Energy

[joce23]

As the energy is a very important subject I decided to open this thread. Please post informations about projects, strategies etc. in our countries .

Other informations are here: SE European Energy Summit (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=490497)

Romania stays on the Caspian oil way
http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=business&id=20070717-510400

Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR has recently opened a representation office in Romania. The Constanta oil terminal was on the agenda of the visit of the Azerbaijani delegation to Romania, as indicated by its head and president of SOCAR, Rovnaq Abdullayev. “We are in Romania to take the bilateral relations to the same level as the political ones,” he stated, reminding of the fact that this year there would be 15 years of diplomatic relations between the two states, during which time 38 common papers had been signed in a variety of fields, with incumbent President of Azerbaijan, Gaidar Aliyev, having visited Romania in July 1995.

Work on the Baku (Azerbaijan) – Tbilisi (Georgia) – Ceihan (Turkey) export pipeline was completed last year. The pipeline is 1,768 km long and can carry 50 M tons every year or 1 M barrels every day. Since last year, Azerbaijan has delivered nearly 32 bln tons of crude to the world market, of which 7.5 bln via SOCAR. All these projects are being looked at with interest by the European Union countries, given their acute need to break free from the Russian energy supply.

Romania and Azerbaijan, Baku and Constanta can become the ends of the energy bridge enabling the immense oil supplies in the Caspian Sea to reach Europe. One such example is the Nabucco project involving both countries.

[Realek]

AMBO oil pipeline

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=437435

[joce23]

Iran, Turkey Sign Pact On South Pars Gas Field Development

TEHRAN -(Dow Jones)- Iran's northwestern neighbor, Turkey, Turkey has agreed to develop three phases of the giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf on buyback basis, Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said Saturday.

"It was (likewise) agreed that Turkey would develop three phases - 22, 23 and 24 - of South Pars and put the resulting gas at the disposal of Iran on buyback (basis)," state-run radio quoted Vaziri as saying. He added that the official contract between the two countries on the three phases would be signed in Tehran in four to six months, after the completion of feasibility studies by Turkey.

Iran has previously said it plans to develop its part of the the huge gas field in the Persian Gulf, shared with the state of Qatar, in 28 phases by 2012. Also, Iran has increasingly resorted to emerging markets to develop its oil and gas fields because of U.S. sanctions which aimed at starving the Islamic state of capital and technology transfers from major oil firms in industrialized countries.

Vaziri left for Turkey early Friday at the head of a delegation that included Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, director of the international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Co., and Nossratollah Seifi, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Co., or NIGEC.

The preliminary understanding on the development of the South Pars gas field with Turkey was part of a bigger agreement reached late Friday that included the transit of Iranian natural gas to Europe through Turkey as well as the transit of gas from Turkmenistan to Turkey via Iran.

"In order to export Iran's gas to Europe a pipeline should be laid between the two countries," the official IRNA news agency quoted Vaziri as saying, adding that the two countries have decided to evenly split the cost of constructing the pipeline.

Vaziri said he would hold more detailed discussions on the agreements and possibly sign contracts on the preliminary agreements in Tehran in about a month, when his Turkish counterpart, Hilmi Guller, is to pay an official visit.

Iran, Turkey and Austrian energy company OMV AG (OMV.VI) :cheers: have been in discussions since January on forming a joint-venture to supply gas to the proposed Nabucco pipeline that would run from Iran and Central Asia through Turkey to Europe. The resulting joint venture could see Iran providing more than half the 31 billion cubic meters a year of gas that the pipeline would deliver to Europe.

The NIGEC and OMV announced a preliminary agreement earlier this year that foresees the construction of a liquefaction plant and a deal on purchasing liquefied natural gas - drawing sharp opposition from the U.S. to the deal.


Americans Interested in Partnership for Building Cernavoda Units 3 and 4

American firms are interested in participating as partners to the construction of Units 3 and 4 of the nuclear plant in Cernavoda, Peter Lyons stated in a communiqué sent to Rompres by the National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN). Peter Lyons, Commissioner for Regulation, led a delegation from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission delegation visited Romania during July 12-15. AES, an American electricity production firm, expressed its interest in the project, and General Electric intends to supply the energy equipmen

[joce23]

Playing Romania’s trump cards
http://www.thediplomat.ro/features_0707_1.php

“In eight years, Romania will be able to produce 70 to 80 per cent more electricity and export three times more,” says Minister of Economy and Finance, Varujan Vosganian.
Does he have the right to be so confident ?


Romania has a deep tradition in the energy sector. The country boasts extensive experience in the oil and gas industry and the production of electricity.
Its engineers are also found leading teams of excavators and refiners from Astana and Dubai to Caracas and Lagos.
“Energy is Romania’s most powerful trump card in the European Union,” says Minister of Economy and Finance, Varujan Vosganian.
The country possesses important energy resources, such as uranium ore, as well as significant oil and natural gas reserves. The lignite and pit coal reserves could suffice for the next 100 years.
Moreover, Romania’s energy infrastructure is diverse, with national transport networks for energy, natural gas, crude, oil derivatives, refining capacities, maritime transport and harbours at the Black Sea.
“Romania’s energy production market has a balanced and diversified structure and the country now sees an ongoing nuclear energy programme, based on secure technology,” Vosganian tells The Diplomat.

“Energy is Romania’s most powerful trump card in the European Union”

Romania’s institutional and legal frameworks are adapted to EU’s internal market principles and the country has a decent interconnection capacity to neighbouring countries’ electricity and gas transport systems.
Moreover, increased investment opportunities in energy efficiency and renewables have appeared in the past seven years.
Romania will also be able to access EU structural funds for energy projects valued at about 650 million Euro between 2007-2013.
Massive needs

But not everything is rosy.
The uranium and gas reserves are in decline, which, used at the current rate, could see them both exhausted in the next 12 years.
The rising quality of life in Romania will need to be coupled by a huge increase in energy consumption, which could put a drag on Romania’s efforts to become a major energy exporter.
The mistakes of the past will also be revisited on the present.
Romania’s Governments hesitated to privatise the country’s energy system and invest in the sector until 2000.
Factors that lead to this situation included unclear legislation, fear of the unions, and a distrust of foreign investors in the local business environment, bureaucracy and corruption.
The ailing system of thermal power generation, which supplies two-thirds of Romania’s energy needs, now requires billions of private and public money to restructure.
“It is also true that investments in the energy sector, be they from the state or from a private investor, break even in a longer period of time,” says Vosganian. “But I am sure that in six to seven years’ time Romania will manage to catch up with the delays and become a regional energy powerhouse.”

Burning-up cash

Power estate

Romanian power generation in the first quarter of 2007:
66.3 per cent of energy comes from thermal power plants
23.8 per cent from hydro power plants
9.9 per cent from nuclear power station Cernavoda
Info: National Statistics Institute.
Private and public enterprises will need to invest about 30 billion Euro in the entire energy sector by 2020, including in bio-fuel production, estimates Vosganian. About 20 to 30 per cent of this amount will be money invested by state-owned companies or directly from the state budget.
Small steps have so far been taken in privatising thermal power plants, and this has only happened in the case of those in Braila and Doicesti, Dambovita county.
Romania will invest in the gas field to discover new reserves and increase the storage capacities, as well as rehabilitating and developing transport and distribution networks. The state should invest almost 500 million Euro in increasing gas storage capacity.
The energy mining and production complexes at Craiova, Rovinari and Turceni are also on sale, with firms such as Italy’s Enel, which owns power distribution firms in Romania, expressing an interest in another link in the production and supply of energy.
Altogether, these complexes need in the range of two billion Euro worth of investments, says Vosganian. Building Units III and IV of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant means another 2.4 billion Euro, and producing energy from renewables, a further 1.8 billion Euro.
“Should Romania have all four nuclear reactors functional by 2015 as well as the energetic complexes modernised and an increased hydro power production capacity, this country will be able to produce 70 to 80 per cent more electricity than at the moment and export three times more,” he adds.

Nuclear winners

South of the Danube is Bulgaria.
A massive rival in the production and export of energy – far outweighing Romania. Much of this is due to Bulgaria’s long-standing tradition in nuclear power production.
Vosganian says there should be no comparison between Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear power plant and the Bulgarian facility in Kozloduy, which was partially shut down at the request of the EU. In 1984, Romania’s Communist Government made the choice of the Canadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) concept for the Cernavoda nuclear power station. This gave Romania the chance to be independent from imported primary energy resources, especially because Romania produces heavy water and has natural uranium. “Today, instead of ‘energy independence’ we use the ‘security of supply’ concept,” says Vosganian.
Despite the fears of a second nuclear disaster in the region, the main advantages of nuclear power are stable prices, continuity and safety in energy delivery, as well as zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Cernavoda’s first reactor, Unit I, started functioning in 1996 and Unit II will be up and running by October this year. This means electricity produced at Cernavoda will increase by 50 per cent and nuclear power will account for 18 per cent of Romania’s electricity production. But this could rise to 40 per cent. A new company is in the making through an association between state-owned Nuclearelectrica and private investors to build Units III and IV.
The Ministry says it will launch a tender to select the private partner this year – among those interested include energy firms Enel, CEZ, RWE Power and a consortium between Ansaldo and Atomic Energy Canada Ltd (AECL) as well as mining firm Gabriel Resources. “This will act as an independent electricity producer, and finalising the project means investments of about 2.4 billion Euro,” says Vosganian. “Works on the two units are scheduled to begin at the latest by mid-2008 and should be completed by 2014.”


Free market focus

Romania is a willing contributor towards creating an EU single energy market. Such a strategy, long under debate in the corridors of Brussels, aims to create a better price for consumer and an increased security of supply.
Romania is already in the advanced stages of opening its internal energy market, but this will only happen in tandem with neighbouring EU countries such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece.

“By 2014 Romania will become a regional energy powerhouse and a serious electricity exporter”

“Romania is more advanced in its reform of the energy sector than many EU member states,” Vosganian says. “Maybe with the exception of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Romania can meet all objectives set by the European Commission.”
However, Romania needs to increase its electricity production by a third by 2014 to cope with increased energy demand, caused by an anticipated doubling in GDP between 2007 and 2013.
It is also crucial that Romania develops its renewables production. Presently, Romania is exploiting 48 per cent of its water resources for hydro power energy. “Water is, at present, the safest clean energy source,” says Vosganian. “We intend to increase water exploitation to 70 per cent by 2025.”
The plans are vast and optimistic – as the Minister hopes to boost all three sources of energy, nuclear, hydro and thermal with seamless public and private involvement. If this goes ahead, he argues that Romania will become a regional energy “powerhouse” and a “serious” electricity exporter.
This could even make the country start to dictate EU policy, rather than submit to the prevailing view in Brussels.


Busted power plants, thinning resources, rising prices

Excerpts from Romania’s draft Energy Strategy 2007, from the Ministry of Economy and Finance:

• About 9.8 billion Euro in state cash is needed to modernise Romania’s ailing energy sector between 2007 to 2020
• Over 50 per cent of the power plants and the gas and electricity distribution networks are now obsolete
• Romania’s oil and gas reserves will drop significantly by 2025 and uranium reserves for the proper functioning of the nuclear reactors at Cernavoda can only suffice until 2017
• Energy complexes at Rovinari, Turceni and Craiova, which produce 30 per cent of the nation’s energy, will be privatised by the end of 2008
• The price of Romanian gas is estimated to rise to 193 Euro for 1,000 cubic metres in 2009, an increase of 53 per cent on the current value
• Import gas prices are expected to rise by only 1.4 per cent to 218 Euro per 1,000 cubic metres
• Energy exports are expected to grow significantly after 2015, when Units III and IV of Cernavoda nuclear power plant should start producing

Opening up the energy bonanza

From power generation to oil and gas transport, could Romania become south-eastern Europe’s regional energy hub? Corina Mica asks the main players

Phrases such a ‘perfect geographical location’, ‘long-lasting tradition’, ‘huge natural reserves’ and ‘immense potential’ are becoming overused in regards to Romania’s advantages in the energy sector.
Market players and authorities all agree these are valid elements Romania should capitalise on, however, the general feeling is those are not used to their full potential.
How did the country get to such a standpoint and, more importantly, how can it get out of it?
Romania’s Governments hesitated in privatising the country’s energy system until 2000 and for the last 16 years the sector has suffered from under funding and a lack of a long-term strategy.
“Romania is a country well endowed with energy resources: it has hydro capacities, thermo-power units, it still has oil and gas reserves and a good geographical location to start looking at renewable energy,” says CEZ Romania general manager Jan Veskrna. “If we add the fact that it may become the crossing-point for many energy transport routes, the picture would be rather complete.”
Adds Matteo Codazzi, country manager of Enel in Romania: “Romania has all natural resources and industrial capabilities to reach a high level of security of supply and to play the role of energy hub within south-eastern Europe. Unexploited hydro potential, large lignite reserves and a developed nuclear industry place Romania in a privileged position from which an efficient and balanced electricity industry could be developed.”
According to the 2005 country report by the US Library of Congress, Romania could be self-sufficient in energy for several decades. This is a situation unique in central and eastern Europe.
“But to ensure competitiveness in these sectors, it is necessary that further investments to upgrade and extend the existing infrastructure are made,” says Petrom CEO, Mariana Gheorghe.
Romania is a nodal point for energy networks in Europe, in all fields: gas, oil and electricity. Moreover, it is now a border country for the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) and, apart from some politicians’ recent anti-Russian comments, it always got along well with its neighbours.
“Romania also has an exit to the Black Sea, which still has unexploited oil and gas reserves,” says Siemens Romania’s general manager, Adrian Baicusi.
However, a consistent approach is a problem. “The political decision maker factor has played a somewhat negative role, as the country’s strategy has changed with every new change in political leadership,” says Baicusi.
The new incumbent with his hands on the energy sector, Minister of Economy and Finance, Varujan Vosganian, is building up the sector as the most powerful trump card the country has in the European Union.
One hopes this is a blessing and not a curse.

Power generation: set for privatisation

Unlike many EU member states, Romania boasts a diversified energy production pool, with hydro, thermal and nuclear resources giving the country a strong variety of energy alternatives.
Privatisation started late in Romania’s energy sector and is far from being finished, although it has run deep compared to some EU countries.
Whereas gas and power distributors are on their way to full privatisation, power generation is still, with only a few exceptions, a state monopoly, while transmission will remain in state hands.
Each of the power generation firms are run by state companies responsible for the corresponding resource, Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica and Termoelectrica. However there are plans to privatise the thermo energetic complexes of Craiova, Turceni and Rovinari by 2008.
In 2000, when Romanian authorities made the first step towards privatisation of the companies operating in the energy sector, such as the distributors of gas and electricity, there was a beginning of interest in how Romania could use its resources more effectively. Foreign energy groups such as CEZ, Enel, E.On and Gaz de France picked up the distributors, while Austria’s OMV purchased Romania’s oil and gas giant Petrom.
“Seeing that the results are good whoever the investors are, I believe further steps will be made towards continuing the policy of privatisations in this sector,” says Veskrna.
Romania should have a balanced fuel mix and should diversify its energy production capacities, argues Enel’s Codazzi.
“Whereas cheaper sources of energy such as nuclear and hydro should be exploited at a maximum rate, the coal-based energy should make use of modern technologies to increase its efficiency,” says Codazzi.
But Dinu Patriciu, CEO of Rompetrol, goes even further.
“Everything should be privatised, by yesterday, if possible,” he says. “[Privatisation of] power generation is another big chance for Romania, but we should make it all private.”
Governments often hold back from privatising, because they argue about the need to restructure such state-owned companies as a means to attract the best suitor.
Patriciu does not believe the state should pay too much attention to the “bureaucratic traps” connected to restructuring.
“This is only a pretext which bureaucrats, from the ministerial level to the producers, use to prevent privatisation,” he says. “All production capacities – thermal, hydro and nuclear – should be privatised because as long as they remain state-owned, they only generate corruption.”
Minister Vosganian does not quite share Patriciu’s enthusiasm for privatisation to journey as far into the state as soon as possible.
“All privatisation alternatives, either through a strategic investor or through the capital market, should consider the safety of the national energy system,” he says. “To eliminate distrust in future privatisations, we need to ensure transparency, quality and the needed opportunity. At the same time, it is important to prepare state-owned companies from the point of view of corporate governance.”

Energy independence: within reach

If projects currently under development, including the expansion of the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda and the rehabilitation of thermal power plants happen, most market players agree Romania will become an exporter of energy and, in particular, electricity.
The key to such a goal, for Codazzi, is a new energy strategy agreed among all main stakeholders, including all political parties, consumers’ associations and industry players.
Presently Romania imports crude oil and exports oil products. Patriciu believes in the future it could export electricity and become the junction of gas consumption in Europe.
But Siemens’ Adrian Baicusi is more sceptical.
“I do not believe in ‘real’ energy independence,” he says. “We’re not talking about the Romanian market anymore, we now talk about the Romanian region called EU, and we are interconnected to this wider region. I don’t believe that the EU or Romania are capable of becoming [energy] independent.”
The costs are high. Building Units III and IV of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant means another 2.4 billion Euro, and producing energy from renewables needs a further 1.8 billion Euro.
With Cernavoda producing with all four reactors, Romania will be able to produce 40 per cent of its electricity from nuclear sources, and if you add the 36 per cent from hydro, this makes a pretty good picture, argues Roy Maybud, senior vice president of Energy Holding.
“From this point of view Romania can be almost 100 per cent independent, and clean at the same time, because, with the exception of nuclear waste, nuclear energy is considered a clean source of energy,” he says.
If Romania has all four nuclear reactors functional by 2015, modernised energetic complexes and an increased hydro power production capacity, this country will be able to produce 70 to 80 per cent more electricity than at the moment and export three times more, says Minister Vosganian.
Moreover, Romania is in advanced stages of opening its internal energy market, but this should also happen in league with neighbouring EU countries, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece, so that the end-users, be they companies or individuals, may enjoy the benefits of an European internal market.
However, Romania’s needs will increase – so a leap in energy production is not a choice, but a necessity.
Romania must increase its electricity production by a third by 2014 to cope with the increased energy demand, caused by a predicted doubling in GDP between 2007 and 2013.
At the same time, it is crucial that Romania develops its renewables production. Water is seen as a clean use of energy – although sometimes hydro power plants and dams can upset delicate ecosystems. At this time, Romania is exploiting just under half of the water available for hydropower. Vosganian aims to increase this to 70 per cent by 2025.

Gas: entering into storage

For Rompetrol’s CEO, Dinu Patriciu, Romania’s first big advantage is gas. The state gas producing company Romgaz, according to Patriciu, “cannot be privatised” in its current state.
Romania’s natural gas reserves will run out in ten to 12 years’ time. The main source will remain gas imported from Russia, there are also plans for a natural gas pipe line from the Caspian Sea, through Turkey and Romania to Austria, called Nabucco. This is an alternative, or complement, to Russian gas to Europe.
As a solution, Patriciu says, many of Romania’s gas reserves should be kept in storage. In his opinion, if the state sells all its gas perimeters to private investors, who will then use the perimeters either for gas exploration or for storage, they could make better use of the almost 20 million cubic metres annual capacity still available. This would allow businesses to buy and sell gas in the region at will.
“Romania then becomes one of Europe’s gas consumption taps,” says Patriciu. “The one that holds the storage capacity and the ‘gas tap’ wins in this industry, not the one which owns reserves and transport capacities.”
The new Romanian Government has a plan to invest in gas to discover new reserves and increase storage capacities, as well as rehabilitating and developing transport and distribution networks. The state should invest almost 500 million Euro in increasing gas storage capacity, according to Minister Vosganian.

Nuclear: set for 40 per cent of supply

At present Bulgaria has a powerful role as an exporter of energy in the region, due to its giant estate of nuclear power stations. However, Bulgaria had to reduce its nuclear power capacity in line with its EU commitments – shutting down reactors at its Kozloduy nuclear plant, due to creaking Soviet design.
In Romania, about 2.4 billion Euro is in store for two more reactors at the country’s only nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, Constanta county. Once completed, this will mean Romania will produce up to 40 per cent of its electricity from nuclear sources, and take on Bulgaria’s role as the main nuclear power producer in the Balkans.
“Romania is one step ahead of Bulgaria, since the southern neighbour had to close part of their nuclear capacities and lost the role as export leaders within the region,” says CEZ’s Jan Veskrna. “The Canadian CANDU-type technology used in the construction of the units in Cernavoda is one of the safest in the world.”
For Roy Maybud of Energy Holding, Bulgaria has had an advantage due to its smaller population, which makes it is easier to grow, develop and manage.
“Given the size of Romania and its capabilities, if this country is properly managed, in ten to 15 years’ time, nuclear power in the Balkans will play into the hands of Romania,” he adds.
Similarly, Luis Afonso Pereira, general manager of Eviva, part of the Portuguese Martifer Group, feels Romania should rank first in the region from the nuclear point of view, followed by Bulgaria and Ukraine.
“If it goes like this it will probably overtake Bulgaria,” he says. “If nuclear power is a good business for the group, we may look at becoming involved in nuclear energy as well.”

Trading: a chance to be regional broker

The EU started the liberalisation of the electricity markets in 1996. In Romania, the giant state energy enterprises were separated into generation, transmission and distribution at the beginning of this millennium.
For consumers, the opening of the electric power market began in Romania in 2000 and, in 2005, all customers, except home-owners, could choose their energy supplier. The total liberalisation of the market, including home-owners, is in force as of 1 July.
For the wholesale market of energy, in 2005 Romania established a power exchange dubbed OPCOM. This includes a day-ahead market, where traders can purchase energy 24 hours in advance. There is also a balancing market, a tool which handles the unpredictable fluctuations between energy supply and demand. In addition, there is a market in green certificates, where energy producers can trade in units of energy made from renewable sources. One advantage of this is that Romania is the only country in the region with a day-ahead market and a functional balancing market.
Market players agree OPCOM has serious chances to become the regional platform for energy transactions with energy – a position backed up and supported by Minister Vosganian.

EU policy: why not be nice to Russia?

