.S. official, he said Russia was throwing its weight around "either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation."

 
Washington's latest attempt to secure additional Caspian energy supplies comes after several years of wavering U.S. policy in the region due to concerns over increasing authoritarianism there. The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush offered an olive branch to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev just last week, granting him his first visit to the White House since he succeeded his father as president in October 2003. Energy cooperation was one of the main issues on the agenda, as was democracy reform, a U.S. State Department official said.

"Cheney ... has decided that this is getting ridiculous," said Zeyno Baran, director of the Eurasian Policy Center at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, referring to the U.S. administration's previous balking over democracy concerns at high-level meetings with regional leaders . "Soon there won't be any more democracies in the region to participate with."

"You can say all you want about how we will not take part in these great games, but Russia and China are taking part in them and there is a risk that the United States is losing out," Baran said by telephone from Vilnius, where she was taking part in the Cheney trip.

Gazprom has been signing off on a string of major new supply agreements with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. While President Vladimir Putin last week threatened to send more Russian energy east, China has been stepping up its activities in Central Asia as it seeks to secure supplies from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

China's CNPC last year bought Kazakh oil producer PetroKazakhstan, and the first oil from Kazakhstan reached China last week via a major new pipeline. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov last month paid a six-day visit to Beijing, where he signed off on a plan to send 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually by a new pipeline to China beginning in 2009. Not satisfied, China is in talks with Kazakhstan over a gas pipeline from that country, too.

"The Chinese are now waving their checkbooks," said Alfa Bank chief strategist Chris Weafer, who is also an expert on OPEC politics. "The whole historic Great Game is back, and the Caspian is very much front and center as the main region for energy security."

When Putin named energy security as a priority during Russia's presidency of the Group of Eight nations this year, the expectation was that Russia could use its growing might as an energy supplier to leverage its interests and gain an increasingly important seat at the top table of global politics, Weafer said.

But Russia's standoff with Ukraine over the New Year, in which it briefly cut off gas supplies, led to growing fears Russia was using its energy might as a political weapon. As a result, G7 nations have begun discussing energy security on a much broader level and have stepped up efforts to diversify supplies.

Gazprom's increasing wealth at a time of sky-high energy prices is also sparking new worries, said Matt Sagers, director for energy economics at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "Nothing in terms of strategy is different. What is different ... is that Gazprom now has muscle."

The Caspian is becoming a focal point in the search for new supplies because of its vast energy reserves and the fact that Caspian nations may be easier to reach than those in regions such as war-torn North Africa, Weafer said.

A State Department official said Thursday that the U.S. foray into Central Asia was more of an attempt to ensure diversity of supplies than a direct response to Gazprom's increasing clout.

"We have to help the European gas market function more efficiently," the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said from Washington. Gazprom's ability to buy gas from Central Asia for as low as $55 per 1,000 cubic meters and sell it for $240 or more to Europe thanks to its monopoly on all pipelines running west out of the region was "a perverse situation," he said.

"This generates enormous rents that are distributed in nontransparent ways," he said, adding this was not in line with the U.S. reform agenda. "We can address that by increasing competition and diversifying pipeline routes."

Russia should adhere to the principles of the Energy Charter and allow third-party access to pipelines, he said, adding that Russia had called on Ukraine to do exactly that during the price standoff. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander," he said.

The official played down Putin's threats last week that Russia could send energy east if the West did not lift obstacles to its expansion in markets there. It is clear "there's bargaining going on here," he said, adding that Russia was not going to give up on its most prestigious market, Europe. "The Russian government has decided that energy could be the most influential tool to influence Europe. ... It has clearly established revenues there."

Weafer said, however, that Putin's saber-rattling last week had sent shivers down Europe's spine, even if it would take a decade to build the infrastructure necessary to take Russian energy eastward.

"In 10 years' time, Europe is facing its greatest crunch," he said. "There will be a real energy crisis in Europe if it has not secured major new energy supplies by then."

Russia is "taking into account the fact that China and India have a huge appetite for energy and will give favorable terms," Weafer said.

Baran said that even though U.S. officials would not openly admit they were concerned by any threat from Chinese deals, privately they were expressing increasing concern. "There's a sense that it's going to be impossible to compete with them. It's becoming increasingly difficult to win any open tender because the prices are just incredible," she said.

