Pipeliners

06-20-2006 Regnum News - On June 16, Russian Gazprom and Danish DONG Energy concluded their first contract on Russian gas supplies to Denmark, the Gazprom press office reported on June 19. The contract was signed by the vice chairman of the Gazprom board Alexander Medvedev and the executive vice president of DONG Energy Kurt Bligaard Pedersen. According to the contract, the supplies will be started in 2011 and will be carried out via the Northern European gas pipeline. DONG Energy will buy gas for 20 years — 1bn c.m. a year with the possibility of annual volume increase. The sides have also agreed that DONG Energy will supply gas to Gazprom Marketing and Trading, UK-based company of Gazprom Group. The gas will be sold in the UK – 600mln c.m. a year for 15 years starting from 2007. The gas will be transferred by Langeled, a gas pipeline project that will connect Ormen Lange gas field in Norway with the UK. "By signing a long-term contract with DONG Energy we are entering an absolutely new region – the gas market of Denmark. On the other hand, the contract allows Gazprom Marketing and Trading to diversify its purchase portfolio and to get Northern Sea gas on a long-term basis," says Medvedev. "These contracts will allow DONG Energy to continue diversifying future gas supplies to its consumers. Our purchase portfolio includes gas from the Danish and Norwegian sectors as well as from Russian," says Pedersen. DONG Energy is one of the leading energy companies of Northern Europe. The company produces, distributes, sells and supplies fuel in Northern Europe. In the coming years DONG Energy is planning to start selling its shares on Copenhagen Stock Exchange. DONG Energy has a share in Ormen Lange gas field and Langeled gas pipeline. The pipeline is to be launched in 2007. Gazprom Marketing and Trading is a part of Gazprom Group. It was set up in the UK in 1999. The company supplies gas to over 40 big fuel buyers in Western Europe and continues enlarging its geographical presence, variety of goods and services and gas clientele.

RBC, 21.06.2006, Moscow 16:37:11.Gazprom signed a cooperation agreement with Hungary's MOL Group in Budapest today, the Russian gas holding's press service reported. The document states that the parties have agreed to establish a company on parity terms in Hungary to carry out a technical and economic feasibility study for a project of building new transnational gas transportation capacities and a system of underground gas storage facilities on the republic's territory. Gazprom's official representative Sergei Kupriyanov told RBC that the project's working title is the South-European gas pipeline. According to him, its purpose is to create a new gas transportation system (for gas originating from both Russia and other countries) to European markets. The project provides for a possible use of the Blue Stream gas transportation system along the Black Sea bed. Considering Gazprom's resource potential, its existing contract portfolio and prospective export agreements, the gas holding considers this the only feasible gas supply route through southeastern Europe. It is also worth noting that Hungary is used as a hub for any similar project, Kupriyanov said. The agreement also envisages cooperation between the companies in regional investment projects in South, East and Central Europe.

06-08-2006 Kommersant - Gazprom and Netherlands's Gasunie reached a tentative agreement yesterday on Gasunie’s possible joining the consortium, set up to build the North European Gas Pipeline. Gasunie may secure a 9 percent stake in the project. The deal will help to extend the pipeline's route to the Netherlands and supply gas from Russia to Great Britain via the BBL pipeline. N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie’s head Marcel Kramer, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and director general of Gazexport Alexander Medvedev held talks yesterday. Unofficial sources report that the parties agreed to sign a memorandum of intentions between Gasunie and current shareholders of the North European Pipeline project, Gazprom, E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF, for the Dutch company to buy 9 percent of stocks in NEPGC, the operator of the pipeline.
Gazprom is currently holding 51 percent in the project while E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF own 24.5 percent each. Gazprom is not going to reduce its shareholding, the executives at the Russian gas monopolist state, which means that the total share of the German companies in the joint venture will go down to 40 percent if the deal goes through.
Gasunie, the operator of a pipeline network, will not compete with the Germans on Europe’s gas sales market. Gasunie Trade & Supply is independent and is controlled by Royal Dutch/Shell and ExxonMobil.
Gazprom’s interest in the Dutch firm is easy to explain. Gasunie is the major shareholder in the consortium that runs the construction project of the BBL gas pipeline which will soon connect gas deposits in the North Sea with the coast of the Netherlands and Great Britain. The joining of the BBL and the NEGP pipelines could link the Dutch company’s network with Gazprom's Baltic pipelines and supply gas to the lucrative British market. Gazprom has so far been unsuccessful in attempts to enter this market directly.