The EU is trying to unify its energy policies because each region has its own deals and agreements.
Most nations agree that a single European energy policy is desirable, but each country wants to negotiate on the finer points. This includes terms which could favour their own monopolies or domestic energy firms, who are a powerful lobby in every Government.
What everyone can agree on are principles, such as promoting growth and jobs, combating climate change and limiting the EU’s vulnerability to imported gas.
This latter point is the most controversial, as it deals with Europe’s dependency on Russian gas, and the prices the Kremlin negotiates with each individual country.
“It is important that the EU manages to organise itself and appear as a united block,” says Maybud. “Russia is a powerhouse, but it is also a major gambling player in the energy market. They have China and India as major markets. China speaks with one voice, but with one voice worth a billion people. Europe with its 400 inhabitants, if it unites them under once voice, it would have a world to say.”
The manager adds that Russia is in a primary position to squeeze Europe as well as China. “Europe now makes a fool of itself in regards to Russia,” he says. “Russia is very cool as it learned capitalism very quickly and then, when the EU or the US try to bargain [with Russia] without a proper basis, it makes them look bad.”
One aspect that should not be forgotten is that the EU and Russia need each other and will continue to need each other for a long time, as in any relationship between a customer and a single supplier.
“An energy policy is an instrument that can influence the politics of other countries and Russia plays this game,” says Baicusi. “If you work together, you get advantages. But if you play the dissident and want to be like a revolutionary in the area, Russia has the means to react and if it stops the gas tap, [a country like Romania] will suffer more.”
In the next ten to 15 years Romania is in a favourable situation as it does not need to import energy from the EU, but it should be part of the decision-making process and remain a team player.
“Romania will have to adopt the EU’s policy objectives. It has already done so on a range of issues,” says Mariana Gheorghe of Petrom.
One EU recommendation, to strengthen competition in the internal market, is to narrow the gap between international and domestic producers’ gas prices. This means that the price of domestically produced gas should rise so that it is in line with market rates for imported gas.
Romania’s domestic gas prices have risen gradually and are planned to converge to imported gas prices in the coming years.
Romania is also quite green, but it is not Sweden. The country upholds its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions assumed under the Kyoto protocol. It also has a moderate potential for manufacturing renewable resources, such as bio-diesel.

Going green: small but on the rise

Energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources are at the heart of EU policy, although their usage is only a fraction of conventional energy sources in nearly all EU nations.
Romania has a potential wealth of renewable resources: its mountains and rivers, including the Danube at its most dense, can supply hydro power. It has a massive and fertile plateau in the south that is suitable for high-intensity crop production for bio-diesel. Although Romanian agriculture suffers from under funding, fragmented land plots and a sensitivity to extreme weather, which means the land is often flooded or dry, new EU subsidies for farmers may improve this situation.
In the bio-fuel field, Romania must comply with the EC directive which means 5.75 per cent of domestic gasoline must come from bio-fuels.
The first international bio-diesel producer to invest in Romania is Portuguese firm Martifer, which has a 30 million Euro plant in Lehliu Gara, Calarasi county.
“Romania is one of the best countries in the world for bio-diesel production, because of its weather conditions that allow growing crop, such as rape and soy,” says Celestino Tavares, plant manager of Prio, part of the Martifer Group.
One of the largest potential in Romania is represented by bioenergy, renewable energy resulting from biomass – which is energy from biodegradable waste. Producing this type of energy would be very convenient for Romania due to its large agricultural lands.
Moreover, the use of biomass as renewable energy has plenty of advantages as it generates important energy savings, creates new jobs, reduces gas emissions and reduces Romania’s crude consumption and imports.

East-west pipelines: a waiting game

Romania, like Greece and Bulgaria, is at the crossroads of a network of proposed and theoretical pipelines and electricity cables that could cross the globe from the energy rich Commonwealth of Independent States to energy-demanding western Europe.
Romania, Serbia and Croatia established in 2005 an Inter-State Committee to build the Constanta-Trieste Pan European Oil Pipeline (PEOP). Slovenia and Italy have also been invited to join the project. All signed a recent memorandum of understanding on the matter. It is likely that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan will also be included in the project, argues Minister Vosganian.
The Constanta to Trieste pipeline aims to be 1,360 km in length to ease crude transport from the Black Sea to the European market, with an annual capacity of 112 tonnes of petrol. The oil pipeline will depart from Constanta, cross Serbia and Montenegro before reaching Croatia and then continue to Trieste in Italy, where it will be connected to the pipeline supplying Germany and Austria.
Another arm of the pipeline will ensure oil transport to Venice, with the end-aim of feeding northern Italy’s refineries.
But the project has been received with scepticism, and no significant market player has shown interest in what has often been dubbed the ‘dream pipeline’.
“PEOP is another of Romania’s trump cards, but it has a very short window of opportunity,” says Patriciu. “As long as there is no private investor in this consortium, the [international] agreement is not that important. You don’t need very large investors or foreign ones.”
Currently Rompetrol is bidding for Serbia’s main state oil and gas company NIS, but this has been postponed by the Serbian Government’s decision to delay the privatisation. If Rompetrol is successful in its eventual purchase of NIS, Patriciu says his company would be interested in financing the ‘dream pipeline’.
Another reference project aimed at crossing Romania is the Nabucco gas pipeline, which is meant to transport gas from the Caspian Sea region, especially Azerbaijan, to Turkey and subsequently towards Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, avoiding Russia.
This project is estimated to cost six billion Euro and will be 3,300 km in length. The completion of this project will allow for a diversification in Europe’s energy imports and will reduce dependency on Russian resources. This project is supported by the European Union.
The latest information available at the Ministry of Economy and Finance says the construction for the pipeline will begin in 2008, as a sixth partner is sought to join the consortium. This is now led by OMV and includes Hungary’s Mol, Turkey’s Botas, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Romania’s Transgaz.
But Baicusi feels there are “no other alternatives” to Russian gas.
“If they are, they are limited,” he says. “Nabucco is needed to diversify resources, not just to show Russia that Europe can do without it. But the political game will continue.”
Russia is still a huge exporter of natural gas to Romania and relations between the two countries are at a low point at present.
[/B] “The future will be a cocktail with lots of ingredients,” says Baicusi. “We will see energy problems, political crisis and social clashes, so it will be extremely interesting.”

[new bulgaria]

Nuclear winners[/B]

South of the Danube is Bulgaria.
A massive rival in the production and export of energy – far outweighing Romania. Much of this is due to Bulgaria’s long-standing tradition in nuclear power production.


:)

[bgrs]

Hah, this report is gotta be outdated :)

[joce23]

Balkans Again to Enjoy Worldwide Attention
http://international.ibox.bg/comment/id_1752959224

Updated on: 24.07.2007, 12:15
Published on: 24.07.2007, 12:06
Author: Gabriela Preda , Southeast European Times

"Happiness is multiple pipelines," read a bumper sticker that circulated in the 1990s. The energy game has not changed much since then, but some of the players have. Now, more than ever before, Southeast Europe is in the spotlight. The future of the region increasingly hinges on transporting oil and gas to the energy-hungry West.

The competition between various pipeline projects is quickly getting tougher. More lobbyists are at work, more agreements are being signed, and more high-level meetings are being held to discuss the regional energy situation, along with the other key issues affecting the Balkans.

Energy issues have been at the focal point of several key events in recent weeks. To begin with, Bulgarian lawmakers gave the thumbs up to a major pipeline project, designed to connect the Bulgarian port of Burgas with Alexandroupolis in Greece. The pipeline will transport oil from the Russian terminal at Novorossiysk, bypassing the congested Bosporus straits. It will have an initial annual capacity of 35 million tonnes, which could be later expanded to 50 million tonnes. The Russian companies Rosneft, Transneft and Gaspromneft will acquire a combined stake of 51%. The Greek corporations will get 24.5%, while the Bulgarian ones will hold the other 24.5%.

According to various sources, various American companies – such as Exxon Mobil or Chevron -- are interested in gaining stakes as well, presumably by acquiring the percentages of the Bulgarian and Greek companies. If this is the case, common economic interests may bring the United States and Russia closer.

Some analysts see the Burgas-Alexandropoulis pipeline as the first major economic step forward into the region by Russia since the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Moscow, these analysts argue, is now striving more aggressively to become a significant player in one of the most sensitive regions in Eurasia. Some even tie Russia's role in the Kosovo status process – specifically, its decision to stand in the way of supervised independence – as being linked to its efforts to gain a more solid footing in the Balkans.

Certainly Moscow has been busy cultivating "friendships" with various countries in the region. In Greece, for example, a high-level delegation showed up recently to promote the image of a strong Russia with a healthy energy sector and billions of dollars to invest in foreign markets . An influx of Russian investments has the potential to boost tourism in Greece, as well as elsewhere in the region. Russia also is in a good position to woo countries that, for one reason or another, feel slighted by the West – Serbia, for example.

Meanwhile, Washington has also been visible. George Bush paid the first visit to Albania by a sitting American president, and also travelled to Bulgaria. Energy issues were high on his agenda. A US-registered company, the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil Corporation (AMBO) is planning to build a second regional oil pipeline, one which will compete directly with Burgas-Alexandropoulis. The project was first conceived by the Halliburton Energy Corporation and has received the backing of the US government, which conducted a feasibility study.

The AMBO pipeline will run 912km, transporting 35 million tonnes of oil annually. It will connect, for the first time, the Black Sea with the Adriatic -- and, to a wider extent, Central Asia with the Italian peninsula and beyond. The project is expected to be completed by 2012. It will, according to advocates, help create the necessary conditions for a balance in the prices of oil in the world market.

With both Moscow and Washington continuing to demonstrate interest in Southeast Europe, a new player – the EU – has entered the game. Recently, the European Commission gave conditional approval to a joint application by Greece and Italy to link their natural gas grids via a pipeline across the Adriatic. Construction of the pipeline is expected to begin in 2008 and to be completed in 2011. Its expected annual capacity is 8.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

Brussels has also expressed interest in a third regional oil pipeline project, this one connecting the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta to Trieste, an Italian port on the Adriatic. The pipeline will pass through Serbia, and some analysts fear that the negotiations on Kosovo's status will affect the project and its viability. In any case, five Southeast European countries -- Croatia, Italy, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia -- pledged to boost co-operation on the 1,856km-long pipeline, which will be capable of carrying around 40 million tonnes of oil annually in its first phase, with the capacity to grow to 90 million.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has signed onto the project, amid increasing concern in the bloc that the necessary infrastructure must be built to link EU markets with oil-rich regions. The EU's move has stirred discontent in the Kremlin, since Moscow has been excluded from the project – even though the EU currently receives half of its crude oil and natural gas deliveries from Russia.

The more proactive approach from Brussels represents a departure from the past, during which the Europeans were content to let Washington do most of the worrying about Moscow's influence. Increasingly, the EU is concerned with taking control of its energy future. With global demand for oil expected to increase by 41% over the next quarter-century, this should be no surprise.

What are the potential effects on Southeast Europe of this heightened interest? Many regional analysts see a coming era of stability and a fruitful investment environment. Along with the energy sector, many other industries could benefit, such as tourism, transport, commerce and real estate, not to mention the actual business of pipeline construction. All this could inject much needed capital into local communities. The Balkans could again find itself enjoying worldwide attention, though for far different reasons than during the 1990s.

Some analysts, however, take a less rosy view. They fear that power politics could force various antithetical political units into possible conflicts -- sparking yet another upheaval in the region. After all, they argue, a large part of the political turbulence in the area over the past decades has been related to energy ambitions and the desire to achieve dominance over the proposed routes for oil and natural gas. Could history repeat itself? Conceivably, an empowered Russia could seek control over most of the key energy corridors, renewing the old strategic antagonism between Moscow and Washington. From this point of view, Russia's attempted derailing of the Kosovo status process represents an ominous harbinger.

The Balkans are almost fated by geography to play an integral role in the new energy landscape that is being shaped in the 21st century. The region is close to Russia, the Middle East and Western Europe, and thus serves as an obvious point of contact for all. Its emerging role certainly brings with it potential perils. At the same time, it could position Balkan countries to take greater control of their future.

[iLiR]

Albania's Economy and Energy Minister Genc Ruli predicted that the country's power crisis will continue for the next 13 years and will cost taxpayers 1.6 billion euros. By 2020, he said, Albania will have new power sources, with 60% of its energy coming from thermal power plants and 40% from hydropower.


Very disappointing news.:ohno:

[joce23]

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Romania eyes Caspian oil
1 August 2007

Bucharest. Romanian Oil Terminal Constanta company has made an official offer to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan for building a terminal at the Romanian Black Sea seaport in Constanta, the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes today.
The capacity of the new equipment is planned to be about 100,000 cubic meters. Such a project matches with the plans of many European countries to have access to oil without Russia’s mediation.
Thanks to Romania, many states can have access to Caspian oil through Constanta-Triest pipeline, which appears to be a competitor to Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, in which expect Russia Bulgaria and Greece also participate, the newspaper adds.

[nebunul]

^^ :cheers: :banana: Slowly but surly the bear will kiss some EE aRss :banana:

[joce23]

The West and Russia struggle to transport Caspian natural gas to Europe

The Americans accuse Moscow of blackmail and unfair competition and ask the EU competition regulators to take a stand against Gazprom, like they did against companies such as Microsoft.

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=business&id=20070809-510547

Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, thinks that South Stream, the gas pipeline project set up by the Russian company Gazprom and the Italian company ENI, is an attempt to undermine the European Union’s Nabucco project, the latter being one that is backed by the Americans and in which Romania has a 20 per cent share. In an interview published this week by the “Romania Libera” daily, the American official qualified the Russian policy towards the European states as “divide et impera”, since Moscow compels European states to enter bilateral treaties with Gazprom by blackmailing them with a cut in the supply of gas. That makes the Europeans unable to adopt a common stance in order to obtain energy independence.

The European project Nabucco is the only gas pipeline meant to transport fuel from the Caspian Sea by bypassing Russian territory. It would connect to the already existent pipelines that come into Turkey from Azerbaijan and Georgia and would go through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. Its length would be of 3,300 km and its construction is set to last from 2008 to 2013. The total investment would amount to EUR 4.6 billion, the five shareholders – OMV Austria, MOL Hungary, Transgaz Romania and BOTAS Turkey - having equal cuts in the project. The maximum transport capacity would be reached in 2020 and it would top 30 billion cubic meters per year.

The Russian variant

The Russian monopoly Gazprom opened the Blue Stream pipeline in 2005, connecting Russia and Turkey through the Black Sea and set to reach its maximum capacity of 16 billion cubic meters per year in 2010. The Gazprom project was developed with ENI, one of the two Italian energy companies pitted in ruthless competition for transport routes. If Edison, the other Italian energy company, is a partner for the Europeans in their struggle to gain energy independence from Moscow, ENI proved insensitive to this goal and allied itself with Gazprom. Moreover, on June 23 2007, ENI and Gazprom signed in Rome a MOA for the construction of another pipeline – South Stream, projected with a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year. Its starting point would be in Beregovaia-Russia and it would reach Varna after spanning 900 kilometres under the Black Sea. From Varna it would split with a branch running through Greece and to southern Italy through the Ionic Sea and the other branch running through Romania, Hungary, and Slovenia to northern Italy, with another small branch from there towards Austria. The project would be built, owned and exploited by the two companies, the transit countries receiving only a small number of shares.

The role of Romanian-Turkish relations in the Black Sea

If for the extension of the Blue Stream pipeline the discussions between Vladimir Putin and Turkish PM Recep Erdogan started since the pipeline was opened in 2005, the abandonment of that project in favour of the South Stream pipeline stunned the public opinion. Turkey was in part a reason for this change in direction, since two years ago it felt threatened by the presence and policy of its allies in the Black Sea and Iraq areas, given its problems with the Kurdish minority. Currently the fears died down and Turkey returned to being Europe’s reliable Black Sea ally. In this regard, Matthew Bryza recommended that Romania, beside its appreciable efforts of exercising its leadership in the Black Sea, should cooperate with Turkey in order to build a common geopolitical vision, in the context of the American policy of backing common projects, like Nabucco, without directly investing in them, letting the partners involved to decide the project structure. What the Americans promise to do is to make sure there would be enough gas filling the Nabucco pipeline. The American official is confident over relations with both Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as over the quantity of fuel the Caspian area will deliver to Europe, along with Iraq if need be. Iran could become a supplier too, provided its relations with America allow it, but the American authorities as sceptical in this regard.



Romania nuclear-power unit connected to national energy system :cheers:


Unit 2 of Romania’s only Nuclear Power Plant was connected to the national energy system on Tuesday evening, as part of tests ahead of commissioning, National Company Nuclearelectrica SA announced in a release.

The first connection to the energy system was made at 25% of the reactor’s 700 MWh nominal power. At the next phase, the reactor’s power is to be gradually raised to 50%, 75% and 100%, with the program of activities approved by the National Commission on the Control of Nuclear Activities to be implemented at each of the percentages. The commercial commissioning of Unit 2 scheduled for the end of this September and the resulting increase in the nuclear energy share to 17-18% of the Romanian energy output will have immediate effects on the energy system’s stability and on keeping the electricity tariffs for the population unchanged. Unit 2 has been built on the basis of a contract on works management signed by Romania with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and ANSALDO-Italia in 2003. The CANDU 6 reactor that equips Unit 2 is the second of this kind at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant and Unit 1 has been operating successfully since being commissioned in 1996.

[nebunul]

The Americans have come and send their best regards to Mother Russia ... :nuts: :cheers:

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/6353/84468538rx7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

^^ Blackhawk at Kogalniceany Military Airport Constanta

[COTNARI]

^^

:banana:


:cheers:

[Yury]

wow, Russia has become an obsession for some guys here :D

[nebunul]

^^ Not obsessed (personally I do not give a fuck of Russia) … just aware and alert to potential negative influences

[nero]

^^ Not obsessed (personally I do not give a fuck of Russia)

WTF are you doing posting a photo of US Army helicopter on the eastern Europe energy thread then? I'm just being curious. :cheers:

[Kapedani]

A message...and a warning...

[Okrojsha]

Well, it's always good to see an Albanian "subtly" threatening anyone......don't you worry, your "friends" will not stay on Kosovo forever and then we'll all be friends again.

[nebunul]

WTF are you doing posting a photo of US Army helicopter on the eastern Europe energy thread then? I'm just being curious. :cheers:

When you'll be 16 (over) I will tell you

[nero]

When you'll be 16 (over) I will tell you

Why 16? And I'm probably older than you BTW.

[Kapedani]

I think he means mentally..when you mentally reach the level of 16...he'll tell you.

[nebunul]

Why 16? And I'm probably older than you BTW.

^^ On a serious note: energy and security are to inseparable things these days; I do not have to explain more I hope ...

[nero]

I think he means mentally..when you mentally reach the level of 16...he'll tell you.

Oh please, you can do much better than that :lol: (I hope)

^^ On a serious note: energy and security are to inseparable things these days; I do not have to explain more I hope ...

That's true, but posting a random photo of a US helicopter here? I mean, who is that meant for, the Russian forumers? Thats just lame :cheers:

[bgrs]

It would be perfect if the US and Russia get out of the region, I don't like them both :)

Of course, we are too much of idiots to solve our problems ourselves. But if we all were part of the EU and those monsters did not push their dirty fingers there, it would be much better I think :)

[nebunul]

That's true, but posting a random photo of a US helicopter here? I mean, who is that meant for, the Russian forumers? Thats just lame :cheers:

^^ OK I will explain as you did not get the message ...

I posted ...

The Americans have come and send their best regards to Mother Russia ... :nuts: :cheers:
^^ Blackhawk at Kogalniceanu Military Airport Constanta

The Americans are now here ^^ (in Constanta- Romania) for security/energy purposes. Got the connection now ?!?! :lol: :cheers:

[tzoobee]

Every great empire "melted", that's what will also happen to Usa and its allies.

[nero]

^^ OK I will explain as you did not get the message ...
I posted ...
The Americans are now here ^^ (in Constanta- Romania) for security/energy purposes. Got the connection now ?!?! :lol: :cheers:

I got your message the first time, I just find it pointless and a bit sad. Because you, a Romanian, are posting a photo of a US Army helicopter, in Romania, as a warning to Russia?
What are you trying to prove, that Romania is a puppet state?
Next time you flex muscles at someone, try flexing your own. :cheers:

[nebunul]

Ok amigos ... caramba now ... coz you're limited and do not seem to get my point ... and I've tried hard :lol:

[Cosmin]

Maybe we should go attack Georgian villages to flex some muscles. That seems to be quite fashionable in Russia these days. I for one don't have anything against Russia. I wish we were true friends with Russia, the US and the EU, but as you should've noticed by now, Russian external policy is something to be desired of. They're bullying some countries in the region and this pisses me off. I'm for American bases in Romania, but not for protection against Russia. They'll not attack anybody (well, except Georgia) with their army, but they flex their muscles whenever they get the chance and then they come and say NATO is a threat to them?! Well, wtf is that shit? You're confused, Mr. Putin!

You have to understand that us, Romanians, have had some nasty experiences with the Soviets, so it's time to orient ourselves in a new direction. That's why some fellow forumers are so excited about. You should understand that, as I understand Russia needs to defend it's interests. But I can't overlook the fact that Russia has made some big boo-boos lately. They treat us with respect, we treat them with respect. That's how it should be. Kinda basic, don't you think?

P.S.: tzoobee, USA is not an empire. They exercise they're domination in other, more dilluted so to say, ways. In many respects, they're ways are fair, so I wouldn't compare the US to say... the Roman Empire.

[Yury]

well, the Georgians are yet to prove that Russia attacked them, that has not been done so far. But I was actually wondering about the following. If you come to the Russian subforum, I don't think you will be able to find any thread where Romania is even mentioned. Obviously, people have other things to discuss.

However over here, if certain Romanian forumers are involved, you can be quite sure that at some point of time (whether the topic has anything to do with Russia or not) there will come a statement like "we'll kick Russia's ass", "Moscow is shit" or even a picture of an American utility chopper with three dudes next to it (presumably as a warning to "Mother Russia").

Most countries in EE have had much nastier experiences with the Soviets. After all, Romania has been more independent during the Cold War than other East Block nations (I am not even mentioning the ex Soviet states that were then all part of the USSR). Yet, I also don't see that kind of attitude from other countries' forumers. And I have breaking news, Soviet Union collapsed 16 years ago and you are still so excited? May be it's about time for some people here to grow up?

[nebunul]

I feel its fair to make one final comment: I talk in general about defence and not attack with regards to Russia … and we choose and paid a heavy price to be "more independent during the Cold War" ... and BTW those "three dudes" next to that chopper are just a small security guarantee of our young, long waited, well deserved ... democracy ... :cheers:

[ady26]

Russia does not like its former soviet states to think for themselves regarding the energy issue, but times have changed and Russia should reconsider its energy policy!

[Komandant MarkJ]

Why? We in Serbia love Russia's energy policy. We get very very cheap oil & gas:yes:

Oh and yeah, those choppers? In 1999, we shot down dozens of them:D

http://www.aircav.com/kosovo/ah64crash/ah64crash02.jpg

http://www.aircav.com/kosovo/ah64crash/ah64crash01.jpg

[nebunul]

And ... who won the war ?! Just joking man ... beside most Romanians were against THAT unfortunate war :bash:

[Komandant MarkJ]

Oh don't worry, I know:)

[tzoobee]

P.S.: tzoobee, USA is not an empire. They exercise they're domination in other, more dilluted so to say, ways. In many respects, they're ways are fair, so I wouldn't compare the US to say... the Roman Empire.