Weafer said the extended period of high oil prices had changed the entire dynamic between consumer and producer countries, as producers, buoyed by windfall revenues, become increasingly independent. "The United States has finally woken up to the fact that it is not going to be able to secure energy supplies based on political relationships," he said. "The Chinese have already changed the rules of the game with their checkbooks."

Other analysts disagreed, however.

Kazakhstan is unlikely to antagonize Russia by moving fast on a new gas pipeline westward, while the low quality of gas in Kazakh fields would also make any such project extremely costly, said Valery Nesterov, oil and gas analyst at Troika Dialog. Proposals to hook Turkmen gas up to a Kazakh pipeline westward would likely serve to push up prices for Russia rather than win the United States and Europe easier access to the gas, he said.

Another big problem for any direct Kazakh route to the West is that it would have to go under the Caspian Sea, the demarcation of which has yet to be agreed on by its littoral states, including Iran, Baran said. "Iran would be a threat to any pipeline project," she said.

With obstacles like these, any discussion of a Kazakh pipeline by Cheney would just be "the start of a long process," she said.


Cheney listening to an introduction prior to giving a speech to pro-Western leaders at the Vilnius summit Thursday.
 

Wednesday, May 10, 2006.
 


The market value of Gazprom reached $300 billion for the first time Saturday after the stock more than quadrupled in a year.

Shares of the world's biggest gas producer advanced 2.3 percent to $12.70 on the Russian Trading System, valuing the state-run company at $300.6 billion.

Only ExxonMobil, at $387.2 billion, and General Electric, at $365.6 billion, are bigger in their capitalization. (Bloomberg)
 

Wednesday, May 10, 2006.
 


KIEV -- Russian oil firms denied on Friday they were seeking to bypass gas giant Gazprom with gas supplies to Ukraine after Kiev said it was in talks with them to boost its energy security.

The head of Ukraine's Security Council, Anatoly Kinakh, said earlier on Friday that Kiev was talking to oil majors LUKoil and TNK-BP and that they could replace Gazprom with supplies of tens of billions of cubic meters per year.

"There are a lot of companies which want to supply us with gas at reasonable prices. … One of the aspects in our strategy of talks [with Russia] will be free access of independent suppliers to our transport system," he told Ukrainian business daily Economic Izvestia. (Reuters)  

Monday, June 19, 2006.

By Dmitry Zhdannikov
Reuters  
 
The State Duma gave a first reading Friday to a bill granting gas monopoly Gazprom the exclusive right to export gas, despite Moscow's pledge to the European Union to gradually liberalize markets.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 386-6 with eight abstentions, stipulates that gas must be considered a strategic material and therefore should be exported only by Gazprom or its export arm, Gazexport, to protect national interests.

"Export regulations via a sole operator will ensure efficiency of export operations for the state and Russian gas producers," reads an annex to the bill.

Valery Yazev, head of the Duma's Energy, Transportation and Communications Committee and an author of the legislation, said the bill was crucial to helping Russia avoid ratifying the Energy Charter, which could force the country to open up gas pipelines to competition.

"There are fears that during Russia's accession to the WTO we might be forced to ratify the Energy Charter," Yazev said. Russia expects to join the World Trade Organization before the end of this year.

"It is crystal-clear that Western countries are stepping up the pressure on Russia as they want access to our energy resources and gas transportation system to pump out all of our gas and help gas prices plunge in Europe," Yazev said.

 
The required second and third readings of the bill are scheduled for June 28. The bill would become law after being approved by the Federation Council and signed by President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin, which is regaining control over strategic energy industries, has declined to comment on the bill, and it remains unclear whether Putin will support it.

The EU has repeatedly called on Russia to open its gas market to boost competition and potentially bring down prices.

The EU says liberalizing the Russian market would prevent major supply disruptions like those of early this year after Gazprom reduced flows to Europe during a pricing dispute with Ukraine.

Moscow argues it has to defend its security and plans to restrict foreign firms' access. It also accuses the EU of blocking Gazprom's expansion abroad, in countries such as Britain.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said earlier this year that Russia might gradually open up its gas market to competition, but said later that he meant only competition between domestic suppliers, and not the export monopoly.

The law says there will be only two exceptions to Gazprom's monopoly -- production sharing agreements on Sakhalin by ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell -- as their terms cannot be changed.

Russian independent gas producers and oil firms have long lost any hope of exporting gas independently and say they only want Gazprom, which controls all trunk pipelines in Russia, to give them easier access to domestic users.  

