Britain to buy more Gazprom gas
Gazprom Head Alexei Miller and British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks held talks Wednesday to discuss the possibility to increase the sale of Russian gas Britain, Gazprom said.
The two sides, who met in Moscow, also discussed prospects for joint activities by Gazprom and British companies and work done to enforce cooperation agreements between Gazprom and BP, including deals on supplies of regular and liquefied gas, Gazprom said in a news release.
Miller and Wicks expressed satisfaction with the performance Gazprom Marketing & Trading, a British-based Gazprom subsidiary in Britain, the release said.
Britain has been importing all of its natural gas since 2004. Western experts forecast the country will need 40 billion cubic meters of gas a year by 2010. The Nord Stream pipeline is expected to become a new channel for gas supply for Britain.
Gazprom has been selling gas to the United Kingdom on a short-term basis since 1999. In 2006 it provided 8.7 billion cubic meters of gas for the country.
Kazakh Parliament OK's venture at Orenburg
Kazakhstan's lower house of Parliament has ratified an agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia on formation of a joint venture at the Orenburg gas processing plant in Russia.
The Orenburg GPP is part of Russia's unified gas supply system.
The agreement stipulates that the venture must secure long-term commercial contracts (of at least 15 years) providing for the purchase and processing of at least 15 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak field, and for the processed gas to be sold in Kazakhstan and exported on Gazprom's gas transportation system.
To that end, Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V., which is developing the Karachaganak field, has signed a 15-year purchase-sale agreement with KazRosGaz. The agreement covers purchase of up to 16 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The agreement also lays out the formula for determining the price at which KazRosGaz will purchase the gas.
Gazprom and KazMunayGas formed the KazRosGaz joint venture on a parity basis in June 2002. The venture is engaged in purchasing and marketing natural gas, processing gas at GPPs in Russia and other operations.
Russian, Hungarian firms discuss energy venture
Gazprom held talks with Zsolt Hernadi, chief executive of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, in Moscow on Wednesday to secure a bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
The two sides discussed the operating results of the Project Company responsible for preparing the South Stream project, Gazprom said in a news release.
Hernadi told Miller about the initiative to set up a joint gas transportation company aimed at operating in the Central and South-Eastern markets of Europe.
MOL Foldgazszallito, the natural gas transportation subsidiary of MOL, last week came up with an initiative to a joint regional gas pipeline company, overseeing all existing natural gas pipeline infrastructures in Central and Southeastern Europe, in order to improve supply security and encourage competition.
MOL Foldgazszallito has extended invitations to the gas pipeline operators of Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, to start discussions on setting up a holding company that would jointly own and operate the gas pipeline systems of these countries, totaling almost 27,000 kilometers in length.
The initiative, which MOL said is open to other gas pipeline operators in the region, could potentially create Europe's third-largest gas pipeline network, after the approximately 31,000-kilometer networks of France and Italy.
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Closing oil prices, Dec. 13, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $93.17
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $93.40
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