As well as Roman empire could not be compared with the Egiptian Kingdom. USA is the modern day empire..

@nebunul Yes.. we know.. you were so against "THAT" war, so every Romanian airfield and base was full of American military, Thanks for the support, neighbor..

[nebunul]

^^ :bash: Sorry we should've killed our president ... and join you :nuts:

[Cosmin]

Oh and yeah, those choppers? In 1999, we shot down dozens of them:D

*cough* Sure you did.:) You are the only military to have shot down an F-117 Nighthawk. That's more important than shooting down an Apache or Blackhawk.:banana: Only that NATO decimated your air force and air defences.

tzoobee, don't blame NATO or Romania for that war. Wtf? Your president together with crazy Serbs and Albanians is to blame for that. You pull that kind of shit, you get bombed. It's simple. Serbs were killing ethnic Albanians and ethnic Albanians were killing Serbs anyway... so it's not like NATO aircraft attacked peaceful Switzerland, don't you think?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming you or any normal Serb or Albanian, I'm blaming the idiots that cannot coexist and your former president.

[nero]

Why? We in Serbia love Russia's energy policy. We get very very cheap oil & gas:yes:

No we don't.

[7t]

And ... who won the war ?! Just joking man ... beside most Romanians were against THAT unfortunate war :bash:

Even if it was the only way to prevent ethnic cleansing which obviously proved to be the case?

[Cosmin]

Belive it or not, even so. :) Don't ask me why, though... I have a different view on that war.

[7t]

Belive it or not, even so. :) Don't ask me why, though... I have a different view on that war.

And which view is that?

[Cosmin]

That the war was legitimate given the situation in Kosovo at that time. Like I said... it's not like Kosovo was Switzerland. Fight fire with fire.

[7t]

That the war was legitimate given the situation in Kosovo at that time. Like I said... it's not like Kosovo was Switzerland. Fight fire with fire.

The widespread and systematic murder, bombing, robbery and rape by Serbian forces that resulted in the forced deportation of 800,000 civilians and the murder of thousands of others to you is legitimate fire against fire?

[nebunul]

Even if it was the only way to prevent ethnic cleansing which obviously proved to be the case?

I do not want to get into the conspiracies/politics of THAT war … but if it was the only way, then it was a legitimate war; and BTW this is (was) my belief also

Off topic: personally I am against autonomy in general …this is just an official separation that takes place in poor, lawless states where two sides can not coexist for various, “important” reasons. Such thing should not happen anywhere in Europe … I also understand that in reality it’s much more complicated than it seems: two enemies to suddenly start living together in peace and harmony seems an utopia … but I strongly believe this is the answer

[bgrs]

Under some other circumstances, the Americans would declare Kosovars as being drug dealers, terrorists and islamic fundamentalists, something like the Talibans. That does not sound strange at all. I think that if Milosevic was not left wing and did not maintain strong relationships with Russia, things would be very different. But that's only my personal opinion about it.

[Cosmin]

The widespread and systematic murder, bombing, robbery and rape by Serbian forces that resulted in the forced deportation of 800,000 civilians and the murder of thousands of others to you is legitimate fire against fire?

You got it exactly backwards.:lol: My mystake, though... I was in a hurry. By "war" I mean the NATO bombing campaign. Operations Deliberate Force (1995) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Allied Force (1999) to be precise.


As nebunul I'm against separatism and autonomy. In fact, I belive in an Europe and even a World without borders, but these things are still far, so I prefer the stupid autonomy if that stops the killings.

[7t]

Under some other circumstances, the Americans would declare Kosovars as being drug dealers, terrorists and islamic fundamentalists, something like the Talibans. That does not sound strange at all. I think that if Milosevic was not left wing and did not maintain strong relationships with Russia, things would be very different. But that's only my personal opinion about it.

Your personal opinion sucks because it's so out of touch with reality. How do you justify the crimes these bastards commited and for which they were sent to the International Court of Justice is beyond rational thinking:ohno:

[7t]

You got it exactly backwards.:lol: My mystake, though... I was in a hurry. By "war" I mean the NATO bombing campaign. Operations Deliberate Force (1995) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Allied Force (1999) to be precise.


As nebunul I'm against separatism and autonomy. In fact, I belive in an Europe and even a World without borders, but these things are still far, so I prefer the stupid autonomy if that stops the killings.

Ok.

[tzoobee]

*cough* Sure you did.:) You are the only military to have shot down an F-117 Nighthawk. That's more important than shooting down an Apache or Blackhawk.:banana: Only that NATO decimated your air force and air defences.

tzoobee, don't blame NATO or Romania for that war. Wtf? Your president together with crazy Serbs and Albanians is to blame for that. You pull that kind of shit, you get bombed. It's simple. Serbs were killing ethnic Albanians and ethnic Albanians were killing Serbs anyway... so it's not like NATO aircraft attacked peaceful Switzerland, don't you think?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming you or any normal Serb or Albanian, I'm blaming the idiots that cannot coexist and your former president.

So u did support that war? Nobody is blaming you, ofcourse, for that war.. Your involvement is what is important, and what you did to help the enemies of your neighbor, with whom btw you never had any serious conflict.. But, sincerely, there wouldn't exist the term "puppet state" if every country acted honorly.. If it happened vice-versa, Serbia would never allow the millitary of 3rd country to bomb a neighbour.. Esppecialy without an UN approval .. But thats us the Serbs, becouse of that way of thinking we suffer so much now.. We just don't like to lick ass..

[tzoobee]

Even if it was the only way to prevent ethnic cleansing which obviously proved to be the case?

:lol: Lol ethnic cleansing.. Please tell us how many albanians live NOW in KOSOVO, and how many lived before the war.. If u have the same info. for the Serbian people there, you could share with us..
Btw also how many orthodox Christian churches(many centuries old) are destroyed? 20 ? 50 ? 100??

[7t]

So u did support that war? Nobody is blaming you, ofcourse, for that war.. Your involvement is what is important, and what you did to help the enemies of your neighbor, with whom btw you never had any serious conflict.. But, sincerely, there wouldn't exist the term "puppet state" if every country acted honorly.. If it happened vice-versa, Serbia would never allow the millitary of 3rd country to bomb a neighbour.. Esppecialy without an UN approval .. But thats us the Serbs, becouse of that way of thinking we suffer so much now.. We just don't like to lick ass..

Romania's involvement was neutral, in fact Baescu objects Kosovo's Independence which makes no sense to me.
We have friendly relations with Romania as well, i dont understand why its president would make such irresponsible diplomatic moves. Best thing to do is stay neutral in this situation.

[Kapedani]

Ahh....not that ths i the place for such a discussion...but Serbs in general are the only people in te world who activly believe their own lies...even 8 years after they invented their own lies.

Mark says they shot down "dozens of hose choppers"...lol. A lie created by Serbs in 1999...STILL believed by them. You really shouldn't believe your own lies kid...That helicopter you show BTW went down in the vicinity of TIRANA...on a training accident. Go find a map and figure out where Tirana is...unless the Serbs had soldiers in the vicinity of Tirana.

And then another brilliant mind says "how many churches were destroyed?"...well...there were about 90 Albanian Catholic Churches destroyed, and about 250 Albanian mosques destroyed.

--------
This isn't an issue as our Romanian friends simplyfy it of "people coexisting togather", in some utopian mythical "united Europe". We are dealing here with a Serbia which is STILL ruled by ultra-nationalists who adore Milosevic (ie, the Radicals). You can have any opinion you want on independence or whatever...I suppose its not up to you anyway...and perhaps you should reserve such opinions when 1/2 of your population is driven by tanks into neighbouring countries and 70% of your homes destroyed.

Our Romanina friends better remember what a Russian influence in Eastern Europe means...and which hand feeds them (figurativly of course).

Albania for one will always be on America's or anyone else's side that opposes the sort of medievalism and brutality...that Russia has brought and will bring to Eastern Europe. And despite what your opinions may be...you can rest assured the Romanian or Bulgarian governments (and majority of people) are on the same side as well.

[tzoobee]

And then another brilliant mind says "how many churches were destroyed?"...well...there were about 90 Albanian Catholic Churches destroyed, and about 250 Albanian mosques destroyed.


Lol man, you are indeed funny :D Don't get angry cuz it's now more obvious Kosovo will not get independence :) I realise there is a growing frustration among albanian people but don't make up things.. Your lies are funny in a way..

Btw you were friends not long ago with China as well.. Today USA and you are still the poorest country in the northern hemisphere ..

Albania for one will always be on America's or anyone else's side that opposes the sort of medievalism and brutality...that Russia has brought and will bring to Eastern Europe.

^^ There is an expression in Serbian, in free translation it would mean: "If it wasn't sad it could be funny"

[Kapedani]

Today USA and you are still the poorest country in the northern hemisphere

Check your numbers again...the poorest is you along with Montenegro.

There is an expression in Serbian, in free translation it would mean: "If it wasn't sad it could be funny"

You'r right...it is sad...not for us anyway...but for you.

[bgrs]

Your personal opinion sucks because it's so out of touch with reality. How do you justify the crimes these bastards commited and for which they were sent to the International Court of Justice is beyond rational thinking

Yes, you're right - everyone's got an opinion and each opinion sucks :)

Anyway I don't think ethics has anything to do with big politics. For example, there are the Chechens, Kurds and Palestinians who fight for freedom and against oppression, still they are terrorists and USA do not support them at all :) Why is that?

[Cosmin]

The last you'll hear from me on this matter (as we are obviously off-topic here):

1) tzoobee, the hole neighbours matter is stupid. Serbia and Romania are neigbouring countries, but that doesn't mean we must accept whatever shit you're doing or viceversa. I don't "lick ass", my friend. Sorry to disappoint you. If Albania attacks Serbia tomorrow and after months of negociations there's still no hope for peace, you bet I'll support a NATO campaign against Albania. It's not about Serbia, the former Yugoslavia, Albania or Bosnia... it's about killing people.

2) I know both the Serbs and ethnic Albanians did horrible things during that war, but obviously the Serbs were no. 1. Was the war 100% just? No way. But was it needed? Yes.

3) Independence is kinda stupid. It means you cannot find ways to coexist with you neighbour. It's not like a divorce, so I'm against it, but if it really is the last solution, then fine. A united Europe is utopical at this moment, but it is a good idea... for the future I mean. On the matter of Kosovo independence I'm neutral, though.

What's funny in a very sinister way is that former Yugoslavia fought for the very things Serbia is now losing. Was it really worth killing all those people?

[Okrojsha]

"Albania for one will always be on America's or anyone else's side that opposes the sort of medievalism and brutality...that Russia has brought and will bring to Eastern Europe. And despite what your opinions may be...you can rest assured the Romanian or Bulgarian governments (and majority of people) are on the same side as well."

Dude, remember this is the EE forum you're writing on, it's not the General Assembly of the UN or some PR staged piece for the CNN. Trust me, these people know you lot better than you think, so don't act like you invented democracy before Greeks. It sounds rather silly.

Cosmin: My own philosophy is close to yours when it comes to borders and other abstractions imposed on humans by the primitive human laws. Still, this will remain utopia for the long time, if it ever happens at all (as we can see, Europe is one dying whore right now and I do believe that EU will not last for too long-unless something changes dramatically). What I would love to see among my dear Serbs is more respect to one's own history and one's own nation, while in the same time respecting others around you. So, bottom line for me is: EU = sure, why not, but NOT at the price of humiliation/loss of the national identity/Kosovo. Cheers to all:cheers:

[Kapedani]

Independence is kinda stupid. It means you cannot find ways to coexist with you neighbour.

No...its exactly coexisting...with your...neighbors. The key word here being...neighbors...ie...not in your country. We want to coexist with them...as neighbors...not in our house.

[Okrojsha]

Cosmin, I haven't seen your last post. As you appear an open-minded person, you should try reading some material that is more impartial about the ex-yu conflicts. I hope you understand that Serbia fought to preserve Yugoslavia (which was very stupid, btw as no else wanted to stay in that monster of the country) instead of trying what the pro-western propaganda made it out to be: creation of some ultranationalistic Greater Serbia, whatever the name is. Do you realize that Croatian and Bosnian Serbs did not want to be slaughtered again like in the WW2 (Jasenovac) and that Milosevic never helped them out (as a matter of fact, we have had an embargo in RS from '94). Hence, I believe you understand that Albanians do not deserve to steal someone's territory because of Milosevic's bad politics (it's not like he was the only one either, what about Tudjman's flirting with Croatian nazi past from the WW2 or Alija Izetbegovic's islamic fundamentalism?), so completely un-deserved independence does not make any sense to me or anyone else who's truly capable of thinking clearly. And how would that make Balkans stable? By completely alienating 8 million Serbs with the intelligence-insulting reasons to grant someone else's land and tradition. It's not gonna happen, the sooner Albanians (term "Kosovar" was invented by the west so that the rape of Serbia can be less obvious to the ignorant international public) get this, the sooner we can start mending the bridges again.

[Okrojsha]

"No...its exactly coexisting...with your...neighbors. The key word here being...neighbors...ie...not in your country. We want to coexist with them...as neighbors...not in our house."

When you provide the court with the documents that you're the rightful owner of the house, then you can decide if you're going to be anyone's neighbor or the eviction follows shortly.

[Kapedani]

When you provide the court with the documents that you're the rightful owner of the house, then you can decide if you're going to be anyone's neighbor or the eviction follows shortly.

When did you become the court?? Where are they're documents?? lol...

Pissing on a tree makes it your own only if you're a dog...it doesn't work in the human world.

Okrojsha...your posts are pretty amusing...from trying to tell us that Serbs fought to protect Yugoslavia, not to create a greater Serbia. That is incredibly funny...especially when you precede it with a statement like "read more about those conflicts". Yes read...but not from idiotic internet sites written by 14 year olds. And then you say Serbs didn't want to be massacred. Massacred by WHO?? FOR WHAT?? If anyone actually lived through those conflicts...which I suspect you aren't one of those...and remember anything from then...this all sounds very funny.

BTW did you know one of the main commanders of Sarajevo's Bosnian Army defense...was a Serb??

Don't try and come here to revise history with idiotic ramblings of kids...like those funny posts a while earlier by an even funnier character...Mark...who STILL thinks the Serbs shot down dozens of Nato aircraft (of course Mark was in diapers at the time of the war...he only knows what he reads on the internet from places like Venik's website...oh what fun days those were when Venik was around the net in 99 telling us all daily updates of NATO aircraft shot down...at least he is smart enough now to have dissapeared for the last 8 years...but new braindeads have sprang up to take his place).

[tzoobee]

Check your numbers again...the poorest is you along with Montenegro.



You'r right...it is sad...not for us anyway...but for you.

you really think so? :) Man the only things albanians have is lots of mercedeses :D A thing that can really explain you mentality :)

[tzoobee]

Albanians are just getting frustrated by the day, cuz Serbia's arguments conserning the Kosovo issue, get stronger from day to day.. Some years ago they were 100% sure that Kosovo will get independent, today things change very quickly :cheers:

[Kapedani]

You guys live in wonderland...

[nero]

You guys live in wonderland...

The things seem to be moving in a certain direction.

Kosovo partition 'on the table'
An international envoy says the partition of Kosovo could be acceptable as a way of breaking the deadlock over the province's future.

The division of the Serbian province has previously been taboo.

But a troika of envoys holding top-level talks on the issue have so far failed to find any compromise acceptable to both Serbia and Kosovo.

EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger said partition could be an option if both sides agreed.

"It is the principle of the troika to be prepared to endorse any agreement which both parties manage to achieve. That includes all options," Mr Ischinger said.

Asked if that included splitting the territory in two, he replied: "If they want that."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6943442.stm

[Dardani6]

when english is your second language please try not to be a master of it. nero do you read the articles you post?

[nero]

when english is your second language please try not to be a master of it. nero do you read the articles you post?

Sure, what's wrong with it?

[Okrojsha]

"When did you become the court?? Where are they're documents?? lol...

Pissing on a tree makes it your own only if you're a dog...it doesn't work in the human world.

Okrojsha...your posts are pretty amusing...from trying to tell us that Serbs fought to protect Yugoslavia, not to create a greater Serbia. That is incredibly funny...especially when you precede it with a statement like "read more about those conflicts". Yes read...but not from idiotic internet sites written by 14 year olds. And then you say Serbs didn't want to be massacred. Massacred by WHO?? FOR WHAT?? If anyone actually lived through those conflicts...which I suspect you aren't one of those...and remember anything from then...this all sounds very funny.

BTW did you know one of the main commanders of Sarajevo's Bosnian Army defense...was a Serb??

Don't try and come here to revise history with idiotic ramblings of kids...like those funny posts a while earlier by an even funnier character...Mark...who STILL thinks the Serbs shot down dozens of Nato aircraft (of course Mark was in diapers at the time of the war...he only knows what he reads on the internet from places like Venik's website...oh what fun days those were when Venik was around the net in 99 telling us all daily updates of NATO aircraft shot down...at least he is smart enough now to have dissapeared for the last 8 years...but new braindeads have sprang up to take his place)."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Considering that you still practice the tribal law in the 21st ct., I could just be the judge for you. Now, seriously, first of all - I am not trying to tell you (you as a particular person) anything, since I do not like to waste my time on the self-righteous, half-literate yet arrogant, provocators. So, this is meant for those who can read and understand that not everything they've seen on TV is necessarily true (it could also be a lecture for you if you are capable of following certain reasoning and logic).

Massacres from the WW2: you need to have a basic understanding of the situation in ex-yu to understand the past war (1991-1995). It suffices for me to say that my own great-grandfather was killed in Jasenovac cont. camp. I do not hate the Croats as a nation (there is no closer people in the ex-yu, both genetically and mentally from Serbs, Croats and/or Bosniaks), but I do despise the ideology of the Ustasha and anyone celebrating it. The same thing goes for Serbian war crimes, both in WW2 and in the 90s. It is only derranged and primitive idiots who could kill women, children and elderly. The point here is that PR firms from the west (check "Rudder & Finn" from NY) painted everything Serbian in the worst possible light and most people not familiar with the area fell for it ("if you say a lie 20 times it'll become the truth"). I think it's particularly disturbing that even some of our neighboring countries obviously think the same, this is just another proof that Serbs indeed have lost the media war, if anything.

As for Jovan Divjak (Serbian-born general of Army of BiH), so what? There were Muslim/Bosniak units (see "Mesa Selimovic brigade" from Derventa) fighting along the Serbs and against Croats and Bosniaks. Hell, there were even two opposing factions in the Bosniak nation. It does not mean anything. As a matter of fact, there were Southerners fighting for the North (Am. Civil War) and vice versa or even English fighting with the colonists against the Great Britain. It certainly does not matter to anyone who had ever read a single book about the warfare or history. My uncle is a Bosnian muslim married to a Serb, should I hate him or her because of that? That's what the problem is, they (world media) have managed to portray Serbia as a "pure, racist country", whereas it is most truly multiethnic society on the area of ex-yu.

And then you have certain Albanians trying to portray themselves as the biggest democrats in the world, and thinking that it is their God-given right to steal the most holy part of the Serbian land. I'm OK with you believing in that crap, just don't try to convince us it's true or for our own good. And remember who your neighbors are, we will always be there even if God almighty signs any so-called independence. Good luck living on the stolen property while waiting for the owner to show up at the door one day.

[Dardani6]

so you're like the crazy mormon neighbor?

[Okrojsha]

Nope, I don't care much for the organized religion, but you know how they say "to each his own". :cheers:

[Kapedani]

Considering that you still practice the tribal law in the 21st ct., I could just be the judge for you.

:nuts: ...oh you're a riot...

And then you have certain Albanians trying to portray themselves as the biggest democrats in the world, and thinking that it is their God-given right to steal the most holy part of the Serbian land.

What is so "holy" about it?? Some Serb dude pissed under a tree a few hundred years ago there??

Dog-mentality and dog-diplomacy don't exactly work to well in human land...

And remember who your neighbors are, we will always be there even if God almighty signs any so-called independence. Good luck living on the stolen property while waiting for the owner to show up at the door one day.

We know who you are...everyone knows who you are...You worked hard to build your reputation.

[RawLee]

If this discussion would generate electricity,or energy of any kind, then we(hungarians),slovaks and romanians would be drowning in energy.

[Dardani6]

Two foreign investors have announced plans for further investment in the search for oil and gas in Albania. The first, Britain's MedOil, has obtained exploration and development rights for hydrocarbons in the Ionian Sea.

At the same time, the international firm Streamoil Gas Limited has signed a contract with the Albanian government regarding the development and production of hydrocarbons at several fields in the country.

Both deals were approved at a cabinet meeting on August 8th.

"These two companies, together with other operating companies in the country, have drastically changed the production of oil in the country, reaching 500,000 tonnes last year," said Prime Minister Sali Berisha. "We expect a further increase this year."

MedOil will be conducting its operations in an area ranging from Karaburun Peninsula to the southernmost Albanian town, Saranda. Official statistics forecast that 1.8 billion barrels of oil reserves can be found. Under the contract, the government will receive between 10% and 60% of the oil revenues, based on the depth of drilling. Analysts estimate that the likely percentage will be between 10% and 12%.

The British firm is investing round $20m in the project over the next seven years. It has the contractual right to exploit the source for 20 years starting from the date oil is found.

Streamoil, meanwhile, will be drilling at the Ballsh-Hekal, Gorisht-Kosur and Cakran-Mollaj fields, as well as at Delvina. The government expects Albpetrol, the state owned company, to triple its income as a result of the Streamoil deal.

There are other foreign investors in the oil industry. Bankers Petroleum, a Canadian-based firm, has been drilling at the Patos-Marinza field since 2004. Bankers has increased its production level to over 4,400 barrels per day at the end of 2006, compared to 600 barrels per day since it took-over the project in July 2004.

Another company, Occidental Petroleum, has been prospecting for oil and natural gas at Mount Shpiragu, 120km south of the capital, since 1991. The search has proved fruitless so far.