Wednesday, June 21, 2006.

Bloomberg  

Itar-Tass

 
Italian energy group Eni will offer to help Russian companies, including Gazprom, expand in Italy in return for access to production and exploration resources in Russia, including heavy oil assets, Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni said Tuesday at a conference in Moscow.

Scaroni said Eni could help ease Russian firms' access to European gas and electricity markets and would discuss three or four projects of mutual interest with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller in talks later Tuesday.

"We're interested in a partnership in exploration and development of heavy fields and deposits,'' Scaroni said.

"We're talking about investment we can provide in terms of technology to make it possible to fully process and refine heavy oil.''

Eni wants to take a stake in Gazprom's Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field. In return for a stake, Gazprom is expected to ask for a piece of Eni's Italian gas distribution business. Eni and Gazprom have been in talks since October, when they scrapped an accord that would have given Gazprom direct access to Italian clients for the first time.

In its discussions with Gazprom on Tuesday, Eni also wanted to upgrade Russian pipelines, Scaroni said. Gazprom was a "very reliable" supplier of natural gas, he said.

"We could open the Italian gas and electricity markets for Russian companies and could also jointly enter the markets of other countries that are of interest to both sides, as already happened with Turkey," Scaroni said.  

Natural-gas export monopoly Gazprom said Ukraine could expect to pay as much as 68 percent more for its gas by 2007, less than a year after the company interrupted supplies in a price dispute.

Ukraine, which pays $95 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas delivered through Russian pipelines, will pay between $150 and $160 by 2007, Gazprom chief executive officer Alexander Ryazanov told reporters in Moscow Tuesday.

Gazprom, which is cutting subsidies for all former Soviet republics, briefly cut off gas to Ukraine in January to enforce a price rise of almost 100 percent. Countries like Belarus, Georgia and Moldova will pay an average of $115 per 1,000 cubic meters this year, Ryazanov said, and can expect a price "close to $180'' in 2007. (Bloomberg)  

und ein Ende der westlichen Forderung nach liberalen Gesichtspunkten.Schwierigkeiten besónders mit Shell und Exxon auf Sachalin! L'intervention croissante de l'Etat russe dans l'économie est un motif d'inquiétude pour les compagnies occidentales. Notamment celles du secteur de l'énergie. Le 16 juin, les députés ont ainsi adopté, en première lecture, une proposition de loi renforçant le monopole sur les exportations de gaz de Gazprom, détenu à 50,1 % par l'Etat et géré par des proches du président Vladimir Poutine.
Ce vote marque une fin de non-recevoir aux demandes occidentales de libéralisation. Il vient surtout réaffirmer la volonté du Kremlin de contrôler les secteurs de l'économie jugés "stratégiques".Les dispositions de cette proposition de loi, pour laquelle une deuxième lecture est attendue le 28 juin, ne devraient pas concerner le gaz produit dans le cadre de contrats de partage de production (PSA) signés avant son adoption.

Cela devrait réjouir les majors étrangères, notamment l'anglo-néerlandaise Shell et l'américaine Exxon Mobil, engagées dans le développement des champs gaziers et pétrolifères Sakhaline I (pétrole) et Sakhaline II (gaz).Fin mai, le ministère des ressources naturelles a cependant laissé entendre que les PSA conclus avec des firmes étrangères pourraient être revus dans le sens d'une participation majoritaire des compagnies publiques russes. Rosneft, numéro trois du pétrole russe, possède 12 % dans Sakhaline I (plus BP jetzt); Gazprom est en négociations avec Shell pour obtenir 25 % de Sakhaline II.  

Friday, June 23, 2006.
 
The Associated Press
Gazprom's plans to supply China's sizzling economy with energy will not mean that gas flows are rerouted from Europe, Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said Thursday.

But Medvedev simultaneously repeated a warning that Europe should make its stance clear after EU calls for diversification of supplies. "Our resource base ... allows us to guarantee performance of all our obligations," Medvedev said. "So there won't and can't be any rerouting of flows ... to Asia, the Pacific or America."

At the same time, he added: "In order to satisfy growing demand in Europe we need to know -- is Europe prepared to buy this gas? If not ... then we must correct our investment plans accordingly, both in terms of extraction and transportation."  

Friday, June 23, 2006.  

Reuters
LONDON -- Gazprom has entered the British industrial and commercial gas market after buying the supply businesses of the country's largest privately owned gas supplier, Gazprom said Thursday.