ASTANA, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan is ready to sign an agreement on shipping crude across the Caspian Sea to a pipeline from Azerbaijan to a Turkey, the president of the energy-rich country said Thursday. Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking at an investment summit in the commercial capital of the Central Asian country, Almaty, said: "This month we will sign an agreement with the Azerbaijani government on linking Kazakhstan to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline." The 1,100-mile BTC pipeline enables Azerbaijan to supply crude from its oil fields off the Caspian coast to Western markets via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The Kazakh president said, "The agreement will be signed during the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia in Almaty." Under the agreement 25 million metric tons (183 mln bbl) of crude a year will be transported from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan. During the first stage, 7.5 mln tons (55 mln bbl) will be shipped from the Aktau port across the Caspian Sea each year, to Azerbaijan's capital Baku. The volume of investment will be decided after the agreement is signed between the two countries' governments. By the end of 2006, the BTC project will be pumping around 300,000 bbl/d of crude to the Mediterranean. The pipeline is expected to meet its throughput capacity of 1 mln bbl/d by 2008. Eventually, half of the pipeline's supplies will come from Azerbaijan and the other half from Kazakhstan. The main shareholders in the BTC project are London-based oil major BP (30.1%) and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (25%).

05-30-2006 REGNUM News - Main part of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan export oil pipeline project has been realized – Azerbaijani oil has reached Turkish port of Ceyhan, state AzTV-Channel informed, stressing that at present Azerbaijani oil supplies into world market are being prepared in the port of Ceyhan. 600,000 barrels of oil will be loaded aboard the first tanker. On May 30, the tanker will transport Azerbaijani Light Oil from Turkey, after last necessary documents are filled.
On the occasion of oil reaching Ceyhan, a festive opening ceremony is planned for 13 July, in which presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, as well as governmental officials of other countries, whose companies are involved in the project, will take part in it. One billion barrels of oil will be daily transported via the $4 billions worth pipeline.
As REGNUM reminds, on September 18, 2002, President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer, and US Energy Ministry Spenser Abraham unveiled memorial desks at Sangachal terminal (Azerbaijan) and put a capsule made of stainless steel into ground with secrete message for future generations. In such way, construction of one of biggest in the world pipelines, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan one symbolically started. The BTC is $2.95 billions worth, 1,760 km long; its carrying capacity totals 50 millions of tons of oil annually; its period of depletion totals 40 years. The whole produced oil will be exported to the West via the BTC oil pipeline; its whole length will total 1,762 km, including 443 km in territory of Azerbaijan, 229 – Georgia, 1,070 km – Turkey.
Financing of the BTC pipeline was several times threatened by stoppage, till final investors’ stuff was defined – BP (30.1%, project operator), Azerbaijani State Oil Company (25%), Unocal (8.9%), Statoil (8.71%), TRAO (6.53%), ENI (5%), Itochu (3.4%), ConocoPhilips (2.5%), INPEX (2.5%), Total (5%), and Amerada Hess (2.36%).
It is planned that Georgia will receive for oil transit net profit at the rate of $2.5 billions during the pipeline’s 40-year long operation period. Initially, following transit profit distribution was foreseen in accordance with tariff net and length of BTC countries’ sectors: $1,664 millions to Azerbaijan, $3,981 millions to Turkey, $836 millions to Georgia. At the last moment, Shevardnadze quite unexpectedly abruptly raised transit price, threatening to ruin the project. In order to prevent it, Azerbaijan was forced to yield Georgia its whole share for oil transport.