Berisha says he is confident about the overall level of foreign direct investment in Albania. "These last weeks we signed several contracts with foreign investors….Their engagement is a clear evidence of foreign companies' focus and determination to invest in Albania."
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2007/08/15/feature-02

[Dardani6]

albania to link italy and western europe with russian and caspian gas. the trans-adriatic pipeline was given the OK by the government today. it will cost 800 million euros and will link western eruope, mainly south and italy with russian and caspian natural gas. it will be build be swiss company EGL which will also build the natural gas pipeline linking italy with albania.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2185/36410787rx0.png

video in albanian
hdp9erTfTaI

[7t]

Great news for sure. The Seman - Bari pipeline along with the 1200 megawat Power Plant in Fier reach a total investment of 2.3 billion $, exceeding the previous 1.9 billion figure which we mentioned a few months back. I'm very glad the government finally approved the project so construction will start pretty soon. What makes this project special is that it has a 20 years concession deal which means after 20 years albanian government will be the sole owner:yes:
And of course, not only will it cover all our Energy needs but it makes us the leading exporter of Natural gas in the region.:cheers:

[joce23]

ALBANIA- 550m euros - two foreign investments in energy and industry

550 million euros is the price tag of two foreign investments in energy sector and Industry, expected to start this year. The government approved the project of ASG, which foresees the construction of energy plant in Seman, and the underwater power line that will connect Albania with Italy. Another valued investment is that of Spaniard company,AGUILA, which is set to build a cement plant in Fushe-Kruje. Only during the last three months the government has approved 2 billion dollars worth of foreign investments. The Executive alsoapproved the new law regarding Agriculture a rural development. According to Berisha rural development is one of government's priority and is closely tied to the country's economical development.

Video: http://www.ibctoday.com/News/ViewNewsItem.aspx?newsItemId=31137&rootVideoPanelType=2&rootRegionId=5#

[7t]

There are actually 2 projects for cement factories proposed in Fushë Krujë, one by the greek company Antea Cement and one by a spanish company Cementos Aguilla, both estimated at 500 million $ with a capacity to produce initially 2 million tons of cement annually each.
There's already a cement company operating in Fushë Krujë owned by Seamant Holding and it produces 1.3 million tons of cement annually.

[joce23]

Electrabel Suez to Invest more than 1bln Euros in Constanta-Based Power Center :cheers:

The Belgian company Electrabel Suez will invest more than 1bln euros in an energy center in Constanta, announced yesterday Alexandru Sandulescu from Ministry of Economy !

More details: http://www.zf.ro/articol_136716/electrabel_belgia_vrea_sa_construiasca_o_termocentrala_de_1_600_mw_la_contanta_.html (romanian)


U.S. oil and gas company Cameron spends $63m to open plant in Romania

U.S.-based company Cameron will fork out 63 million U.S. dollars to invest in the construction of a plant in Romania which will produce surface equipment for the oil and gas industry.
The plant, to be ready next year, will be located in Ploiesti, (central Romania), stretching over 11,500 square meters. About 300 people will be employed here. The plant will produce equipment for markets in Europe, Africa, Russia and several zones in the Mediterranean Sea.

The company’s investment is a logical step, Cameron GM Sheldon Erikson said, adding it took into account current and future projects of the company’s clients.

Cameron is a producer of systems and services to control fluids in the oil and gas industry. It purchased the Sterom plant from Campina, close to Ploiesti, in 1997 and it is currently using it to produce surface equipment for the industry. The company’s headquarters is in Texas, Houston. Its headcount stands at 12,400 people worldwide.

[nebunul]

Global Market Brief: Europe Loosens the Energy Ties that Bind to Russia
August 21, 2007 19 48 GMT


European reliance on the Russian Federation for natural gas supplies -- to the tune of nearly 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2006, or roughly one-fourth of total European natural gas consumption -- has long been one of Moscow's chief levers of influence over European policy and, as such, a key plank in the Kremlin's emerging geopolitical strategy. The strategy has often frustrated U.S. foreign policy (European states are often hesitant to challenge Russia when the Kremlin can cut energy supplies with the turn of a valve), and it has been a constant complication in Russo-European relations as well.

Unfortunately for Russia, however, wielding such influence is a strategy that follows the "You use, you lose" law of international politics. Energy politics work very well in the short term or against states of limited means, but the European Union is a collection of many of the richest and most technologically advanced states on the planet. They have options to reduce their dependence, and lately they have used them. By 2010, the European Union will have reduced that 150 bcm of dependence to a much more manageable 50 bcm, and this number even assumes the European Union fails to achieve much in the way of adopting more renewable energy resources.

The first major (then-Soviet) Russian-European connection was a natural gas pipeline built in the 1980s, something the Reagan administration lobbied hard -- and unsuccessfully -- to prevent. It was not obvious to the Europeans, however, that they had exposed themselves to problems until 2004, when a dispute between Russia and Belarus resulted in a Russian energy cutoff that immediately impacted supplies to Poland and Germany.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7733/94866126xe2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

In subsequent disputes with Ukraine and Belarus, Russian energy exports were disrupted at one time or another to nearly all European states that take Russian exports. Formally, all the disruptions were the result of "commercial disputes," but Europeans -- not to mention Stratfor -- had a hard time swallowing the idea that the Russians were not using their overbearing energy leverage to extract political concessions. The Russian subtext was: We have problems with Belarus and Ukraine (exerting political independence from Russia); should you not help us solve these problems, they will become your problems.

Since then, Europe has proceeded with a host of projects to increase its capacity to import non-Russian natural gas sources. Those projects are beginning to bear fruit and by 2010 enough will be in place to displace two-thirds of the natural gas Russia currently sells to Europe annually. These projects -- all of which are either already completed or well into construction -- include:


Shah Deniz, an 11.5 bcm project that taps offshore Azerbaijani fields in the Caspian Sea and then transports the natural gas across Georgia and Turkey, where the natural gas can be fed to Europe's Balkan states. Shah Deniz became operational this year. The subsequent Poseidon connection will carry some of this natural gas from Greece to Italy.

The 9 bcm Greenstream line will be the first major project to be completed since Libya reconnected with the international community after renouncing its weapons of mass destruction program in 2003. The Greenstream, which is under construction, will run from Libya to Italy and will become operational in 2008.

The Galsi and Medgaz lines will transport Algerian natural gas to Italy and Spain, respectively. Both should be operating at full capacity by 2010. Together, they will supply 18 bcm.

Many EU states are either launching new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals or expanding existing operations. By the end of 2010, 18 new facilities will have started up, with a combined additional capacity of 59 bcm.

Ormen Lange: This new Norwegian field will provide natural gas via the extensive Norwegian natural gas export network, primarily to the United Kingdom. It is already pumping and is expected to meet its maximum output of 20 bcm by 2010.

Combined, these new projects are expected to add 116.5 bcm of natural gas annually to European supplies. Factor in Europe's slowly falling production -- especially in the United Kingdom -- and the net gain should be just shy of 100 bcm, roughly two-thirds of the natural gas supplies that Russia shipped to the 27 current EU members in 2006.
Now, this does not mean Europe has no use for Russia in general or Russian energy in specific. A two-thirds reduction in need for a critical commodity is not the same as an eliminated need, and most European states are only likely to turn up their expensive LNG facilities to maximum capacity in times of emergency. But Europe has two things it did not have four years ago.

The first is options. Having alternatives gives the Europeans bargaining power on everything from supply details to contract negotiations and, as the Russians are likely to discover very soon, the politicization of energy goes both ways. A two-thirds reduction in EU demand will deny Russia a lever on everything from transport to visa deals to trade to strategic treaty negotiations.

The second is a plan to get away from Russia completely that is showing real promise. During her EU presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel negotiated into EU law a new energy policy that aims to reduce total European energy demand by 20 percent by 2020, and to obtain 20 percent of that from renewable power sources. Even partial success in implementing such a strategy would dramatically reduce European demand for energy of all conventional types, most notably the types of conventional energy that come with Russian strings attached.

Two challenges remain. The first, obviously, is for the Russians. A Europe that can say no to Russia on energy can say no to Russia on other things. The European Union is far from having a common voice, but a Europe that simply agrees on a few things -- such as the idea that energy blackmail is bad -- and is willing to put its money where its mouth is amounts to a far more coherent entity than Russia has previously had to deal with. If the Russians cannot influence Europe with energy policies, then they will turn to influencing Europe more bluntly; one possibility is to use Moscow's ample reserve funds to pay for new military gear. Less hostile moves Moscow could make might include using refined oil products or Russia's increasing command of metals markets in the same way Moscow now uses natural gas.

The second challenge is for the belt of new EU members that runs from Estonia in the North to Romania in the South. All of the European Union's new natural gas import plans -- with the possible exception of Shah Deniz -- are designed to service the richer EU states to the west. Nearly all of the remaining 50 bcm of dependence will be in the newer EU members. Put another way, the states most concerned about Russia seeking political leverage -- the states that used to be in the Soviet Union or Warsaw Pact -- remain just as vulnerable as ever. As the Western European states have demonstrated, if you want energy independence, you have to pay for it.

CHINA: As the official launch of the China Investment Co. (CIC) nears, more information and rumors of its final makeup are emerging. The mainland-based Economic Observer reported recently that a strategic investment subsidiary of the CIC will be set up with a staff of 400. Separately, reports suggest the CIC will draw on staff, expertise and advice not only from the Finance Ministry and the central bank but also from China's National Social Security Fund. As the CIC's launch nears, competition among various segments of the Chinese government is intensifying for control over or a stake in the $200 billion in investment funds in the CIC's hands. What was initially envisioned as a semi-independent investment company answering to the State Council has devolved into another playground for competing economic interests in the Chinese government, increasing the room for corruption and mismanagement.

RUSSIA: Russia's premier military aviation exhibition, MAKS, launched Aug. 21 with several billion in sales expected in the next few days. At the exhibition, Moscow unveiled United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), the Russian government's new holding company for dozens of aerospace-related firms. The government aims for the state entity to become the world's third-largest civilian aircraft manufacturer and produce 4,500 aircraft worth approximately $250 billion by 2025. This would require the firms comprising UAC to expand their output of civilian planes by a factor of 27. UAC's largest market will be the captive Russian market, plus the bulk of the former Soviet Union -- a large swathe of territory linked by little but a few rail lines, which makes air travel very attractive. Safety standards in the former Soviet Union do not mirror those in the West (and, increasingly, in Asia), which largely prevent Russian aircraft from competing.

MEXICO: Hurricane Dean hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, near the city of Chetumal, early Aug. 21 as a Category 5 storm. The hurricane had weakened to a Category 2 as of 10 a.m. local time after moving over land. The center of the storm is expected to reach the southern Gulf of Campeche by early afternoon, where Mexico's Cantarell oil field is located. Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said Aug. 20 that it has evacuated its more than 14,000 offshore workers and shut down production at its offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Campeche in anticipation of Hurricane Dean. Pemex said the closure will result in a production loss of 2.7 million barrels of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The storm also closed three Gulf ports, which export 1.7 million barrels of oil a day. No information is available on when the facilities will be reopened. If Cantarell is significantly damaged by the storm, Mexico could cut exports more extensively, but repairs likely would be made in a timely manner with some outside assistance.

NIGERIA: A dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed Aug. 17 in Nigeria's oil capital, Port Harcourt, is expected to remain in effect for 10 days. Nigeria's army and police forces remain on the streets in the Niger Delta city to enforce the curfew. The security personnel are expected to be deployed for a possible six months in Port Harcourt to rein in the militant group violence that erupted Aug. 11. The deployment of the army and police forces follows an early morning raid Aug. 16 against Soboma George, the leader of the Rivers State faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), aimed at ending the intergang violence and militant attacks that led to a quarter of Nigeria's oil output being shuttered since MEND launched its campaign in December 2005.

INDIA: The bulk of India's refineries and oil fields could be forced off line due to approximately 45,000 officers from 12 state-owned oil companies threatening to begin a major labor strike Aug. 21. The Oil Sector Officers' Association says promises that the federal government and oil company officials made to the laborers of state-run oil companies have not been fulfilled. The oil union is demanding that payment methods and pension funding be revised according to its members' needs. So far, negotiations between the union and government and state oil company officials have reached an impasse, with both sides hung up over a proposed interim relief payment to oil field officers. The strike, should it go into effect, could mean huge losses -- some estimates are at $320 million per day -- for the oil companies. This could effectively paralyze all major operations in the country, including the refueling of aircraft.

KAZAKHSTAN, TURKMENISTAN, CHINA: Chinese President Hu Jintao signed a series of agreements with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan during his Aug. 17-20 official visit to Kazakhstan. The two most critical projects supported by the leaders involve oil and natural gas links among the three countries. One agreement involves the final phase of an oil pipeline between Kazakhstan and China, which will allow Kazakhstan to ultimately ship 1 million barrels per day into western China. The second project will transport Turkmen natural gas to China via a pipeline through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. China will not be exploiting new sources of oil and natural gas in the region, instead diverting resources that would otherwise have been shipped to Russia. As such, the agreements mark a significant shift in the regional power structure as China moves into an arena that Russia has thus far dominated.

[budallah33]

That shah Deniz project is the one croasing Albania.On the map is a curb that links Turkey with Italy through Greece .Usually pipelines form as straight as possible line not, curbs.Curbs add unnessesary costs.That one is the one that an Albanian forumer writes in this thread which costs 800 mil dollars.Its a very comppetitive project.Greece is making the imposible to let the pipeline not croassing Albanian territories because this will give Albania an strategic position in this part of europe and money from taxes you get from the pipeline.The proposed Greek version of pipeline is at least 200 km longer and ending in Greek island of Kerkira.Albania has the support of Tukey,Azerbaijan and Italy over the route.The other advantage is that from Albania only 80 km of pipeline go through sea bottom in a max depth of 800m compared with 212 km seabed and 2000m depth in greek version.Clearly the ALBANIAN version is dominant over the Greek one but anything can happen.:cheers:

[Dardani6]

i think also the greenstream pipeline will cross albania as the natural gas facility being built near fier will use natural gas from there. after being refined the gas will be transported via underwater pipeline to italy

[Gummo]

budala!?!
:rofl:

[budallah33]

Rusian Gazprom as well trying to have their own reserve pipeline through Albanian territories to Italy.Carries less seabeed pipeline which offers more technical security.Their main pipeline will link directly Greece and Italy.But if a fault happen in the sea bed pipeline repairing it is a costly effort.It remains to be seen what Gazprom will do.Albania is trying to lure some of these bussines through offering free land to build their gas deposits.(the land in not agriculture one, are salted areas).As always the competitor is Greece with Albanian advantage of been in shorter distance from Italian cost.Sending the pipelines through Greek territories to Italy is like trying to catch left ear with left hand, going through the right side.

[joce23]

EU unified in support of Nabucco pipeline project - EU energy commisioner

VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - European Union energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that all of the EU's 27 member states, including Hungary, stand behind the planned Nabucco pipeline project.
Piebalgs told participants at the European Forum conference in Alpbach, Austria that Nabucco represents a 'strategic project' for the future of gas prices in Europe and confirmed that former Dutch foreign minister Jozias van Aartsen will in all likelihood be named the EU's coordinator for the project, the Austrian news agency APA reports.

It would be 'dangerous' if the gas-importing states of Europe were dependent on a state-controlled monopoly as their supplier, as such a situation could lead to politically-motivated shortages in gas supplies, the news agency quotes Piebalgs as saying.
According to APA, Piebalgs said that while Russia is not particularly welcoming towards Nabucco, he thinks this stance is natural and presents no problems and that the main challenge associated with realising the Nabucco project lies in securing gas supplies in the Middle East.
The planned pipeline project is led by Austria's OMV AG, with Hungary's MOL Nyrt, Turkey's Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, and Romania's Transgaz equal partners


U.S.-Azerbaijan Cooperating on Possible Expansion of Trans-Caspian Pipeline

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- In its latest effort to wean itself from dependence on the Middle East for its energy needs and to counter rival Russia's influence in resource-rich Central Asia, the United States has signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to examine the feasibility of expanding the so-called Trans-Caspian Pipeline project to transport oil and gas from the region.

The remote and isolated nations of Central Asia are the new playing field in the battle for control of the world's dwindling resources of natural gas and crude oil, and Azerbaijan, wedged between Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea, is a gateway for Western access to the region's energy.


The feasibility study, at a cost of $1.7 million to be borne by the U.S. government, would judge the merits of a project to connect Kazakh oil fields to a proposed pipeline beneath the Caspian Sea, while also assessing a possible pipeline that would send additional natural gas to Europe from Central Asia.

Despite the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Russia continues to loom large over the former Soviet states in Central Asia, mostly asserting dominance in its iron-fisted control of oil and gas through its state-controlled energy firm Gazprom.

The Trans-Caspian Pipeline construction projects, partnerships involving Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and both the United States and the European Union, aim to pry Russian fingers off the Caspian's gas and oil taps so that control of the region's reserves will be diversified.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Daniel Sullivan traveled this month to Azerbaijan's capital Baku for talks to negotiate the latest feasibility study, which is seen as part of the U.S. strategy to integrate the economies of the resource-rich Central Asia and Caspian countries while also minimizing the influence of China and Russia on their mostly autocratic governments.

Speaking at the American Education Center in Baku Aug. 16, Sullivan reiterated the long-term U.S. interests in the region, which include democratic reforms, and cooperation on security and in the energy sector.

"It is time to start a new phase of energy development in the Caspian region," he said.

The grant will fund feasibility studies on two pipelines across the Caspian Sea. One would deliver oil from Kazakhstan to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which currently pumps Azerbaijani crude to Turkey. The other would ship gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan across the Caspian to feed the South Caucasus Pipeline, which also connects to Turkey.

Both could be part of the larger $3 billion, 1,200-mile Trans-Caspian Pipeline project that would carry 16 billion cubic meters of Turkmen and Azeri natural gas to Turkey and 14 billion cubic meters to Europe every year.

Azerbaijan's state oil company president Rovnag Abdullayev hailed the feasibility study grant as a "further consolidation of regional and international energy security," noting it would also help increase the role and significance of Azerbaijan in European energy security.

U.S. Trade and Development Agency representative James Wilderotter, signing on behalf of Washington, said the agreement is significant in light of existing projects.

"We hope to see oil and gas transportation from the East to the West via trans-Caspian pipelines soon," he said.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan was the first among the South Caucasus and Central Asian countries to aggressively assert its independence from Russia through control of its natural resources, moving swiftly to sign deals and negotiate favorable tariffs with a range of partners that includes Iran as well as Europe and the United States.

Among the other regional energy projects on the drawing board is a nearly $7 billion, 2,485-mile Nabucco natural gas pipeline project that has already been endorsed by the energy ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, as well as European Union Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

Earlier this year, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev sent a loud and clear signal to the Kremlin in protest to high tariffs assessed by Gazprom by canceling a contract to transport oil through a pipeline linking Baku to Novorossiysk in Russia.

President Aliyev also participated in a high-profile energy summit in Krakow in May, joining his counterparts from Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania and Poland, as well as a representative from Kazakhstan, in signing a communiqué on energy cooperation.

"We provide strong political support to this project and would like to play a great role in energy security of Europe," Aliyev said in a very public statement from Krakow, renewing Azerbaijan's readiness to participate in yet another pipeline project, this one to transport crude oil across Ukraine from Odessa, on the Black Sea, to Brody, near the Polish border.

The summit, held even as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was on a tour of Central Asia, was loudly condemned in the Russian media as "anti-Russian," though experts suggest that Baku's energy independence has not yet become a serious irritant to Russia.

"Even with increased volumes of oil and gas, Azerbaijan will not be able to seriously compete with Russia at the European markets," Ilham Shaban, a Baku-based energy expert and the editor of the daily Turan-Energy bulletin, told World Politics Review in an exclusive interview. "Turkmen gas and significant volumes of Kazakh oil are another story. Here Russia will fight till the end."

Russia might be more worried about Azerbaijan's nascent reconciliation with Turkmenistan, which could lead to a resumption of negotiations over a stalled TCP project that could transport some 32 billion cubic meters of gas annually. The decade-old project, which was intensively lobbied for by the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, had been frozen since 2000 due to a dispute over export quotas.

Considerable warming of ties between the two countries has come in the aftermath of the death of Turkmen dictator Saparmurad Niyazov earlier this year, with new President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov resuming telephone contact with his Azeri counterpart and stating a willingness to reconcile. The thaw was formalized in May in a visit to Ashgabat by Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and symbolized by plans to reopen the Turkmen diplomatic mission in Baku, closed for nearly six years.

"Azerbaijan itself has enough oil and gas for export over the next decade, and conceivably longer, for significant revenues," noted Shaban. "It would also be lucrative and strategic to become a transit country in the export of Turkmen gas."

Both Washington and Brussels have moved quickly to capitalize on the change of power in Turkmenistan, hoping to reinforce existing positions in Central Asia and to unlink Europe's resource supplies from the Russian energy monopoly by developing pipelines that bypass Russia to transport Turkmen gas.

Such moves have been coldly received by Russia, which has moved to consolidate control over reserves in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, countries that are less bold in their declarations of independence from the Kremlin. During his Central Asian tour in May, Putin locked in deals with the two governments, effectively blocking the TCP for the time being.

The United States was quick to downplay any overt signs of hostility in the struggle for control of the Caspian oil basin during the recent negotiations in Baku, but made its intentions clear.

"Our goal is not confrontation with Russia or Gazprom on the Caspian Sea," one of Sullivan's assistants, Matthew Bryza, told at press conference in Baku.

"We hope for cooperation and we would like to establish our relationships on the basis of fair competition. The United States is still interested in direct gas supplies from the Caspian region to Europe."

Still, Baku, Ashgabat and Astana will all be carefully watching the actions of both Moscow and Washington as they weigh the proposals to capitalize on their resource riches, mindful that feasibility studies do not always lead to actual projects.


WTF are you doing posting a photo of US Army helicopter on the eastern Europe energy thread then? I'm just being curious. :cheers:
^^ On a serious note: energy and security are to inseparable things these days; I do not have to explain more I hope ...

In fight for Black Sea Russia is ready to go to the end: Dr. Nejat Tarakci
20 August 2007 | 15:26 | FOCUS News Agency

Moscow. After the end of the Cold War NATO reached the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Acceding first Romania and Bulgaria to the Alliance, the West enlarged its influence in the region, and its next step is to make Georgia and Ukraine NATO members, writes Dr. Nejat Tarakci, a collaborator in the International Relations Department at Izmir University of Economics. The translation of the material is published on the Russian online edition www.vlasti.net.
The analysis reminds of the Crimean War 150 years ago, when for the first time the West, in the face of Great Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire, unites against Russia to protect its strategic interest in Europe.
…As to the balance of powers of the Black Sea after the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the West, with the US ahead, gradually integrates almost all former Soviet satellites (with the exception of Transnistria, Belarus and Ukraine). With their accession to NATO, EU, IMF, WTO or the World Bank all of them are practically included in one global system where the borders of the West practically reach Russia. From here on the US main objective is cooperation with the EU. So the Black Sea becomes the most important part of the geo-strategic axis which stretches from the west to the east.
As to the issue of safe energy supplies from the Caspian region to western Europe, US oil and gas giants are preparing for a serious clash with the Russian energy companies. In this clash the Russian project together with Bulgaria and Greece on Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline becomes topical. The US is trying to entirely exclude Russia from its participation in the transport of Kazakh and Turkmen gas along the bottom of the Caspian Sea and on the territory of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

[joce23]

the bomb news of the day in Romania ... very big surprise :eek2:

KazMunayGas and Rompetrol Holding SA Announce the Acquisition by KazMunayGas of a 75% Interest in The Rompetrol Group NV

Patriciu will receive $2.71bn for this transaction


Today KazMunayGas ("KMG", LSE: KMG, KASE: RDGZ) announced it has signed a binding share purchase agreement to acquire from Rompetrol Holding SA (Switzerland) a 75% equity interest in Netherlands-based The Rompetrol Group NV ("TRG", BVB: RRC, PTR), assessed at an enterprise value of 3,616 million US$. Rompetrol Holding will continue to hold the remaining 25% equity in TRG. The sale was the culmination of a 7 month private auction process conducted by Morgan Stanley's London-based Energy Group. The sale is conditional upon approval of the European Commission and other relevant competition authorities. The two shareholders anticipate that their agreement will be approved with enthusiasm as they are confident that it meets all the regulatory requirements and that the company will significantly contribute to the security of European energy supplies. The agreement was signed in Almaty on 24th of August.