Gazprom, the world's biggest gas exporter, said it had also acquired the right to purchase Pennine Natural Gas outright and was concentrating on industrial and commercial gas customers for now, but would continue reviewing entry to the domestic and electricity markets.

Gazprom has previously said it was considering strategic partnerships in the British market, and has been linked to Britain's Centrica as well as agreeing in principle to take a share in a Dutch pipeline to Britain, bypassing possible British government objections.

Britain is turning into a net gas importer as its aging North Sea gas fields are quickly being depleted. British media have reported that the British government might oppose a Gazprom bid for Centrica.

The International Energy Agency has questioned whether Gazprom will be able to meet existing sales contracts and urged the firm to invest more in production. Earlier this month the gas monopoly said consolidated net profit, calculated to Russian accounting standards, had more than doubled in 2005 to 420.6 billion rubles ($15.6 billion).

Pennine Natural Gas declined to comment on the purchase price and Gazprom could not be immediately reached for comment on the price  

Friday, June 23, 2006.
 
 
While she is not yet Ukraine's prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday began outlining what she wanted to do once in office, beginning with revisiting a Russian gas deal forged after supplies were halted in January.

"I think all issues on gas supplies to Ukraine now require further deep revision and review," Tymoshenko told the parliament in Kiev.

Tymoshenko stressed that "all new relations with Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan should be built on a friendly basis."

But sources close to the Kremlin immediately homed in on Tymoshenko's remarks, warning of a wider energy conflict.

"It is another wake-up call for Europe," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said. "Realization of the threats voiced today is the path to a new gas crisis."

Political analyst Sergei Markov said: "If Tymoshenko does revise the gas agreements with Russia, this could lead to a widescale war that would engulf the whole of Europe."

Analyst Gleb Pavlovksy added that Tymoshenko was "trying to blackmail Russia and Europe. ... Taking advantage of its transit location, Ukraine wants to steal gas."

Tymoshenko personally announced the formation of the new government -- including her bloc, which is named after her; the Socialist Party; and President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine -- at the parliament's Thursday session.

 
The new government means Ukraine will stay on the pro-Western course it embarked on in late 2004 when hundreds of thousands of people descended on Kiev's Independence Square to protest rigged elections in the Orange Revolution.

Yushchenko was sworn in in January 2005. Tymoshenko served for eight months as his first prime minister but was fired after the two longtime rivals failed to set aside their differences.

The agreement struck this week between the three liberal parties dictates that Tymoshenko's bloc gets control of the Cabinet's fuel and energy posts and gets to nominate the head of Ukraine's Naftogaz.

Yushchenko's party is accorded the right to fill the parliamentary speaker's seat. Former Security Council secretary Petro Poroshenko or outgoing Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov may be tapped for that post.

The Socialists get to nominate the deputy speaker.

The Party of the Regions, which won more seats than any other party in the March 26 parliamentary elections, now becomes the main opposition party.

Ukraine imports most of its gas from Russia. Some of this gas is bought by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom from Turkmenistan.

Ukraine also ships about 80 percent of the Russian gas that enters the country to Europe through its extensive network of Soviet-era pipelines.

The gas deal cobbled together earlier this year raised the price for 1,000 cubic meters to $95 from $50. It expires on July 1. Given Turkmenistan's demand that Gazprom pay more for gas, Ukraine almost certainly faces a hike.

Even before Tymoshenko reiterated her plans to revise the gas deal -- she has said as much many times before -- Gazprom had accused Ukraine of illegally channeling gas from its pipelines.

Ukraine's actions, Gazprom said, could lead to shortages in Western Europe. Many European leaders voiced concern about Russia's reliability as an energy supplier after the shutdown. Gazprom supplies one-quarter of Europe's gas.

Energy security and European Union membership are the top priorities of Ukraine's new government.

Other priorities include more cooperation with NATO. Unlike the outgoing government, which had a rosier view of the alliance, the new government supports holding a national referendum on membership instead of having the president launch a bid for membership.

Turning back to Russia, the agreement binding the coalition together calls for a free-trade zone between the two countries and for completion of the demarcation of the Ukrainian-Russian border.

Fighting corruption is also a concern of the new government.

Russian lawmakers, including Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, said it was too early to make any predictions about what recent developments in Ukraine would mean for Moscow.

