Gazprom, Kogaz plan working group for gas supplies to S. Korea

Gazprom, Kogaz plan working group for gas supplies to S. Korea
13:29 | 29/ 05/ 2008

MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant Gazprom and South Korea's gas corporation Kogas have agreed to set up a working group on gas supplies to South Korea, the head of Russia's industrial safety watchdog said on Thursday.

"Gazprom and Kogaz will set up a working group to address issues concerning natural gas supplies to South Korea through a gas pipeline before signing a [gas cooperation] agreement," Konstantin Pulikovsky, the Rostekhnadzor chief, who also heads a bilateral intergovernmental commission, told the ninth Russian-Korean forum in Moscow.

A Gazprom official confirmed that the parties had been negotiating the issue.

South Korea relies almost entirely on imports for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) needs. It has a diversified gas transportation network, linking coastal liquefied natural gas terminals to key consumption centers across the country, which makes it possible to use natural gas not only in electricity generation but also in the industrial and the utility sectors.

In the fall of 2006, an intergovernmental agreement on natural gas supplies to Korea was signed in Seoul.

In October 2006, Gazprom Marketing and Trading Ltd., part of the Gazprom group, delivered the first LNG shipment to Korea. The second was made in January 2007.

Gazprom has previously said that Russia would be able to start supplying up to 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to South Korea from 2012-13.

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Kazakhmys purchases power plant for $1bn

By Isabel Gorst in Astana

Published: May 30 2008 07:16 | Last updated: May 30 2008 07:16

Kazakhmys, the London-listed copper producer, has bought Kazakhstan’s biggest power plant, diversifying into the commercial electricity business at a time of growing energy demand in the central Asian country.

The move comes as Kazakhstan launches a drive to attract investment in the neglected electricity sector to prevent looming power shortages.

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Eni and Suez sign asset swap deal

By Sarah Laitner in Brussels and Peggy Holinger in Paris

Published: May 30 2008 06:57 | Last updated: May 30 2008 06:57

Two of Italy’s top three energy providers could be French if the proposed merger of Gaz de France and Suez goes ahead, after Italian utility Eni agreed to a E2.7bn asset swap.

Suez and Eni on Thursday signed a deal that will see the Italian group take over the French utility’s 57.5 per cent stake in Distrigaz, the Belgian gas supplier, for a price of E2.7bn. In return, Eni will cede the concession to supply gas to Rome, some Italian power generation capacity, and gas exploration and production assets in the UK, Gulf of Mexico, Egypt and Indonesia.

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Kazakhstan enacts oil agt with Azerbaijan on Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline

29.05.2008, 18.34

ASTANA, May 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed into law the bill on the ratification of the treaty with Azerbaijan on delivering Kazakhstan-produced crude oil to world markets across the Caspian Sea and the territory of Azerbaijan through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system, the presidential press-service told Itar-Tass.

The lower house of parliament voted for the bill on May 26. The upper house gave the bill a go ahead and it was handed over to the president for signature.

“Under the agreement there will emerge a system of transporting Kazakhstan-produced crude oil across the Caspian Sea into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,” the lower house’s committee for international affairs, defense and security said in its conclusion. “In part, an Eskene-Kuryk pipeline is to be laid in Western Kazakhstan and the throughput of the port of Kuryk expanded. From Kuryk tankers will carry oil across the Caspian to Baku, where it will be pumped into the BTC system.

Two Kazakh oil fields – Kashagan and Tengiz – will provide the oil.”

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, designed to bring Caspian crude to the Mediterranean coast, went operational in the summer of 2006. The 1767-kilometer-long pipeline runs through Azerbaijan (443 kilometers), Georgia (248 kilometers) and Turkey (1,076 kilometers). From the Turkish port of Ceyhan tankers carry oil to Europe. The pipeline’s throughput is 50 million tonnes a year. If necessary, it can be increased to 75 million tonnes.

Most of the oil filling it is produced at Azerbaijan’s Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli blocks. It was decided to draw crude from Kazakhstan to make the BTC more effective.

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz national company have negotiated an inter-government agreement to export part of Kazakhstan’s crude through the BTC since November 2002.

On June 16 Kazakhstan formalized its participation in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project by signing an agreement with Azerbaijan on the promotion of oil traffic from Kazakhstan across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and, eventually, to international markets through the pipeline system. When the oil-rich Kashagan field is tapped, the amount of oil traffic along this route may go up to 25 million tonnes a year.