ASTANA and AMSTERDAM, August 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Today KazMunayGas ("KMG", LSE: KMG, KASE: RDGZ) announced it has signed a binding share purchase agreement to acquire from Rompetrol Holding SA (Switzerland) a 75% equity interest in Netherlands-based The Rompetrol Group NV ("TRG", BVB: RRC, PTR), assessed at an enterprise value of 3,616 million US$. Rompetrol Holding will continue to hold the remaining 25% equity in TRG. The sale was the culmination of a 7 month private auction process conducted by Morgan Stanley's London-based Energy Group. The sale is conditional upon approval of the European Commission and other relevant competition authorities. The two shareholders anticipate that their agreement will be approved with enthusiasm as they are confident that it meets all the regulatory requirements and that the company will significantly contribute to the security of European energy supplies. The agreement was signed in Almaty on 24th of August.

TRG will be managed jointly by its two shareholders, KMG and Rompetrol Holding. KMG will appoint a majority of TRG's Board, which will reflect the new ownership structure. The two shareholders have decided to appoint Dinu Patriciu as Chairman and CEO of the company to secure continuity of vision and strategy in the management of the company. Mr. Patriciu enjoys the full confidence and support of the shareholders.

This agreement will bring about significant advantages to both shareholders and their respective clients. With this acquisition, one of the largest in its history, KazMunaiGas effectively doubles its refining capability by acquiring access to two TRG's refineries in Romania and significantly increases its retail infrastructure in European markets by acquiring access to 630 gas stations in seven European countries from Georgia to France. TRG has more than four million tons of refining capacity and the capability to distribute more than 7 million tons of oil products annually through its own wholesale and retail networks. Through this agreement, TRG secures long-term access to oil supplies.

TRG CEO Dinu Patriciu stated: "KMG's investment provides TRG with the access to raw materials and finance that the company needs to continue implementing its expansion plans, both through investments in refinery improvement, logistics and sensible well-priced acquisitions. The vision we have for TRG's growth is understood, shared and encouraged by our new partners."

The President of KazMunayGas JSC NC, Uzakbay Karabalin, stated: "The acquisition of a majority stake in TRG provides us with a footprint in important downstream markets in Europe, including France, Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria, as well as the ability to utilize TRG as a platform for future expansion. The company will focus its activities in the high-growth markets of the Black Sea, Balkans and Mediterranean regions. It effectively builds an energy bridge between the oil resources of Kazakhstan and the growing demand for refined products in Central, Eastern and Western Europe. "

KMG's advisors included ABN Amro Bank, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the law firms of Norton Rose (for Dutch and French law) and Wolff Theiss (for Romanian law), technical consultants Purvin & Gertz and environmental consultants ERM. TRG's advisors included Morgan Stanley, AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen (for Dutch law) and Salans (for French and Romanian law).

About KMG

The Joint Stock Company KazMunayGas, the national operator for the exploration, mining, refining and transport of oil resources, represents the interests of the State in the oil and gas sector of Kazakhstan. 100% of the shares of KazMunayGas are owned by the Kazakhstan Holding for the Management of State Assets "Samruk" JSC.

About TRG

The Rompetrol Group N.V. (TRG) is one of the first 25 multinational oil companies in the European Union, according to revenues. TRG is headquartered in Netherlands and most of its operations and assets are located in France, Romania, Spain and South-Eastern Europe. TRG stands for a connection point between the eastern oil resources and the western sale markets, ensuring a constant flow of raw material and responding to the consumers' needs for products at European standards. The Group is active primarily in refining and marketing/downstream, with additional operations in exploration, production and other services for the oil industry. The Group has more than 8000 employees in 13 countries. TRG aims to become one of the greatest independent oil companies in Europe and to contribute to the European energetic security by obtaining a strong position in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea areas.

----------------------

* Patriciu said that he chosed this surprising movement to have more acces to other energetical resources, more investments and more independence on the russian ressources.

What do you guys think about this surprising movement of Patriciu ?

[nebunul]

^^ Good as long as the Russians don't get their hands on it ...

Sale of 75% in Rompetrol turns Patriciu into Romania's richest man
www.zf.ro

Dinu Patriciu chairman and owner of the Rompetrol Group (registered in the Netherlands) has sold a 75% stake in the company for 2.7 billion dollars to Kazakhstan's state-run petroleum company KazMunaiGaz, which had announced their intention to enter the European market several months ago.

Dinu Patriciu confirmed that the deal had been made and added that the group had been appraised at 3.616 billion dollars. He will therefore collect 2.71 billion dollars.

Swiss-based Rompetrol Holding, which is controlled by Patriciu, will retain 25% of Rompetrol group shares (The Rompetrol Group - TRG), and Patriciu will remain in the position of chairman and chief executive.

Rompetrol chairman and chief executive Dinu Patriciu said the deal offers Europe "an energy bridge that does not depend on Russia".

^^ well ... will see ...

[ufonut]

300 wind turbines will be built in Poland by two Polish companies (BOT and Energetyka). They will be located out in the open sea and produce 900 MW of energy. Cost of this investment is around 1.9 billion dollars.

[joce23]

Cofra to invest euro 1.1 bln. in aeolian plants

http://standard.ro/articol_11107/cofra_to_invest_euro_1_1_bln__in_aeolian_plants.html

British investment fund Cofra Group intends to invest some €1.1 billion in the construction of two aeolian power plants with a total capacity of 1,100 MW, the legal representative of the fund in Romania, Sorin Radu, told Business Standard.
The plants are to be built in the Southern region of Dobrodgea and the Eastern region of Moldavia.
“Our only and great demand is that the Romanian state guarantees to maintain the green certificate system for at least 20 years,” Radu said.

Through an intermediary, Continental Wind Partners, Cofra started wind measurements in Romania three years ago. “Romania is the second-best country in Europe for aeolian power production, after Germany,” added Radu. Cofra has already taken official steps for building the pant in Dobrogea. Radu criticized excessive bureaucracy, saying too many authorizations and documents are needed to produce renewable energy.

Cofra made the investment announcement during a press conference yesterday. General Electric (GE) Country Executive for Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova, Carmen Neagu, also attended the conference. She said GE is not yet interested in investments in domestic energy production from regenerative resources, only in equipment sales. Energy producers Rokura group and ENEL have requested aeolian power plants destined for Romania, according to Neagu.

Romanian authorities have ambitious plans regarding the production of green energy, which should represent 33 percent of the national consumption (17 percent of which should be produced by aeolian plants).

Large domestic and international companies, such as Electrica, ENEL, Gaz de France, E.ON, and CEZ announced their intentions to allocate funds for building aeolian power plants in Romania.

[nebunul]

^^ Great news … so slowly but surely will (whole region) be less dependent only on one major supplier/distributor :cheers: . I think its called “market economy” :nuts: … well well … it doesn’t apply everywhere in the world :ohno:

[Делян]

Cofra to invest euro 1.1 bln. in aeolian plants



What's aeolian????

[joce23]

aeolian=eolian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eolian_processes) :)

[pescarush]

^^
300 wind turbines will be built in Poland by two Polish companies (BOT and Energetyka). They will be located out in the open sea and produce 900 MW of energy. Cost of this investment is around 1.9 billion dollars.

[COTNARI]

^^ :banana:

yes!!! Great!!!

And here you have a small step:

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/372602.jpg

[joce23]

EUR 35 bln investment in energy in 2007-2020

published in issue 4013 page 7 at 2007-09-06
http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=business&id=20070905-510716


The Government on Wednesday approved the national strategy in the energy sector spanning the 2007-2020 period providing for investments of nearly EUR 35 bln in upgrading energy plants and in environmental programmes, EUR 4 bln more than the initially suggested allocation, Mediafax informs.

The sector that calls for the highest investment is electricity, with an estimated value of EUR 17 bln that would be paid on opening new generation units such as the completion of nuclear reactors number 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

The majority of the amount will be steered towards the generation of electricity – EUR 8.6 bln.

The Project developed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) dwells on hydro-generation as Romania does have a technically usable waterpower of 36,000 GWh/year. The estimate investment in the project in the area of natural gas amount to EUR 1.527 bln for increasing warehousing capacity, discovering new pockets of natural gas and restoring the national gas transportation system and distribution networks.

According to the strategy, the oil sector needs an investment of EUR 3.18 bln for exploration and production, to keep production at 210,000 barrels oil equivalent per day, cut production costs to under USD 9 / boe as well as to reach a reserve replacement arte of 70 per cent. The mining sector on the other hand needs EUR 2.2 bln in investment to close down unviable mines, modernise existing mines and open new ones.

Amounts to be invested in the protection of the environment total EUR 2.6 bln, and EUR 2.5 bln for the improvement of energy efficiency that is less than half the one reported in the rest of Europe. The opening of new facilities to generate energy by using renewable resources will come at a cost of EUR 1.8 bln. The conclusions of the strategy advise on the conclusion of long-term contracts for the acquisition of import natural gas to hedge the risk of possible cessation of supply, with the due respect given to competition regulations as well as of long-term contracts for domestic coal suppliers that would give them access to financial markets.

Coal-based energy generation and nuclear energy - main options

The coal-based and nuclear energy production are the two most important options that Romania has in the future, given the higher hydro-carbon prices forecast in the coming years and its dependence on a single gas import source, according to the MEF representatives. An assessment of the state of play in the industry shows that Romania holds notable coal resources that have a relatively good capability of being turned into energy which are positive points in support of the development of the energy sector on a long term. The MEF officials state hat the approval of the strategy will be followed by the preparation of the privatization of the Turceni, Rovinari and Craiova energy complexes as well as the exploration of the opportunity of building an energy plant in Jiu Valley. Investors who may be interested in taking part in the completion of Cernavoda reactors 3 and 4 are expected to put in their bids before the end of October

[COTNARI]

:banana: The second reactor of the Cernavoda nuclear plant is't now at full capacity. The nuclear plant gives now 18% of the Romanian electric power.

[nebunul]

Petrom says discovers new oil and gas reservoirs :banana:
Thu Sep 6, 2007 3:16PM BST

BUCHAREST, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Romania's biggest oil firm Petrom, owned by Austria's OMV said it discovered new reservoirs of oil and gas onshore and in the Black Sea this year.
"These discoveries are the result of a succesful implementation of our exploration strategy, of the significant investments we are making," Johann Pleininger, member of Petrom's executive board said in a statement.
It said the Delta 4 well in the Black Sea, which should come on stream in 2009, confirmed a daily flow rate of around 2,800 barrels oil equivalent a day.

It said the Delta 4 is the second large discovery of oil and gas after the Torcesti deposit was found. Tests revealed that the Torcesti gas and condensate discovery, due to begin production in October, has a daily output of 900 boe.
Petrom, which has a production target of 210,000 boe per day by 2010, said it also discovered gas and condensate in the "Mamu 4320" well, oil in "900 Ochiuri", oil and gas in "Abramut" and gas in the "7W Predesti".



Romania's Hidroelectrica sees rating lifted - S&P
06 September 2007

Improving economic conditions in Romania plus electricity market deregulation have given a boost to the business risk prospects of hydro utility Hidroelectrica in the eyes of credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P).
The agency has raised its long-term corporate credit rating on Hidroelectrica, and added that the outlook was positive, especially given its relatively low-cost hydro power asset base.
Next year the government is expected to list Hidroelectrica on the Bucharest stock exchange, which should lift the utility's liquidity from its relatively weak position, S&P said.
However, given Hidroelectrica's exposure to fluctuations in generation volumes and market prices, S&P added that the utility's cashflow remained inherently volatile - and would be especially so in the face of lower prices or increased hydrological risk.
S&P's view on the credit profile comes as the utility is planning to take on more debt for a refurbishment programme. Though its balance sheet would be weighed by the debt, there are opportunities for increased earnings from growing demand as well as the phase-out of the remaining regulated power sales deals, noted S&P.
The agency further noted that while the utility's low cost base and improving market conditions together with sales opportunities held some potential for a further upgrade of the credit rating, it cautioned that general business difficulties could cause the outlook to slip - as could the divestment of hydro power plants. S&P emphasised that the hydro power assets were considered to be core to the utility's operations.

www.waterpowermagazine.com

[joce23]

Romanian oil tycoon Dinu Patriciu says Rompetrol to 'aggressively' pursue Balkan purchases

The Associated Press
Published: September 6, 2007

BUCHAREST, Romania: Romanian oil tycoon Dinu Patriciu, who recently sold a controlling stake in the country's second-largest oil company to Kazakhstan state company KazMunaiGaz, said Thursday the company now needed to "aggressively" pursue other acquisitions in the Balkans.

Amsterdam-based Rompetrol will likely go after Serbia's state-owned oil company NIS, said Patriciu, who remains chairman and CEO of the Rompetrol Group. Last year the Serbian government delayed the company's privatization until after elections.

"It is our intention to ... become a Mediterranean company with distribution and refining from Georgia to Spain," Patriciu told The Associated Press in an interview.

"We have presence in 12 countries ... and we will continue aggressively our policy of acquisition and consolidation in the Balkans. NIS will be a prime target for us," he said, adding it would also pursue other, unspecified acquistions in Europe.

The International Monetary Fund has made the sale of NIS a condition for its supporting Serbia's transition to a market economy, and warned it might suspend credit if two refineries were not sold by October.

Rompetrol sold a 75 percent stake to KazMunaiGaz on Aug. 24 for an undisclosed sum, doubling the Kazakh company's refining capacity and giving it a presence in Europe. The value of Rompetrol before the sale was given at US$3.6 billion (€2.65 billion), which suggested the sale price was likely US$2.7 billion (€1.99 billion) — a figure Patriciu declined to confirm. The sale still needs approval from European Union regulators.

Patriciu has been praised for getting a good price for his shares, which managing director of the Romanian branch of Russian oil company LukOil, Constantin Tampiza, said was due to the fact that the Kazakh company was also interested in Romanian refinery Petromedia, near the Black Sea, as well as another refinery in the southern city of Ploiesti.

Rompetrol is a major Balkan energy player, with 8,000 employees and 630 gas stations in seven countries including Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Spain, Moldova and France.

Patriciu said he sold the controlling stake in order to expand Rompetrol as a leading player in the Black Sea and Mediterranean, and to develop alternative energy sources to Russian imports for Europe.

"The danger for Europe is to become too dependent on (Russian) reserves and transportation systems," said the 57-year-old Patriciu, puffing on a cigar and sipping a cafe latte in his office on downtown Calea Victoriei.

He said the sale to KazMunaiGaz seemed "almost natural — an oil supplier with a refiner in Europe and an alternative supplier from the Black Sea. That is the main feature of this deal."

Kazakhstan has huge oil reserves and is the second-largest oil producer among former Soviet republics, behind Russia. Its oil industry has attracted foreign investment, including from companies such as U.S energy giant Chevron, thanks in part to liberal laws that allow 100-percent foreign ownership of Kazkahstan-based companies.

Moscow's reputation as an energy supplier was damaged by sudden oil and gas shutdowns at the start of 2006 and 2007, amid politically charged price fights with ex-Soviet neighbors. The shutdowns led to shortfalls in supplies to EU countries.

Both European and American officials have accused Moscow of using its energy might as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Russia's OAO Gazprom is seeking to boost its European presence further with gas transit and distribution deals, including through share acquisitions in European companies.

Romania's "dependence on Russian sources three years ago was almost total. Ninety percent of our crude was coming from Russia. Today it has been reduced to only 70 percent. To create an alternative supply was a condition" of the Rompetrol sale, he said.

Patriciu said he planned to list Rompetrol shares on a foreign stock exchange, and was "almost sure that will be London." The decision was still being discussed among the company's partners, he said.

On Wednesday, Rompetrol was cleared of wrongdoing by the Romanian securities regulators after a surge of more than 14 percent Rompetrol Rafinare SA shares less than an hour before the Aug. 27 announcement that the refiner's parent company had a new majority owner.

"In Romania rumors get around quicker than news," said Patriciu, a former architect and leading member of the Liberal Party. He said, however, he intended to move away from politics.

[CrazySerb]

I don't think Rompetrol can afford NIS.
It will most likely be bought by domestic tycoons or some Russian company.

[PyRoMaNiAc]

I don't think Rompetrol can afford NIS.
It will most likely be bought by domestic tycoons or some Russian company.
Domestic tycoons won't be allowed to compete in the eventual tender because none of them are involved in the oil and gas industry, which automatically disqualifies them from the competition.

[7t]

How much oil does Romania produce annually?

[joce23]

^^ ... not sufficiently much ... you find the answer in this article :

The makers and breakers on Romania energy market

http://english.hotnews.ro/The-makers-and-breakers-on-Romania-energy-market-articol_45786.htm

Known as a country with a rich tradition in crude and natural gas production as well as in oil exports, Romania now faces a fast decline in production and energy reserves. Additionally, much of its energy sector is privately controlled or is about to be privatized. HotNews.ro presents the energy map of Romania, with the most important makers and breakers on the market.

Dependency on Russian imports

Romania can now cover only 35-40 percent of its energy needs from its own resources. The rest is mainly conditioned by imports from Russia.

Romania’s crude reserves were evaluated at about 80 million tons last year but are expected to drop some 6.6 times down to 12 million tons by 2025m according to the Romania’s draft Energy Strategy for the period of 2007-2020.

When it comes to natural gas, the reserves are evaluated at about 162 billion cubic meters this year but expected to drop to 141 billion cubic meters by 2010 and 77 billion cubic meters by 2020, according to the same Strategy.

Romania's crude and gas production

• Crude production dropped from 14.7 million tons in 1976, the year of highest production, to 5 million tons in 2006. As deposits have been depleting, the crude production was reporting annual drops of 2-4 percent while the degree of replacement of used reserves is not expected to exceed 15-20 percent.
• Natural gas production stood at 12.3 billion cubic meters in 2006 and covered 69 percent of the total annual national consumption. Gas production can report annual drops of 2-5 percent as deposits get poorer. The replacement degree is expected to stand at about 15-30 percent.

OIL MARKET

Petrom

The largest energy company in Romania is Petrom, owned 51 percent by Austrian group OMV. The Romanian state still holds a participation of 30.862 percent in the company. Petrom controls oil and gas reserves evaluated at about 1 billion barrels in oil equivalent.

In 2005, the company produced in Romania 5.21 million tons of crude and gasoline and 5.19 billion cubic meters of natural gas, the equivalent of 77.95 million barrels in oil equivalent. In Romania, petrom holds concession rights over 19 exploitation, development and production areas and some 400 commercial deposits of oil and gas respectively.

The company operates some 15,000 oil and gas drilling pits on Romanian territory (onshore) and 7 offshore platforms in the Black Sea. It controls two refineries, Arpechim and Petrobrazi, with an annual capacity of 8 million tons.

Rompetrol

It is the second most important oil company in Romania. Monday August 27, 2007 Rompetrol Group president Dinu Patriciu announced the sale of 75 percent in the group to Kazakh company KazMunayGaz for a price evaluated unofficially at over 2 billion US dollars.

Rompetrol owns two refineries, Vega Ploiesti and Petromidia. The latter has a refining capacity of over 4 million tons of crude and can distribute more than 7 million tons of oil products annually through its own distribution network.

Rompetrol hopes that by the end of 2007 its market share would rise from 15 percent in 2006 to 20 percent. Rompetrol has a network of over 630 gas stations in Romania, France, Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. By 2009, Rompetrol plans to reach a business figure of 12 billion US dollars.

Once it entered the Western market by taking over French company Dyneff, Rompetrol aims at expanding in the Balkans as well, where it eyes taking over Serbian state-controlled oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS).

RAFO Onesti

The second biggest refinery in Romania in terms of processing capacity, Rafo Onesti boasts a rather complicated recent history. Privatized in 2001, successively changing owners and managers, Rafo found itself at the center of huge scandals that affected activities there seriously.

Relaunched in August 2007, Rafo now works at maximum capacity (3.6 million tons annually). The company will be managed by Petrochemical Holding company, controlled by Calder-A, where Iakov Goldovskiy is a majority shareholder. He bought Balkan Petroleum Limited, which on its turn bought the majority stake in RAFO from the Romanian state.

Lukoil

The Russian company controls the Petrotel-LUKoil refinery, the majority stake of which it bought in 1998.

NATURAL GAS MARKET

In the field of natural gas, Romania still is a state monopoly when it comes to the exploitation of its deposits. The state company operating in this sector, Romgaz, is a conglomerate that controls 3600 production drills, 5 subterranean supply deposits with an actual capacity of 2,550 million cubic meters/cycle and over 1,900 kilometers of pipelines.

The Government has been repeatedly announcing its plans to privatize Romgaz. The price evaluated for about half of the company stands at some 350 million euro. The investor interest in this company is high after the Russian gas crisis hit regions across Europe recently.

The company’s financial results also make it one of the most valuable companies the Romanian state is privatizing.

ENERGIE ELECTRICA

The biggest electricity producer in Romania is Hidroelectrica. The company controls 326 hydropower plants, 365 dams and 20 hydro-aggregates.

With an average annual production of 19772 GWh generated in 12 subsidiaries, Hidroelectrica provides some 22-33% of Romania’s total energy production.

Many of its hydropower plants need investments in improving their technologies. Hidroelectrica plans to invest some 1.3 billion RON in this regard to improve its power deliveries by 61 MW.

Another energy producer is Termoelectrica. With a power of about 5,500 MW, its worn-out installations and the lack of investments in updating them has led to less viability of its working groups.

Some 70-85% of the installed capacity is outdated and available power capacity dropped by 60-90% from its initial potential. The lack of financial resources did not allow the management to provide investments in mending and upgrading operations.