All the talk of unity in Kiev notwithstanding, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are certain to clash on the same issues that drove them apart before Tymoshenko's dismissal, said Vadim Gustov, chairman of the Federation Council's Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs Committee. Tymoshenko has been accused by her rivals of using her post as prime minister to position herself for the 2009 presidential election.

But Gustov said Tymoshenko's tough talk about revising, or even abandoning, Ukraine's gas deal with Russia hardly meant she would take concrete steps to do so, given that a spat with Russia could undermine her presidential ambitions.

As prime minister in 2005, Tymoshenko threatened to review several privatizations of Ukrainian enterprises that had gone to Russian companies.

She also refused to visit Moscow, noting she was being investigated by Russian prosecutors for purportedly helping to defraud the Defense Ministry. The case against her was later dropped.

Kurt Bondarenko, director of the Institute of National Strategies in Kiev, said Thursday that Tymoshenko might emerge as "an agent of Russian influence" after she became prime minister.

After her ouster as prime minister, Bondarenko said, Tymoshenko mended fences with the Kremlin. He added that Tymoshenko's anti-Russian stance was largely a political ploy intended to stoke populist passions ahead of parliamentary elections.
 

BUDAPEST -- Hungary's oil and gas company Mol signed an agreement Wednesday with Gazprom on forming a team to design a possible extension to a pipeline into the Central European country, an official said.

An energy-focused summit of the Group of Eight nations will be hosted in St. Petersburg in July, and the Kremlin has been working to repair its reputation as a reliable energy supplier after a New Year's price fight with Ukraine saw supplies to Europe temporarily disrupted.
 

MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti)-Gazprom will raise the price of natural gas supplies to Moldova by 45% from $110 to $160 per 1,000 cubic meters, the energy giant said Thursday.

The price rise will come into effect in the third quarter this year.
Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller informed Moldova's Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev about this decision earlier in the day. They also discussed Gazprom's participation in investment projects in Moldova's energy sector given that Moldova was currently forming a system of tax preferences for investment projects.
Gazprom said it had supplied 2.82 billion cu m of natural gas to Moldova in 2005. Moldova's gas debt stands at $687.1 billion, including $565.3 billion debt of its breakaway region of Transdnestr.
The Russian energy giant is seeking to raise the price it charges for natural-gas supplies to former Soviet republics to market levels.  

Gazprom is considering inviting Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi as equity partners in its liquefied natural gas project on the Baltic Sea, Gazprom said Thursday. Gazprom has previously said it might build the plant together with Canada's PetroCanada.

The deal with the two Japanese firms may unlock a stalled negotiation between Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell over Gazprom's plan to take 25 percent of the Shell-led Sakhalin Energy project.

Shell and Gazprom have an agreement in principle to allow Gazprom into the Sakhalin project by means of a swap deal. In return for the stake, Shell would get the deep deposits of Gazprom's huge Zapolyarnoye field. (Reuters)  

FRANKFURT -- Gazprom and E.On are "making progress" in their talks about E.On taking a stake in a Siberian natural gas field, Manager Magazin reported, citing Gazprom deputy chief executive officer Alexander Medvedev.

Medvedev is "optimistic'' the two companies will reach an agreement unless the competition authority of the European Union objects to it, he said, according to Friday's edition of the magazine.

Gazprom aims to get a 20 percent stake in the market for end-customers in each important European market, Medvedev said, the magazine said. (Bloomberg)
 

Wednesday, June 28, 2006.


BRUSSELS -- Gazprom's export arm Gazexport and Belgian gas transport firm Fluxys said Tuesday they would work together to explore underground natural gas storage possibilities in northern Belgium.

Gasexport was interested in investing in a site in Poederlee where Fluxys holds an exploration permit, Fluxys said in a statement. Both companies will form a joint venture to explore the area, it said.

The site is geologically similar to Fluxys' 600-million-cubic-meter storage space in nearby Loenhout, where gas can be sealed into a natural aquifer.

Fluxys' other gas storage site in Belgium is in Zeebrugge, the main gas trading hub.

Belgium's energy minister Marc Verwilghen greeted the deal as an additional tool to help open up the country's gas market.

"Diversifying our energy sources and promoting our liquid natural gas, storage and transmission facilities are our main priorities," he said.

Verwilghen told reporters in March that Gazprom had spoken to the Belgian government about moving into the country's gas sector. He said Gazprom was attracted by Belgium's gas transport links through Zeebrugge port, which would allow it to export to other countries.