The state plans to privatize a series of thermal energy plants, which are to be assimilated to the energy complexes in Turceni, Craiova and Rovinari.

When it comes to guaranteeing its energy independence, Romania’s bet goes on nuclear energy. For the time being, a single reactor operates at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant on river Danube, with an installed power of 770 MW covering some 10% of Romania’s energy needs.

A second reactor with the same capacity and the same Canadian model (CANDU) is to start production before the end of 2007.

[joce23]

Bulgaria Eager to Join Caspian Oil & Gas Transport Corridors
http://international.ibox.bg/comment/id_973925194
Updated on: 14.09.2007, 10:56
Published on: 14.09.2007, 10:48

©Author: Vladimir Socor, Eurasia Daily Monitor

On September 10 Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivailo Kalfin outlined the country’s goals to join transport corridors for Caspian oil and gas. Kalfin spoke in the wake of an official visit to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the first such visit by a senior Bulgarian official in more than a decade. Bulgaria is eager to join either Russian-led or Western transport projects, depending on opportunities at hand, amid weak policy guidance from the European Union.

In Kazakhstan, Kalfin discussed possible terms for that country’s participation in the Bulgarian section of the Burgas-Alexandropolis oil pipeline project. To run from Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast to the Greek Aegean Sea, this is the first Russian state-controlled pipeline project in European Union territory. Transneft, Rosneft, and GazpromNeft hold a combined 51% stake, with Transneft as project operator. Bulgaria and Greece hold initially 24.5% each, with the right to sell portions of their stakes to oil companies that would co-finance the construction and use the pipeline to ship their oil.

Kalfin confirms the prediction made when the inter-governmental agreements were signed (see EDM, March 2, 16) that this project is mainly intended for oil from Kazakhstan. As he notes, the Burgas-Alexandropolis pipeline is a prolongation of the Caspian Consortium’s pipeline (CPC) that runs from Kazakhstan to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The Kazakh oil would be shipped from Novorossiysk by tankers to Burgas and from there by pipeline to Greece and the open sea.

The project’s fourfold strategic goal is to increase Russian physical control over the transit of Kazakh oil, Russian state rents from that oil’s transportation, Russian political leverage over U.S. and European oil majors that have no other outlet from Kazakhstan, and Russian economic and political clout within Bulgaria and Greece.

Unsurprisingly, the temptation is high for Bulgaria, which desperately needs the transit revenue and is unable to co-finance construction of the pipeline’s section on its territory. Bulgaria would eagerly sell part of its stake to Kazakhstan’s oil and gas state company KazMunayGaz and would undoubtedly also consider such a deal with a Western company that extracts oil in Kazakhstan. There, Chevron in particular is under Russian pressure to co-finance the Burgas-Alexandropolis pipeline’s construction, for the uncertain privilege of exporting ChevronTexaco-extracted oil from Kazakhstan via Russia. Meanwhile, TNK-BP discusses using the Burgas-Alexandropolis pipeline for the oil that the company extracts in Russia and ships out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

As Moscow stacked the cards on this project, oil-producing companies involved in Central Asia and using this pipeline are reduced to minority status while Russian state companies that do not use the pipeline hold the control over it.

The Burgas-Alexandropolis project competes against the European Union-backed Constanta (Romania)-Trieste pipeline project, which would provide access for Kazakh oil to the open seas through the Adriatic at Trieste or the nearby Croatian Omisalj. The Constanta-Trieste/Omisalj project is a late-starter and less fleshed out than its rival at this point. Implicit in this project is an intent to bypass Russia’s territory. KazMunayGaz and Western companies would ship their oil from Kazakhstan across the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan to Georgia, using Georgian Black Sea terminals to forward the oil to Constanta and into a pipeline to the Adriatic.

Moreover, Burgas-Alexandropolis is a rival to the planned export of Kazakh oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. This U.S.-backed plan would see the BTC line used at full capacity -- indeed expanding its capacity -- and for a longer period of time than earlier envisaged. The prerequisite is to develop a massive trans-Caspian transport system westward. However, Russia seeks to absorb the lion’s share of Kazakhstan’s future oil into the Russian-controlled CPC pipeline northward. To do so, Moscow must provide an outlet to the open sea from CPC and Novorossiysk that would avoid the over-congested Bosporus.

By the same token, the availability of an outlet from Burgas to Alexandropolis would enable Russian companies to continue shipping their oil through Ukraine’s Brody-Odessa pipeline into the Black Sea. Such “reverse-use” contravenes this pipeline’s rationale, which was to ship Caspian oil northward, from Odessa to Brody and onward to Poland.

In sum, a Burgas-Alexandropolis pipeline would allow Russia to expand the CPC pipeline’s capacity and prolong it across the Balkans, absorb even more Kazakh oil, prevent Ukraine from transiting Caspian oil to Europe, and reinforce its near-monopoly on oil transport in a vast corridor from Central Asia into European Union territory.

Chronically weak leadership in Brussels has led to a situation in which EU member countries Bulgaria and Greece join this Russian-backed competing project. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is due to visit Romania in November to discuss the EU-backed project. However, Kalfin on his visit to Astana invited Nazarbayev to Bulgaria as well for discussions on KazMunayGaz’s participation in the Burgas-Alexandropolis project.

[joce23]

France wants to join Nabucco
14.09.2007

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Gaz de France wanted to join the Nabucco project to build a trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline bypassing Russia.

The $6 billion pipeline project is expected to link energy-rich Central Asia to Europe through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009, so that the pipeline could go on stream in 2012.

The statement the president made during his visit to Hungary was confirmed by Jean-Marie Dauger, managing director of the French energy company.

The European Union expects the project to diversify its supply routes away from Russia and to boost European energy security.

Nabucco, planned as an arm of the South Caucasus pipeline, is seen as a rival to the gas pipeline deal recently clinched by Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, the region's major gas producers, May 12.

The three former Soviet allies agreed to build a pipeline along the Caspian Sea coast to pump billions of cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Kazakhstan into Russia's network of pipelines running to Europe.

---------------------
and on the same subject...

Gaz de France wants to join Nabucco pipeline project

BUDAPEST (AFP) — French utility Gaz de France wants to join the European Union's flagship Nabucco gas pipeline, the French gas giant's chief operating officer Jean-Marie Dauger said here Friday.

The 3,300-kilometre (2,050-mile) Nabucco pipeline, scheduled for completion in 2012, currently has five shareholders, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria, who have long been looking for a sixth partner for the project.

"I'm not betraying any great secrets by telling you that GdF wants to become a partner in Nabucco. We could help meet the challenges" facing the project, Dauger told an international conference here.

The Nabucco pipeline is aimed at decreasing Europe's reliance on Russian gas by transporting natural gas from the Middle East and Central Asia.

Supply interruptions after recent standoffs between Russia, the world's biggest exporter of gas and a leading oil producer, and key transit countries Ukraine and Belarus have stoked fears in Europe of an overdependence on Russian energy sources.

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Guyrcsany said his country fully backed the construction of Nabucco, but not to the exclusion of Russia's alternative project, Blue Stream.

"With regard to Nabucco, I'd like to confirm Hungary's total support for the EU in its efforts to integrate its gas supply," Guyrcsany told the conference.

"It's not a question of 'Nabucco versus Blue Stream'," he said, insisting that several new pipelines would be necessary to secure Europe's energy supply in the future.

In the past, Guyrcsany had been critical of Nabucco, arguing that it lacked both political and financial backing, unlike Moscow's Blue Stream project.

Both pipelines are to carry gas through Turkey and the Balkans to the European Union.

[nebunul]

EU EXTERNAL ENERGY POLICY
The European Union is developing a common European energy policy which essentially aims at tackling climate change, limiting the EU’s dependence on imported hydrocarbons and ensuring the supply of secure and affordable energy for consumers, while contributing to the competitiveness of its economy.

This will require a combination of internal and external policies. Climate change must be addressed globally. External policies will also have to address the EU’s increasing dependence on energy imports from sometimes politically unstable regions and supplier countries.

In January 2007 the European Commission presented a comprehensive package including an action plan on European energy policy. The European Council in March adopted a major Action Plan for the period 2007-2009 based on the Commission’s communication “An Energy Policy for Europe”. On the external scene the Commission is actively promoting an international energy policy that pursues Europe’s interests.

THE ENERGY COMMUNITY TREATY
The EU and its South-East neighbours have established the Energy Community, as a structured framework for deepened relations in the energy field. The Treaty creating the Energy Community extends the EU energy market to its southern European neighbours within a common regulatory area with shared trade, transmission and environmental rules.

The Energy Community Treaty entered into force on 1 July 2006 and, for the time being, extends the relevant EU energy acquis to the Western Balkan countries. The treaty has improved energy security, created a regional energy market and underpinned investments. Ukraine, Norway and Moldova applied for membership to the Energy Community. Turkey is an observer to the Treaty.



Old/new plans ...

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7333/gasmapbigsj0.gif (http://imageshack.us)

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/9521/oilmapbigly0.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[joce23]

RWE Wants Cernavoda

http://www.jurnalul.ro/articole/103104/rwe-wants-cernavoda

Energy – Giant interested in the reactors
The energetic group RWE wants to be the only partner of Romania in building the 3rd and 4th reactors in Cernavoda. The Germans want to buy the hydroelectric power plants and the energetic systems that will not be part of the national energy company.

Giant RWE is interested in being the only partner of Nuclearelectrica for building the 3rd and 4th reactors on the Cernavoda Platform. Klaus Buhl, Senior Manager for Eastern Europe, stated during a press conference that “if there are more players in a consortium, operating the reactors will be harder because there will be more interests”.

The group is also interested in buying the hydroelectric power plants from Portile de Fier I and II in case Romania wants to privatize them. The Germans would also want the 22 micro-hydroelectric plants that Hidroelectrica wants to privatize, but only in addition to a greater plant. The Germans want to get involved in building the pumping unit in Tarnita as well.


WISHES. As for the national energy company, Buhl said RWE wanted to be partners with the Romanians for this case as well, because the state would not have the necessary money for all the environment and extension investments. The German officials said they want an initial participation in modernizing the energetic systems in Turceni, Rovinari or Craiova for them to abide by the standards of the European Union, in accordance to the negotiated program.


PURCHASE. RWE actually wants to buy the energetic systems that will not be part of the national integrated company that the Government is setting up. Buhl stated that, if the main goal of creating the “national champion” is to maintain a low price for the energy, this project will probably be a failure. He said a low price for the energy means low profit for the company, which means no credits for the necessary investments or very expensive credits. This leads to an increase in the price of the energy. Buhl said there would be several hydroelectric power plants that would be closed, which means this national energy company will have to have the money to build new production units to replace the old ones. He said an energy system like the one in Turceni would cost the state 4 billion euros. In the same time, the prices for energy will go up in the coming period, because the price of the materials has also gone up. According to Buhl, the price of steel has increased by 30% in the past two years. In the same time, the prices for oil and charcoal would also go up due to less and less resources.


EFFICIENCY. Ingo Birnkraut, development engineer of RWE, stated that Romania had to choose investors capable of offering solutions to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and to increase the efficiency of the installations. The example he offered, the power plant in Emsland Germany, will be finished in 2009 and will use a fuel made of gas and charcoal. Here, the efficiency of the installation will be around 59%. Birnkraut also said that the higher effectiveness of a plant transforms it into a tougher competitor.

[joce23]

OMV makes $20 bln hostile move on MOL
Tue Sep 25, 2007

VIENNA/BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Austrian oil and gas group OMV (OMVV.VI: Quote, Profile , Research) upped the ante in its battle to take over Hungary's MOL (MOLB.BU: Quote, Profile , Research) on Tuesday, telling MOL shareholders it would pay $20 billion if they overruled board opposition.

OMV, which now owns 20 percent of MOL, launched its bid to create central Europe's biggest energy group in June. Despite saying it sought MOL's approval, OMV met fierce resistance from management, and on Tuesday it turned to shareholders instead.

"OMV is ... seeking to engage in active discussions with the independent shareholders, the European Commission and other stakeholders in MOL," it said in a statement.


OMV said it was ready to offer 32,000 forint for each MOL share, or 3.5 trillion forint ($20 billion) in total, if MOL removed a 10 percent voting right cap and if the 40 percent stake in MOL its board and friendly institutions control was cancelled or neutralized.

"The removal of these impediments would allow MOL's independent shareholders to decide on the merits of the offer. So far MOL shareholders have been denied this choice through the actions of MOL's Board."

MOL's board once more rejected OMV's move. It said the offer undervalued its business significantly and repeated it would not hold talks with its Austrian rival.

MOL launched an aggressive share buyback program to fend off OMV's bid. It and friendly institutions now control 40 percent of MOL's stock. It also lobbied Hungary's government to draft a law to restrict foreign ownership in strategic companies.

"We believe MOL management are unlikely to yield control in the short term," Merrill Lynch analyst Alastair Syme said in a note to clients. "The process is likely to be long and drawn out with a quick resolution unlikely to be found."

OMV shares dropped as much as 7 percent on the news, and were down 5.4 percent at 48.80 euros by 1025 GMT, the biggest decliner in the DJ European Oil & Gas <.SXEP> index. MOL shares were suspended until further notice.

"STRONG HUNGARIAN REPRESENTATION"

The proposed price represents a 19 percent premium to MOL's share price at Monday's close. OMV said it was prepared to offer up to 25 percent of the price in OMV shares.

The offer would be conditional on securing at least 50 percent of voting control of MOL and on EU antitrust approval. The combined business would be listed in Austria and Hungary, and would have strong Hungarian board representation, OMV said.

OMV said it had given preliminary notice to the European Commission that it was seeking to take over MOL.

It said it expected to make some disposals to please the antitrust watchdog, but those disposals did not make the deal less attractive
Hungary has drafted legislation to stop foreign companies owned or part-owned by the state from acquiring Hungarian energy companies and said on Tuesday it would keep pursuing this law.

The Austrian government holds 31.5 percent of OMV. Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer said he welcomed OMV's move. He has said before Austria was ready to let its stake be diluted if OMV had to raise equity to fund a strategic purchase.

Czech electricity producer CEZ (CEZPsp.PR: Quote, Profile , Research), which said in early September it would take a minority stake in MOL, said it would not comment on the news, although it added it had nothing to change in its plan for a tie up with MOL.


Russia to run out of oil in 50 years, gas in 75 years
24.09.2007

( RIA Novosti ) - Russia will run out of crude oil reserves in 50 years, and the country's natural gas will be depleted in 75 years, a geologist specializing in oil production said Monday.

Yevgeny Kozlovsky, who served as geology minister in the Soviet Union, said the forecast was based on predicted production levels and the size of current reserves, including possible new finds.

The scientist, who heads a department at the Russian State Geological Prospecting University, said investment in prospecting totaling at least 50 billion rubles ($2 billion) was needed annually to increase reserves, as well as highly-skilled staff capable of using the funds effectively.

"This is a question of allocations and staff," he said.

Kozlovsky said that the post-Soviet era has not brought any new major discoveries, as there are no incentives for companies to invest in prospecting.

He proposed that laws be approved to grant companies the right to develop deposits they have discovered. Kozlovsky also urged for favorable tax conditions to be introduced for companies developing problematic deposits. He said that Russia could potentially produce an additional 150 million metric tons of oil (1 billion barrels) annually.

[Dardani6]

25 09 2007 Podgorica_ Montenegro, Croatia and Albania have agreed to build a 400-km pipeline, according to a ministerial declaration agreed on Tuesday.

The new project, which will be linked to the Trans-Adriatic pipeline, will cost around €230 million.

Montenegro, with 100 km of the pipeline on its territory, is to invest some €60 million in the project.

The agreement was signed in Zagreb by the Montenegrin Minister for Economic Development Branimir Gvozdenovic, the Croatian Minister for the Economy, Branko Vukelic and the Albanian deputy Minister for Trade, Neritan Alibali.

“The declaration comes just at the time when Montenegro is about to adopt a strategy for energy development and evaluate its energy capacities”, Gvozdenovic said.

He called on all regional governments to start the realization of the scheme as soon as possible “as there is no time to lose”.

Building the project will facilitate the supply of gas to consumers in Albania and Croatia and will also prepare the ground for providing gas to customers in Montenegro.

The Ionian-Adriatic pipeline is considered a regional priority project, which is supported by the energy community of south-eastern Europe and the EU.

The project should be finished by 2011or 2012.

http://www.birn.eu.com/en/104/15/5006/

[dejan]

^^These trans-nation pipelines sound really good and interesting yet there seems to be a lot of talk about them lately:| it's annoying. What happened to the Burgas-Vlora pipelines, AMBO?? There's the Varna-Alexandropoulis one too i think, and something else initiated by Russia (or was that it?).

[Dardani6]

AMBO is realisitc, so is trans-adriatic. the one above is just talk.

[joce23]

waw... KazMunaiGaz has already started to re-route Kazahtan`s oil to Constanta by cutting the previous deals with other oil traders ... :)

KazMunaiGas cuts Vitol oil deal after refinery buy
Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:41pm BST

By Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Kazakh state firm KazMunaiGas has drastically cut crude contracts with Swiss-based oil trader Vitol on the Black Sea and re-routed some volumes to its newly acquired Romanian refinery, market sources said on Wednesday.

"They (Vitol) have been saying they had a term deal until the year-end, but we had to re-route volumes to Constanta to supply the plant," said a KazMunaiGas source.

Traders said Vitol, which used to market all Kazakh crude from Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, would be left with no more than three cargoes a month instead of its usual seven to eight 80,000-tonne cargoes of Russia's Urals crude (URL-E: Quote, Profile, Research).

KazMunaiGas [KMG.UL] last month bought 75 percent of Romanian refiner Rompetrol Group NV in a deal estimated at $2.7 billion, confirming its resolve to expand beyond Central Asia and break into European markets.

"Looks like a blow to Vitol, although the move could have been well predicted after the purchase of Rompetrol," said a trader with a Russian oil major.

Another trader said Vitol would be able to partly offset the volumes lost at Odessa by bidding more aggressively for volumes of Russian oil firm TNK-BP (TNBPI.RTS: Quote, Profile, Research), after being chosen to be among TNK's five crude lifters next year.

Rompetrol focuses on refining, marketing and trading and has a refining capacity of 4 million tonnes and distribution capability of 7 million tonnes annually.

It means KazMunaiGas will need to send approximately 330,000 tonnes a month to Rompetrol or around four 80,000-tonne cargoes, the most conventional deadweight in Odessa.

Russia's pipeline monopoly export schedule for September showed Odessa would load a total of 883,000 tonnes, including seven cargoes from KazMunaiGas, two from LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) and two from Surgutneftegas (SNGS.MM: Quote, Profile, Research).

A preliminary schedule for October showed Odessa would load 691,000 tonnes, including seven cargoes from KazMunaiGas and two from Surgut. KazMunaiGas is also sporadically exporting cargoes from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk.

The firm's production is set to grow as it is ramping up output together with international majors at giant fields such as Tengiz.

Growth will be even faster when an ENI-led (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) group puts on stream Kashagan, the world's biggest oil discovery in the past decades, which will produce over 1 million barrels per day.

"We are hearing KazMunaiGas wants to set up a proper sales desk in London," said a trader with a Western major.

"We have large plans, including in Ceyhan (in Turkey). And the number of plans will only grow as we are no longer afraid of expanding in Europe," said the KazMunaiGas source.

[joce23]

Lights Out in the Balkans
-Interview with Aleksandar Dimishkovski of BID Consulting, Macedonia
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 9/27/2007
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3527&cid=3&sid=10

Until recently and for four years, Aleksandar Dimishkovski worked as a business and finance correspondent in Macedonia's best-selling daily newspaper, "Dnevnik". In the past year, he also served as a personal advisor to the general manager of a foreign-owned company that has established its network in Macedonia. He is known as a market analyst and a business consultant and has recently founded "BID Consulting".

Q: Has the electricity grid throughout the Balkans and in Macedonia in particular improved or deteriorated in the last ten years? How did privatization and restructuring influence each of the components in the chain from electricity generation to the end consumer?

AD: The electricity grid throughout the Balkans at this point doesn't differ a lot from the time when socialistic regimes ruled this part of the world. Considering the time frame, surely it is not correct to say that the investments done to increase the quality of the electricity grids and especially in the cross-country transmission grids were satisfactory. There was some increase of inter-transmission capacity, but not enough to ensure the transmission of the demanded quantities of electricity. The quality of the national electric grids varies from country to country but is commonly low. Macedonia for instance, has network losses of more than 30 percent annually, which is around five times the average in the European Union (EU) countries.

On the other hand, the investments in electricity generation pretty much changed the picture in the Balkans regarding which country now has enough quantities of electricity from domestic production, which country is able to export and which country is an electricity importer.

What is common to the majority of the countries in the Balkans now is the fact that they all are importers of electricity, with the exceptions of Romania and Bulgaria. These two countries have done a lot to ensure their position in the Balkans energy market, even through a privatization process, although at this point it may not seem so evident, especially in the case of Bulgaria, because of the shut down of two reactors in the nuclear power plant Kozloduy. Nevertheless, both countries - now EU members - are still investing billions in new electricity generation facilities and they will likely secure the lead on the electricity export side.

However, this is not the case with the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Most of them managed to finish the necessary privatization and reforms, but they all seem to have forgotten about the importance of investments in production. That contributed to the current state of things where the majority of the countries in the Balkans are importers.

Albania and Greece followed the same tendency not to invest, and after 15 years they are still lacking investments in electricity generation, which is demonstrated by the increase in the imported quantities of electricity.

The biggest paradox is that in most countries there are still incredibly low prices of electricity, which are a by-product of omnipresent subsidies. These prices can't be supported by any economic or commercial reason, the social aspect notwithstanding.

3. You are predicting a crisis in electricity generation and provision in Macedonia this coming winter 2007. Can you explain what is this gloomy scenario based on?

AD: It is based mainly on the dearth of electricity in the whole region. At this point, Macedonia imports around 30 percent of the quantities needed to satisfy consumption. And with the present level of expected domestic production, there surely will be a gap between demand and supply. This is especially so because of the fact that in Macedonia, during the winter months, the level of consumption is almost twice as big as in the summer months.

In fact, because of draught and other summer-related problems, the water potential for generation of electricity via hydro power plants at the moment is at very low level, lower than 20 percent.

Another problem is the steady growth in consumption. Macedonia has one of the highest rates of growth of electricity consumption in the whole region. And the predictions are that in the medium term, growth will constantly and drastically accelerate.

What adds fuel to the fire is the present situation in the entire region. Albania faced and faces a major energy crisis. Greece is constantly increasing the its imported quantities of electricity. In the wake of the closure of two reactors Kozloduy in January 2006, there simply isn't enough electricity to go round. The whole region is facing an energy crisis. Bulgaria, which was one of the biggest exporters of electricity in Europe, has recently started to import it!