Highly flammable gas is usually transported by pipeline but recent technology allows it to be turned into a liquid that is easier to transport by road, rail or sea. This could also see more gas traded on the open market for spot prices instead of sold in long-term supply contracts.

Belgium has to open its energy markets by July 2007 and has faced EU criticism for not doing enough to meet that deadline because the country's energy sector is still controlled by a few major players.

Belgium wants to build gas capacity to become a European gas hub, importing the fuel and transporting it within Europe for consumption.

Belgium has enough storage capacity to supply the country for 30 days, Fluxys said last month.

(AP, Bloomberg)  

RIA NOVOSTI. June 30, 2006, 2:04 PM

MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] wants to make domestic supplies of natural gas as profitable as supplies to Europe, the Russian energy giant's head said Friday.
A company official said Thursday the gas giant could lose 30 billion rubles ($1.1 bln) in 2006 and 14 billion rubles ($517.4 mln) in 2007 on domestic gas supplies, following losses of 8 billion rubles (almost $300 million) in 2005.
Speaking at an annual shareholders meeting Friday, Alexei Miller said: "Natural gas prices on the domestic market must make consumers increase the efficiency of its use, and facilitate the development of competition between alternative fuels and the establishment of optimal price ratios for natural gas, coal and fuel oil."
Miller said favorable conditions had developed to solve long-standing problems on the domestic market. "Gazprom is continuing work on solutions to liberalize the market for commercial consumers. Turning to stock-market technologies and long-term contracts for supplies to such consumers will help rectify the current price disproportions between natural gas and alternative fuels," he said.
Miller said the current regulated wholesale prices were fixed below an economically justified level and without consideration for market-based alternative fuel prices or the environmental and technological advantages of gas.
"A pricing system like this accounts for the disproportion of fuel prices, irrational structure of the fuel and energy balance and inefficiency of Gazprom's operations on the Russian market," Miller said.  

RIA NOVOSTI. June 30, 2006, 1:24 PM

MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] plans to buy an Iran-Armenia pipeline currently under construction, a deputy chairman of the Russian energy giant said Friday.
"Indeed, we intend to acquire this gas pipeline," Alexander Ryazanov told an annual shareholders' meeting.
He said the pipeline, with a projected annual capacity of 1.2 billion cubic meters, would be commissioned in 2007.
Ryazanov said putting the new facility on stream would help provide more reliable supplies of natural gas to Armenia, which presently receives its gas through Georgia.
"There are problems with the transit of gas to Armenia via Georgia, as Georgia taps some of the gas," he said.  

Italy says ready to open market to Gazprom for direct sales.

RIA NOVOSTI. June 30, 2006, 12:56 PM

MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Italy is ready to open its market to Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] so that it can sell natural gas directly to it.
Speaking after a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told journalists that his country was ready to give the Russian company the chance to sell gas directly without having to go through other companies.
He said Italian energy company Eni was in talks with Gazprom over concluding an important deal without revealing the details.
The Italian minister also said Eni had showed an interest in starting its own projects on prospecting for energy resources in Russia, which is strategically important for Italy.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister and chairman of Gazprom, met June 20 with Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Eni to discuss global energy security and long-term bilateral cooperation, the company's press service said.  

RIA NOVOSTI. June 30, 2006, 12:34 PM

MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] has tripled the volume of investment in recent years to $10 billion to $11 billion a year, the energy giant's chief executive said Friday.
Alexei Miller said investment in transport was double that in production since development of transport infrastructure was the key to reliable supplies.
"An integrated gas supply system is a huge system with a single control center, capable of responding flexibly to industrial, market and environmental factors," he said.
At the same time, he said that Gazprom was continuing to expand the raw material and production base.
Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said in May that Gazprom was not a reliable gas supplier to Europe in the long term. The Russian gas giant has been criticized for producing gas from old fields and investing too little in the development of new ones. There is also speculation that Gazprom's ability to honor new contracts hinges on its purchases of Central Asian gas, which is seen as a dubious guarantee of future gas supplies.
But Miller was robust in his defense of the company.
"In the past five years, Gazprom has increased production by 36 billion cu m of gas," he said, adding that was comparable to production volumes in a number of natural gas supplying countries.
"The company's reserves have been growing much faster than annual production levels. We are increasing them without dipping into the reserves," he said.  

The International Energy Agency on Monday denied it was trying to rally European governments against Gazprom's plans to expand its business into Europe, countering claims by a top Gazprom official.