The Balkans lacks electricity generation facilities. In such a constellation it is normal for electricity prices to increase. Bearing in mind the fact that in many countries electricity prices are still heavily subsidized, it is normal to expect problems, even from the macroeconomic point of view.

Macedonia is maybe in the worst position at the moment. Its market is too small to be interesting for the big European energy "players" and it is not financially powerful, compared to the other countries in the region. So, Macedonia is unable either to invest in the expansion of its electricity generation or to buy and import electricity.

4. Is hydroelectric power the solution? What about alternative sources (wind, solar, nuclear)? Will the construction of additional plants solve the problem in the short term? Is microgeneration a viable option?

AD: Hydroelectric power is a definite possibility but only in the long term. It takes a while for a hydro power plant to be built and become operational, at least three to five years, depending on its size. In fact it may be the best solution, because Macedonia now uses around 30 percent of its hydro potential for electricity generation.

Unfortunately, it can't be used as core energy. It is too dependant on external influences and factors, such as the weather. If a dry season occurs, than the whole system is at risk. But it can and it must be used more than the present level of usage. Wind and the solar energy are good options as well. Nevertheless, they are also merely supplements to the basic energy market.

Nuclear energy on the other hand, is out of the question for many reasons, even from a legal point of view. The Macedonian parliament has passed a declaration that forbids the use of a nuclear energy for electricity generation on Macedonian territory. Besides that, the geographic conditions are very inappropriate for building a nuclear power plant. Even the cooling of a nuclear reactor could be a problem, because it requires a lot of water.

The best solution is to have combined production. As a base or core energy, we could use thermal power plants as the situation is now. They run on coal extracted from Macedonian territory. This, in conjunction with the use of natural gas for electricity production could secure Macedonia's energy needs in the next 50 years. Understandably, this has to be combined with the deployment of renewable sources of energy on both the micro and on macro level.

In any case, the construction of additional plants can't be a short term solution, because it takes time for a power plant to be built. For instance: LNG (natural gas) power plants require the shortest construction time, yet even this process usually takes at least two years.

5. Electricity in Macedonia and throughout the region is heavily subsidized. Do you foresee a reduction in this state support?

AD: Unfortunately, subsidies are one of the biggest reasons for the upcoming energy crisis. Because of the low price, there simply wasn't any money for investments in electricity generation, although in the price structure there is a part that supposedly should be spent on investments. Even now, the price that households pay for electricity and even the price for industry are lower than they should be.

Nevertheless, with the signing of the Athens Memorandum, and the creation of the Energy Community, Macedonia is obliged to liberalize the energy market, with a view towards achieving the market conditions present in the EU zone. So, subsidies will very soon be out. The qualified consumers – industrial facilities - will be forced to secure their own deals for electricity supply in the open market, starting from January 2008.

It is predicted that the total liberalization of the electricity market will be in place at the beginning of 2015, at which time even households will choose from whom to buy their electricity.

At this point, the organizational structure of the electricity market in the country is not well prepared for these processes, and this could contribute towards some delay in the liberalization process. But it is inescapable and with the aspirations of Macedonia to become a member of the EU, the sooner they are implemented, the better it is for the integration process as well.

6. Can you describe the structure of the electricity export market in the region? Who is exporting, who is importing, and who are likely to become net exporters and net importers in the foreseeable future?

AD: That's an easy one. Almost all the countries of the Balkans are net importers, except Romania and Bulgaria. Recently, even Bulgaria started to import small quantities. But, these two countries had invested enough to secure their future as exporters of electricity. For instance, Bulgaria is rushing to build a second nuclear power plant in Belene, near the border with Romania, which should be finished in around five years. Romania too, started the construction of another nuclear power plant.

As to the rest of the Balkan countries, there are some signs of positive change, but it is still unclear, who, when and if some of the countries would be able to become net exporters of electricity. If we exclude Albania whose system is pretty much based on hydroelectric power, the other countries are quite similar. The majority have coal-fuelled electricity production as core energy. This is made possible by their sizes- most of these countries have small territories - and by the unused potential in many of them.

Still, at this point, it seems like in the near future, we shouldn't expect any drastic changes in the electricity production field in the Balkans. And even if something does change, it is likely to be negligible, both from the energetic point of view, as well as the financial one.

* Interview conducted in September 2007.

[new bulgaria]

What I get from this article is that BG and RO rock!

[joce23]

Romania wants to build 2nd nuclear power plant after Cernavoda
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/10/05/afx4191041.html

BUCHAREST (Thomson Financial) - Romania wants to build a second nuclear power station, after the Cernavoda plant in the southeast of the country, to ensure its independence in energy, prime minister Calin Tariceanu said.

'It's evident that we need to (construct a new power station) in order to no longer be dependent on resources like gas and oil which are becoming exhausted,' Tariceanu said at the official inauguration of the second phase of Cernavoda.

Tariceanu said he had asked the economy ministry to find a site for the possible location of the power station.

Phase two of Cernavoda, which was built like the first phase by a consortium of Atomic Energy of Canada (EACL) and Italy's Ansaldo, began supplying electricity in August, after three months of tests. When it is fully operational, Cernavoda will supply around 17-18 pct of the country's electricity needs.

Romania launched a tender for the construction of a third and fourth reactor at Cernavoda, which should be operational by 2014-2015.

Some thirty companies have expressed an interest in the project.

[golov]

Hold on, nuclear power does not ensure independence in energy, because the nuclear fuel market is highly politicized and split between several large players.

[RawLee]

Hold on, nuclear power does not ensure independence in energy, because the nuclear fuel market is highly politicized and split between several large players.

I think the only missing chainlink in Romania is the enrichment of the fuel.

[joce23]

^^ What you don`t know is that we are the best player for our needs. We don`t depend on other countries and we have the capacity to produce the nuclear fuel, the heavy water as well as the most part of the equipments for CANDU nuclear plants ! That`s why we chosed CANDU reactor technology instead of the russian technology !

[joce23]

Traian Basescu: “Romania will continue the nuclear programme”
http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=business&id=20071012-511000

EU needs united external energy policy to protect the interests of all 27 of its members

published in issue 4039 page 12 at 2007-10-12

The issue of the nuclear energy is carefully approached by certain states, declared yesterday President Traian Basescu at the Conference over energy security from Vilnius. “We should not be afraid of the nuclear energy if we manage it correctly, for civilian purposes. A few days ago, Romania commissioned a new nuclear reactor at Cernavoda. We use a safe technology with high security standards. We are a country with a complete nuclear cycle and uranium reserves,” :cheers: said Traian Basescu, quoted by Rompres. He stressed that Romania will continue the nuclear programme, paying at the same time the due attention to the nuclear security standards. President Basescu also emphasized that the intensification of the regional collaboration is a method of increasing the energetic security. “Assuming clearly the principles and the regulations regarding competition on the internal energy market in the European Union and in the vicinity space could be one of the medium term successes of the EU and of the neighbouring countries,” stated Traian Basescu. He mentioned that, insofar as Romania is concerned, the dependence on the import of energetic resources is smaller than the EU average, while the energetic intensity is much bigger.

The Head of the State stressed that one of the traditional partners of Romania and also of EU in the domain of energy is the Russian Federation. “It is clear that between the Russian Federation and EU there is a mutual dependence determined by the sale and, respectively, the purchase of energetic resources, but this must be managed through a partnership based on predictability, mutuality, confidence, and especially on the market rules stipulated also in the principles of the Energy Charter Treaty and those of the Transit Protocol” said Basescu. According to him the potential from the Caspian-Caucasus area is insufficiently exploited. Basescu estimates that this area must be turned to account and, in this respect, it is necessary to assure transport routes for hydrocarbons, the Black Sea being the shortest route to Europe. He pointed out that a connection of Europe with the Caucasus space is necessary, insisting on the necessity of projects like Nabucco. “In such an approach, projects like the Nabucco gas pipe and Constanta-Triste oil pipe could contribute to the development of the trans Caspian-trans Black Sea energetic corridor. Nabucco gas pipe has become a priority for EU, has the support of all the states involved in its construction and there are real perspectives to turn it into a success story,” estimated Basescu. Referring to Constanta-Trieste oil pipe, Basescu said that this is a viable project, and may represent the most direct and safest route for the transport of the Caspian oil towards the EU space.

Common approach

The European Union needs a united external energy policy to protect the interests of all 27 of its members, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said Thursday, amid concerns over Moscow’s market muscle-flexing.

On Thursday the debates held within the framework of the international Energy Summit in Vilnius tackled issues of global threats to energy policy and power strategies for the Baltic Sea region.

The summit in Vilnius is a continuation of a meeting held in Kraków, southern Poland in May, with participation of presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine.

The two day conference was devoted to energy security. The participants are determining future aims as well as discussing the problem of the diversification of energy supplies which will make the countries less dependent on Russia.

“The European Union must develop a common approach to the issue at hand and speak in one voice,” Adamkus told a conference in Vilnius.

“It is a matter of concern that some European countries prefer to deal with energy security-related challenges individually, instead of acting in a united manner,” without identifying any individual members. Lithuania and its fellow formerly Soviet-ruled Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, as well as ex-communist Poland, have expressed disquiet about a pipeline that Russian gas giant Gazprom and German firms BASF and E.ON are planning to build beneath the Baltic Sea by 2010.

Besides raising ecological concerns - which are also an issue for Sweden and Finland - the Baltic states and Poland have blasted fellow EU member Germany for allegedly going it alone with Russia, and shunting aside their interests in order to secure gas supplies.

Five countries sign oil pipeline deal bypassing Russia

Five former communist-bloc countries signed a deal Wednesday to extend an oil pipeline that bypasses Russia, in a move that could diversify supplies and cut Moscow’s energy clout. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and host nation Lithuania looked on as government ministers and state oil company bosses inked an accord creating the “Sarmatia” consortium, which is to build the new network.

The specific goal of the five governments is to create a new oil route linking the Caspian and Baltic Seas, based on an existing pipeline running through Ukraine, with the aim of opening the taps by 2011. The Ukrainian pipeline currently ships Russian oil from the Black Sea port of Odessa to Brody, near Ukraine’s western border with Poland.

[joce23]

WHITE STREAM: ADDITIONAL OUTLET PROPOSED FOR CASPIAN GAS TO EUROPE
By Vladimir Socor, Friday, October 12, 2007
http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372497

White Stream, a project to transport Caspian gas via Georgia and the seabed of the Black Sea to Europe, was presented during the summit-level Energy Security Conference in Vilnius on October 10-11. This pipeline project could encourage investments in Caspian gas field development by diversifying export options and transport routes directly to European Union territory. The availability of more directions and capacity could advance the timeline for Caspian gas resources coming on stream.

The proposed pipeline would branch off from the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum main pipeline, once the second and third phases of field development are reached at Azerbaijan’s Shah-Deniz field. The availability of the White Stream transit option should encourage the acceleration and expansion of production at Shah-Deniz as well as other offshore Azerbaijani fields (such as the deep-layer Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli gas fields). With an additional option such as White Stream reducing overall transportation risks, investors can move faster and commit to higher production targets for EU markets.

Initially named GUEU (Georgia-Ukraine-European Union), this project envisaged a seabed pipeline from Georgia to Crimea, with options to continue toward EU territory either through Ukraine’s gas transit system or, alternatively, from the Crimea to Romania’s Black Sea coast, entering EU territory there. At present, however, GUEU-White Stream project developers are also envisaging a direct route from Georgia to Romania on the seabed.

Recent positive developments on the Nabucco project and dialogue with Turkmenistan reopen prospects for trans-Caspian deliveries of Turkmen gas and involvement of Western companies in exploring and developing Central Asian gas fields. Once Turkmen gas crosses the Caspian and reaches the South Caucasus, White Stream would open one more outlet to Europe, in addition to the southern loop through Turkey. Thus, the availability of White Stream would help enhance confidence of potential Western investors in Turkmenistan and create incentives for that government to partner with the West.

The London-based GUEU-White Stream Pipeline Company is in charge of the project. Deep-water pipelines such as White Stream are constructed in a stage-by-stage process involving limited throughput capacities in each successive stage. Planned to be built with state-of-the-art technology, White Stream is projected to carry 8 billion cubic meters of gas annually in each of its strings.

With more than one trillion cubic meters in just commercial reserves at Shah Deniz, Azerbaijan has ample potential to support the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline (BTE) and its planned continuations -- Turkey-Greece-Italy and first stage of Nabucco -- as well as the first string of White Stream. Thus, White Stream does not compete with BTE or Nabucco for upstream resources in the first stages of these projects. In their second phases, the availability of all these pipeline outlets to Europe should attract major volumes of Central Asian gas.

Projected to have a diameter of 42 inches for the overland sections and 24 inches for the seabed sections, the White Stream pipeline would branch off from BTE west of Borjomi and run approximately 100 kilometers to Georgia’s Black Sea coast in the general area of Supsa. From there, two versions are possible, both involving ultra-deep levels across the seabed.

One version would run 650 kilometers to Ukraine’s Crimean shore near Feodosiya; cross the Crimea from east to west for 250 kilometers, with a possible connection to Ukraine’s mainland pipeline system; and continue on the seabed to the Romanian coast for 300 kilometers in shallow waters. The other version envisages laying a seabed pipeline from near Supsa in Georgia, running 1,100 kilometers to a point near Constanta in Romania. This long version may require construction of an intermediate floating compressor station in the open sea.

The highly challenging seabed construction will benefit from the experience gained in laying the Blue Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey on the seabed of the Black Sea. A technological feat of Italy’s ENI and Saipem, that line runs in ultra-deep waters reaching 2,200 meters below the surface in some places -- the world’s deepest-running pipeline. White Stream would run at similar depths as Blue Stream. Some of the engineers who worked on Blue Stream are said to be involved in the White Stream project. White Stream intends to use a J-lay barge of the same type as that used by Blue Stream, which was key to that technological accomplishment.

The White Stream pipeline would intersect with Blue Stream on the seabed. The project envisages lifting the White Stream line by an overpass bridge to be built at the point of intersection.

The project has an attractive range of market options, once EU territory is reached. Countries in central-eastern Europe are keen to diversify their supplies away from overdependence on Russian gas. If White Stream is to use Ukraine’s transit system for that purpose, it would require the adoption of European standards of operation and management. Ukraine’s potential membership in the EU-led Energy Community can open that prospect. In that case, White Stream could use the Ukrainian transportation network’s spare capacity to deliver Caspian gas to Poland and farther afield. Ukrainian transit pipelines have some unused capacity already now and will have even more spare capacity if and when Russia switches some export volumes to other pipeline routes.

Investment for White Stream’s first phase is estimated to be in the range of $2.5 to $3.5 billion --- depending on the route version chosen --- based on an annual throughput capacity of 8 billion cubic meters of gas, over a five-year period from the start of implementation. The second phase would add another 8 billion cubic meters of gas annually, either again from Azerbaijan or from the eastern Caspian shore. That expansion would require a parallel 24-inch diameter pipeline on the seabed of the Black Sea. The third phase expects another 16 billion cubic meters of eastern Caspian gas. In that relatively optimistic eventuality, White Stream could carry a total 32 billion cubic meters of Caspian gas annually to European countries.

The White Stream project can provide a politically safe, shortest-route supplemental outlet for Caspian gas, adding an incentive for construction of trans-Caspian pipeline links and Western investments in Turkmenistan. White Stream’s planned second- and third-phase schedules are calculated to advance the time for more ambitious involvement in gas extraction in Turkmenistan by Western companies.

[joce23]

Eight Romanian electricity companies to invest big in modernising
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/78735.php

The eight electricity distributors operating in Romania plan to invest over two billion Euro in the 2008-2012 period in modernising their distribution network, Romanian news site bursa.ro reported early last week, cited by Interfax. Romanian electricity distributors are currently negotiating the necessary investments for network modernisation for the 2008-2012 period with the National Regulatory Agency in the Field of Energy (ANRE), according to which total investments will come in at over two billion Euro. Of the eight Romanian energy companies which are also negotiating the tariffs applicable in Romania in the coming five years, Italy's ENEL will spend the largest sum for modernising its distribution network.
ENEL, the operator of three major Romanian energy companies – Electrica Banat, Electrica Dobrogea and Electrica Muntenia Sud, which is also the most valuable electricity distributor in the country – is planning to invest a total of two billion Euro by 2015 in upgrading its network capacity.
Romania's Electrica S.A., operator of three state-owned electric energy distributors, and whose privatisation is on the government's agenda, will invest some 650-700 million Euro on network upgrades over the next five years, according to the company's management. Electrica's three units left in state hands are Muntenia Nord, Transilvania Sud and Transilvania Nord.
According to plans submitted by Electrica Oltenia to ANRE in early 2007, the company owned by CEZ of the Czech Republic plans to invest around 300 million Euro in its network modernisation in the 2008-2012 period. The news site says that Germany's E.ON, the owner of Electrica Moldova, invested 40 million Euro in network upgrades in 2006, and expects to spend around the same amount in 2007 as well.

[nebunul]

Iberdrola confirms studying 2.3 bln eur Romania nuclear reactor project

MADRID (Thomson Financial) - Iberdrola SA said it is studying a nuclear reactor project in Romania, for which the bid deadline is Oct 25.
Earlier, Negocio said Iberdrola will compete with another 35 international companies for the 2.3 bln eur nuclear reactor contract in Cernavoda.
It cited the local group in charge of the project Nuclearelectrica.


Suez looks to U.K., Romania, Bulgaria for nuclear projects

PARIS (MarketWatch) -- French energy and utilities company Suez (SZE), which plans to merge with Gaz de France in the first half of 2008, is interested in building and operating nuclear power plants in the European Union, the company reaffirmed.
Suez CEO Gerard Mestrallet, who is set to lead the future GdF-Suez combine, confirmed Monday at a joint conference with GdF CEO Jean-Francois Cirelli, that the company is examining opportunities in Bulgaria, Romania and the U.K., a company spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.
Mestrallet did not exclude the possibility of building a European pressurized reactor, EPR, in France, the spokeswoman added. The EPR was principally developed by Siemens
Suez is able to build and operate nuclear power stations and is interested in expanding in both areas, the spokeswoman said. The company has said it is "actively participating in the nuclear energy revival in Europe."

[hercegovac_nin0]

Hidroelektrana jablanica owner elektroprivreda Bosnia and Herzegovina

http://www.yisac2005.ba/dam%20outside%20of%20jablanisa.jpg
http://www.fela.ch/planung/images/staudammansicht.jpg

because the hidroelektrana we have in Jablanica a great lake !!!!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1395/1329663213_31d17b2c61_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1358/1329665947_7937fe3c87_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1017/1330561008_2bf1e61efd_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1084/1330563706_25f88edce1_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1362/1329686405_678b5737d7_b.jpg

the lake is 25km long!

[joce23]

Vimetco, Interagro to build 1,000 MW Romanian power plant
http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/262007152656.htm

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Vimetco NV said it entered into a joint development agreement with privately owned Interagro SA to jointly build a 1,000 MW power plant in Romania.
Part of the electricity generated will be used by Alro SA, Vimetco's aluminium plant in Romania, giving Vimetco a secure long-term electricity supply and independence from external sources.
The coal-fired plant is expected to be operational by 2012.
'The power plant will provide Vimetco with a reliable energy source, enabling us to better monitor and control electricity costs,' said chief executive Christian Wust. 'This will in turn help drive our overall profitability in the competitive aluminium market.'
Refining aluminium from alumina is very power intensive.

[joce23]

Enel acquires Romania's Blue Line renewable energy company
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/10/26/afx4266974.html

MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Enel SpA said it is acquiring 100 pct of Romania's renewable energy company Blue Line SRL, but did not give any financial details.

Blue Line has rights to build wind farm projects in the Dobrogea region of Romania with a future production capacity of 200MW, it said.

The acquisition is in line with Enel's strategy of acquiring a balanced mix of fuels for its electricity production, it said.

Enel officials said the company is looking to make other renewable energy investments in Romania.

In Romania, Enel has distribution activities supplying 2.5 mln customers and is studying privatisation of conventional and nuclear power plants

[joce23]

Regal Petroleum discovers gas in Romania
http://www.ogj.com/display_article/310829/120/ARTCL/none/ExplD/1/Regal-Petroleum-discovers-gas-in-Romania/

LONDON, Nov. 1 -- London exploration and production company Regal Petroleum PLC will suspend its RBN-4 exploration well on the Barland concession in Romania after discovering gas in three sandstone intervals.

Regal said the gas lay within 11 m of net reservoir in the Sarmatian formation. "Additional gas-bearing siltstone intervals of approximately 14 m have also been identified at a level known to be productive in the nearby Roman gas field," the company added. RBN-4 reached 973 m TD, and it will be completed and flow-tested with a lighter, less costly, workover rig. Regal expects to mobilize the rig by yearend.

Neil Ritson, Regal's chief executive, said it is too early to quantify the volume of gas discovered or determine whether a commercial flow rate can be achieved, but "the results of the well are similar to those expected and are encouraging."

The Dafora F-100 drilling rig will now rill the second exploration well RBN-3, about 5 km northwest of RBN-4. "The RBN-3 well is also planned to evaluate a Sarmatian formation gas prospect," Regal added. It expects to spend $1.1 million drilling the well over 20 days.

[joce23]

Green Energy Grup invests €300 mln in wind energy projects
http://standard.ro/articol_17813/green_energy_grup_invests____300_mln_in_wind_energy_projects.html

Green Energy Grup SA intends to develop three wind energy park projects, each of some 60-70 MW, following €300 million worth of investments, the company's General Manager, Gheorghe Tripon, told Business Standard.

"The company is looking for strategic partners to participate financially in these projects," added Tripon. Green Energy Grup is already producing 0.75 MW of wind energy at a plant in Tulcea County and will install two further wind plants in the coming months, each with a 0.6 MW capacity. The investment for the three plants amounts to some €1.5 mln, according to Tripon.

The General Manager of Green Energy added that the company is involved in a project for building a 5 MW biogas electrical plant and a bioethanol factory, an investment worth some €80 mln, according to Tripon.

Green Energy Grup SA Bucuresti was founded in 2005 and posted losses worth €25,000 in 2006. Romania's wind energy production potential allows for the construction of wind plants with a total of up to 14,000 MW, which means an annual electricity production of 23,000 GWh.

[joce23]

Czech company wins bid to expand nuclear power plant in Romania
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/09/business/EU-FIN-COM-Czech-Romania-Nuclear.php

PRAGUE, Czech Republic: The Czech Republic's dominant power utility, CEZ AS, said Friday it has won the bid to build two more reactors at Romania's only nuclear power plant.

The bidding, held by Romania's state-owned Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica, the plant's operator, was for a €2.2 billion (US$3.2 billion) project to build two 720-megawatt reactors at the Cernavoda plant, to supplement the plant's two existing reactors. Cernavoda is a town on the Danube River in southeast Romania.

The new reactors are planned to be operational by 2015, CEZ said.

The Czech company said it is due to start talks with Nuclearelectrica on the contract in late November, and expects the talks to last several months.

CEZ owns companies across central and eastern Europe, including three electricity distribution companies in Romania.

At 1305 GMT, CEZ shares in Prague traded down 5 koruna (euro.2; US$.3), or 0.4percent at 1,387 koruna (euro51.6; US$75.8), in a broadly lower market.

The nuclear power plant in Cernavoda operates two units, one opened in 1996 and the other earlier this year. The two reactors account for more than 10 percent of the country's electricity.

[nebunul]

Hey who said we don't get along well ?!? :lol: :nuts: :cheers:


Russia to deliver more natural gas to Romania

BUCHAREST, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia will deliver to Romania 6.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas this year, up by nearly 20 percent than last year, visiting Russian Information Technology and Communications Minister Leonid D. Reiman told a press conference on Thursday.
According to him, the Russian side is ready to achieve design works on commercial bases in the Romanian energy sector, to build or upgrade enterprises in this sector and also to participate together with the Romanian side in international tenders on the delivery of energy equipment to other countries.
"If Romgaz (Romanian gas company) is ever put up to privatization or listed on the stock exchange, Gazprom (Russian gas company) will certainly be interested in taking part in such a project," the Russian minister said.
Reiman and Romanian Economy and Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian signed here on Thursday the Protocol of the Romanian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on economic and technical-scientific cooperation.
The Commission held its 9th session on Nov. 6-8 in Bucharest, with the works being aimed at boosting the Romanian-Russian economic relations and at the diversification of commercial exchanges between Romania and the Russian Federation.
Trade between Romania and Russia amounted to 4.4 billion U.S. dollars last year and Russia is Romania's 5th-largest commercial partner, accounting for 5.2 percent of the total trade.

[Dardani6]

11/11/2007

TIRANA, Albania -- Albania is to build its first nuclear power plant after the government approved a project of the US company Westinghouse, Albanian media reported on Friday (November 9th). Prime Minister Sali Berisha said a series of laws will be quickly adopted regarding security regulations related to nuclear energy generation. According to The Guardian, the power generated in the nuclear facility will be used mainly for exports and to make the Albanian government a regional energy super-state. Italy, as well as the rest of the countries in the Balkans, has been mentioned as the potential clients of the future station. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is expected to visit Tirana on December 3rd to discuss Albania's nuclear power plant plans. (BGNES, The Guardian - 10/11/07; MIA - 09/11/07)

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newssummary/#setimes/newsbriefs/2007/11/11/nb-02

[iLiR]

I hope this happens. Let's see what happens after they meet on Dec. 3rd :cheers:

[Le Clerk]

Czech company wins bid to expand nuclear power plant in Romania
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/09/business/EU-FIN-COM-Czech-Romania-Nuclear.php

PRAGUE, Czech Republic: The Czech Republic's dominant power utility, CEZ AS, said Friday it has won the bid to build two more reactors at Romania's only nuclear power plant.

The bidding, held by Romania's state-owned Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica, the plant's operator, was for a €2.2 billion (US$3.2 billion) project to build two 720-megawatt reactors at the Cernavoda plant, to supplement the plant's two existing reactors. Cernavoda is a town on the Danube River in southeast Romania.

The new reactors are planned to be operational by 2015, CEZ said.

The Czech company said it is due to start talks with Nuclearelectrica on the contract in late November, and expects the talks to last several months.

CEZ owns companies across central and eastern Europe, including three electricity distribution companies in Romania.

At 1305 GMT, CEZ shares in Prague traded down 5 koruna (euro.2; US$.3), or 0.4percent at 1,387 koruna (euro51.6; US$75.8), in a broadly lower market.

The nuclear power plant in Cernavoda operates two units, one opened in 1996 and the other earlier this year. The two reactors account for more than 10 percent of the country's electricity.

Actually, the current reactors produce 18% of the electricity output in the country. After CEZ builds the other 2 reactors, about 40% of Romania's electricity output will be produced by nuclear plants. I also heard that the Gov plans to build a second plant somewhere else on the Danube to host another 3-4 reactors, in order to cover 70-80% of the energy output in the country. But this is, I guess, more remote.

[Le Clerk]

:cheers:

A consortium comprising Enel, Global International 2000 and Romelectro will build a 2,000 MW thermal power station in Galati in a total two billion Euro investment, said Global International 2000 president Boris Golovin, quoted by Business Standard. Enel holds 85 per cent of a special company set up by the three firms, Global International 2000 will own ten per cent and Romelectro the remaining five per cent. Golovin added the plant will use imported coal and construction will last between three and five years.

[nebunul]

Top 15 energy firms, worth 15bn euros
www.zf.ro

According to the financial results registered last year, energy generation companies, as well as electricity suppliers and distributors reached a cumulated value of 15bn euros, up 20% from the previous year, reveals information published in "Romania's 100 Most Valuable Companies" Yearbook, compiled by ZF and Capital Partners.

The market has still not stabilised given that this year alone three large companies (Petrom, Alro and Italy's Enel) invested 2.4bn euros in total, in 3 new power generators (860 MW, 1,000 MW and 900 MW respectively) in almost four nuclear reactors.

Growth was almost entirely triggered by the increased value of major energy generation companies, while distribution companies registered the same levels as in 2005. This is a direct outcome of the prospects that each market is offering.

The highest increase was registered by Nuclearelectrica, which manages the Cernavoda nuclear plant and whose value soared by 98% in 2006. Nuclearelectrica benefited from extremely favourable market conditions, due to the fact that when consumption increases, it is difficult to build new power generators quickly, which inevitably increases prices and implicitly the value of power generation companies.

Nuclearelectrica also benefited from the launch of its second nuclear reactor, which practically was the only investment in energy generation carried out for some years and had a key impact on the company value appraised in 2006.

Nuclearelectrica saw its value increase from 460m euros in 2005, to 910m euros at the end of last year.

Ranked next in terms of growth value are thermoelectric stations, which, although in a delicate situation in terms of investments in retooling, have a huge potential.

Hidroelectrica, the cheapest energy generation company, saw its value advance by 30%, and remains the only state-owned energy company still fighting the 10 largest firms for the leading position in Romania's 100 most valuable companies.

The energy distribution segment witnessed very slight increases, due to the fact that the market was not significantly affected by any events that could boost the value of companies on this segment.

Fluctuations in value are most likely to occur on the energy supply segment, which will attempt to attract as many customers as possible.

The energy market is still dominated by state-owned companies, while private firms have only entered the energy supply and distribution sectors.

Should the current government fulfil its plan to create a large vertically integrated group, its value would top 9bn euros, half the value of CEZ, the Romanian state's model.

Energy companies
• According to the financial results registered last year, energy generation companies, as well as electricity suppliers and distributors reached a cumulated value of 15bn euros, up 20% from the previous year
• Growth was almost entirely triggered by the increased value of major energy generators, while distribution companies registered the same levels as in 2005.
• The highest increase was registered by Nuclearelectrica, which manages the Cernavoda nuclear plant and whose value soared by 98% in 2006.


and


Energy issues to Kazakhstan's President in Romania
http://news.monstersandcritics.com

Bucharest - Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nasarbayev began talks Thursday in Bucharest with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu for talks epxected to include energy issues.
Relations between the two countries in this area were boosted last summer when the Kazakh state company KazMunaiGaz bought 75 per cent of the second largest Romanian oil company, Rompetrol.
The European Commission approved the acquisition of the privately- owned Rompetrol, which is registered in Switzerland, but operates in Romania.
The reason the company was sold to a Kazakhstan-owned company was to decrease Romania's dependence on Russian gas imports, the Rompetrol Board Chairman, Dinu Patriciu, said at the time.
KazMunaiGaz said that the Romanian deal was the start of further expansion into Europe.

[ruslan33]

Caspian pipe sinks Western plan to bypass Russia

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov says he wants to start building the Pre-Caspian gas pipeline in the second half of 2008. He added that a deal to seal the project could be signed by the end of the year.

The Moscow-backed pipeline will send Turkmen gas to Europe via Russia.

Speaking after talks at a CIS heads of government summit in Ashghabad, Russia's Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said the four nations involved - Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - had agreed that construction should start as soon as possible.

“We also intend to sign a four-party agreement on reconstruction of the existing gas mains,” Zubkov said.

The news agency TASS reports that Turkmenistan has not ruled out taking part in the alternative Trans-Caspian pipeline project, Nabucco, favoured by Western governments. The Nabucco line would carry gas to Europe, bypassing Russia.

Speaking at the summit in Ashgabat, Turkmen president Berdimukhammedov said the Caspian pipeline was necessary for the country to fulfill its export commitments.

“Today Turkmenistan exports gas to Russia and Iran and we will start deliveries to China in 2009. Earlier this year we signed a trilateral contract on the Pre-Caspian pipeline between Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan," Berdimukhammedov said.

[ruslan33]

Russia to merge nuclear firms into global giant

President Putin is set to officially unite Russia's nuclear power producers into the United Nuclear Industrial Corporation on Friday. The move is aimed at doubling nuclear's share of national power generation by 2030. It's also hoped the merged nuclear company will be able to compete with the West.
The atomic industry generates a quarter of the electricity used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. But with ecological concerns and limited availability, global production is set to increase by up to 93% by 2030, depending largely on the choices made by China and India.

Tvel, Russia’s top producer, is racing to make up for what it calls the “lost 1990s”, by tendering for contracts worldwide, from Slovakia to Taiwan and mainland China.

But the new boss of a major EU power plant, Czech Temelin, has sensationally revealed to Russia Today that Russian nuclear fuel producers should seek global contracts because foreign rivals put cost first, and reliability second.

"Russia has one big advantage over the rest of the world: product stability. Western technologies put production economies first and product efficiency second," Milos Stapanovsky, Temelin CEO said.



Nuclear is actually one of the few industries where Russia is truly world-class

Valery Andryutin,
CEO of RosenergoatomBack in the big league

While Tvel fuels Temelin, the agency building the plants is Rosenergoatom. Its boss, Valery Andryutin, speaking in the Czech Republic, revealed how Russia is back among the major players.

"Nuclear is actually one of the few industries where Russia is truly world-class," he said.

"Winning tenders to build big plants in the likes of Bulgaria last year and Taiwan means that for the first time Russia is challenging the world leaders," Andryutin added.

Rosenergoatom has won around 10 per cent of nuclear plant construction, mainly in East Europe. It still lags behind Westinghouse and Europe’s Areva.

The creation by President Putin of the United Nuclear Industrial Corporation is designed to both raise nuclear’s share at home, and allow competition with the West in their own markets.

Globally, the merged company will compete to win contracts to build 40 new power plants in China, returning Russia to the big league of nuclear construction.

[ruslan33]

US.$ 15-billion pipeline to pump Russian gas to Europe.
Gazprom and Italian gas giant Eni have received a political blessing for the South Stream pipeline. President Putin and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi have signed an agreement on the creation of a company to run the U.S.$ 15-billion project.

The supply of energy from Russia to Europe was the focus of Thursday's talks between President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

The two leaders signed an agreement on the South Stream pipeline, which will link Russia to the EU, bypassing the usual transit countries, Ukraine and Belarus. It's no longer just a project on paper. From Friday, South Stream becomes a company with a proper structure and the necessary governance.

It is a 50/50 joint venture between Gazprom and Eni. The cost of the first phase will be shared equally between them.

The 900-kilometre-long South Stream will be capable of delivering 30 billion cubic metres of gas a year. It will go from Russia directly to the EU under the Black Sea and Bulgaria. From Bulgaria the pipeline will have two directions: one heading north to Hungary, Romania and Austria, and one south to Italy. The on-shore routes will have to be discussed further with transit countries.

Analysts say that South Stream might become a rival to Nabucco - a planned project that bypasses Russia. Nabucco would run from Azerbaijan to the EU, through Turkey. However, Paolo Scaroni, the head of Eni thinks both projects are possible.

“Europe has room for Nabucco and South Stream,” Scaroni stated.

Vitaly Yermakov from Cambridge Energy Research Associates says the project could once again raise the issue of European energy security.

“In a commercial sense additional flows of gas to Europe, irrespective of the source, is a good thing. But recently the European commission has been trying to push the agenda of diversification of the sources of supply and in this sense, of course, the politicians might be concerned about more Russian gas coming to Europe rather than gas from alternative sources,” Mr Yermakov said.

South Stream still has a lot of obstacles to overcome. Even after all the necessary documentation has been processed, and routes through transit countries are agreed, it will still take three years and cost more than U.S.$ 15 billion to complete the pipeline.

[golov]

Good news, cheers :cheers:

[nebunul]

Update ...

Romania, Kazakhstan to co-op in transporting oil
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-23

BUCHAREST- Romania and Kazakhstan will cooperate in transporting Caspian oil to European consumer markets, the Romanian and Kazakh presidents stressed in a joint press statement on Thursday.

Kazakhstan is interested in the development of the Constanta-Trieste pipeline project, said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who arrived in Bucharest for a two-day state visit.

The Constanta-Trieste pipeline is a five-country project for transporting oil from Caspian region via the Black Sea to European markets. The project envisages construction of a pipeline from the Black Sea port of Constanta, passing through the territories of Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia and terminating at Trieste in Italy.

Kazakhstan anticipates an output of about 150 million tons of oil annually by 2015. Such volumes necessitate multiple export outlets, of which the route via Constanta to Italy can be an attractive one.

From Trieste, the proposed pipeline can be connected with the Trans-Alpine Pipeline Network, which links Italy with Austria and southern Germany.

Kazakhstan is much interested in the development of a pipeline linking the Caspian Sea and Black Sea ports, since "Kazakhstan cango out to Europe and to the world" via the Port of Constanta, Nazarbaev said.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said that the development of relations with Kazakhstan is a priority for Romania, saying his country also wants to increase relations with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

[Le Clerk]

EC Gives Green Light to Bulgaria's Belene Nuke
Novinite.com

7 December 2007, Friday

The European Commission said on Friday it cleared Bulgaria's plans to build a nuclear power plant at Belene on the Danube, using Russian reactors.

According to the requirements of the Euratom treaty, any new investments in nuclear facilities require the commission's approval before proceeding.

"The Commission has held extensive discussions with the nuclear operator and concluded that the aspects of the investment in question are in line with the objectives of the Euratom Treaty," the EU executive said in a statement.

In particular, the Commission appreciated the fact that the future costs of decommissioning are already included in financial provisions, the various passive safety systems as well as improved protection against external hazards, but also stressed the need to diversify supply sources and develop plans for the long-term management of radioactive waste.

Bulgaria plans to retain control with 51% held by power grid operator NEK and the rest sold to a strategic investor, with Czech CEZ, German E.ON and RWE, Belgian Electrabel and Italy's Enel all vying for it.

With the European Commission giving its approval, Bulgaria can now apply for a government-underwritten EUR 300 M loan from the EU's Euratom agency.

"If in the future a request is made for a Euratom loan, such request will be evaluated according to its own merits, notably in relation to its economic, financial and environmental characteristics," the Commission said.

Bulgaria also plans to borrow a similar amount from the European Investment Bank (EIB), while government officials have earlier claimed that they have already secured EUR 250 M in funding for the plant from BNP Paribas.

The total construction costs for the plant, which will feature two 1000 MW third-generation Russian reactors built by Atomstroyexport, are estimated at EUR 4 B.

Bulgaria decided to unfreeze its plans to build the plant in 2004, having mothballed them a decade and a half earlier, to compensate for shutting down four older Soviet reactors at its Kozloduy facility at the request of the EU.

[paral0c0]

Termoelektrana Kakanj BiH

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/100/286645248_69386c185a_b.jpg

[zzibit]

^^ what a monster!

[bgrs]

AES with a 200MW wind power park near Kavarna. 300 mln Euro are to be invested in the project.

AES Geo Energy received a Class 1 investor certificate. The project for the construction of a wind energy farm is a joint initiative of AES Bulgaria and Geo Power. Yesterday at a special ceremony the Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy Valentin Ivanov handed the certificate to Peter Lithgow, Country Manager of AES in Bulgaria and to Eng. Dimitar Hristov, CEO of Geo Power.

AES Geo Energy is an investment project for generating electricity from environmentally-friendly resources, such as wind. The wind farm capacity will be up to 200 MW and will be located in the northern part of the Black Sea region, on the farmland near to the town of Kavarna.

The total investment in the wind energy project amounts to over 300 million Euro and the expected annual electricity output will exceed 450 GWh. In the operation stage more than 500 000 tons of carbon emissions will be saved annually, which will be a significant contribution to the achievement of the European Union strategic objectives for independence of energy supplies and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 20% before 2020.

"The development of this wind energy farm is part of the global AES strategy for development of wind energy projects in Europe and particularly at markets with expected high future growth”, said Peter Lithgow, Country Manager of AES in Bulgaria.

„We are confident that the joint activity of AES and Geopower will meet the global trends for maximum utilization of resources provided by renewable energy sources and will place our country among the advanced countries in Europe caring for the environment”, said Eng. Dimitar Hristov, CEO of Geo Power.

AES Geo Energy has signed a preliminary agreement with the National Electricity Company for interconnection of the planned capacity and is now working on the power purchase agreement for the produced power. The company has available data on three-year measurements and analysis of the wind potential at the project site, which fully confirms the initial forecasts and guarantees the successful operation of the wind turbines. This project is supported by the Ministry of Environment and Water, by the Energy Efficiency Agency, by the municipality of Kavarna, as well as by the World Council for Renewable Energy and the World Wind Energy Association.

AES
AES is one of the world's largest global power companies, with 2006 revenues of $11.6 billion. With operations in 28 countries on five continents, AES's generation and distribution facilities have the capacity to serve 100 million people worldwide. AES's 13 regulated utilities amass annual sales of over 73,000 GWh and its 121 generation facilities have the capacity to generate approximately 43,000 megawatts. AES's global workforce of 30,000 people is committed to operational excellence and meeting the world's growing power needs. In Bulgaria, Stara Zagora region the company constructs a 670 MW “AES-3C Maritza East 1”, €1.2 billion Project.

Geo Power
Geo Power is a private Bulgarian – German joint venture established in 2003 for development and implementation of investment projects for power generation from renewable energy sources. The wind farm at Kavarna is the company’s pilot project.

[joce23]

Energy: Hydro-electric plans recognise no borders
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/be550606-a6f1-11dc-a25a-0000779fd2ac.html

The river Ugar, plunging north-westwards through the craggy central Bosnian landscape, could easily symbolise the yawning political chasm between the country’s two post-war entities.

Instead, in recent weeks, the fast-flowing Ugar and its rugged canyon have become the focus of unprecedented inter-entity economic co-operation, as the Bosniak-Muslim and Croat-led Federation starts the groundwork on a joint hydro-electric power project with the Serb-dominated republic on the opposite bank.

Nedzad Brankovic, the Federation’s prime minister, signed the deal on November 7 with his Republika Srpska (RS) counterpart, Milorad Dodik, whereby the two once-warring entities aim to construct the 40-megawatt plant as a 50:50 venture for an estimated cost of around €40m ($59m).

In a quiet triumph of economic logic over politics, the two prime ministers sealed their deal in the midst of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s “worst political crisis” since the 1992-1995 war, as Mr Dodik tried to stop the high representative, Miroslav Lajcak, from strengthening central decision-making powers.

Starting in the Vlasic uplands, the waters of the picturesque tributary run some 45km – including about 30km along the inter-entity line – before spilling into the Vrbas, Sava and then Danube systems.

Stipo Buljan, an energy official in the Federation government, said he met RS officials on December 5 “to discuss the first steps in the realisation of Ugar hydro-power construction, based on principles established in the meeting between prime ministers Brankovic and Dodik” a month earlier.

Technopromexport, a Russian electrical power contractor, will supply all the equipment, with Russian pre-war debt settlement to provide much of the financing, officials say.

But the Ugar project is only the latest and highest-level energy deal linking the entities. The Stanari lignite mine, in the northern Serb republic, sends around 70 per cent of its current 600,000-tonne annual output to customers in nearby Federation areas, primarily the coal-hungry Tuzla thermo-electric station.

“For us, the business logic is inescapable,” says Nenad Savic, communications director for Energy Financing Team (EFT), the UK-based group that has revived the former Yugoslav open-pit mine for the soft brown coal since 2004. “Economic choices recognise no borders or ethnic issues.”

EFT, under mainly ethnic Serb management, hired a company from the Federation for the environmental impact assessment at Stanari. Mutual wishes for energy development “will inevitably lead to integrative pressures” in the two-entity state, Mr Savic says.

Electricity is the commodity with the most obvious export potential for either the RS or the Federation. With substantial coal reserves and numerous dammable rivers, the entities can together boast south-eastern Europe’s best balance of different energy resources. Amid rising power shortages, Bosnia-Herzegovina could become the main regional electricity exporter within the next five years, investors say.

“Bosnia-Herzegovina is fourth in Europe for hydro-electric potential,” says Aleksandar Petrovic, managing director of Citadel Investment Services, in Banja Luka. “And [the country has] so many coal mines, yet we lack basic investments.”

Romania and Bulgaria, the latest European Union members, are also racing to conquer the regional market.

“The Federation government’s interest is very much in developing the RS energy sector and vice versa,” says Mr Savic. “Only hand-in-hand will they maximise their potential.”

This is not to suggest that energy plans would ever lead to warm, fuzzy political unity. The RS government’s 30-year licence to EFT for Stanari demands an investment of €100m to revive the mine, followed by €500m for a new, adjacent high-tech thermo-electric plant. TTP Stanari will consume 2.8m tonnes of lignite per year, out of projected annual mine production of 3.2m tonnes, says Danilo Milosevic, chief plant engineer.

Next to the RS’s high-tech station, the Federation’s old smoke-belching Tuzla facility will find itself at an ever-worse competitive disadvantage. “Lignite is not very transportable,” even over short distances, Mr Milosevic says.

Yet he believes that inter-entity competition will do the whole country good. “The RS has taken the lead with this project and Gacko, but this will push the Federation to do the same.”

For now, the €1.4bn Gasko deal with the Czech power company, CEZ, remains mired in complaints from lesser shareholders. Both entities have scrambled to plug short-term gaps through private-sector “mini-hydro” development, offering multiple tenders for plants ranging from less than 1MW up to 5MW each.

For once, the notoriously inefficient Federation has sped ahead, with 24 plants completed, compared to the zero so far in the RS. Jelenko Lolic, a local investor in two RS mini-hydro concessions worth nearly €10m, says he is “having problems” with corrupt or disinterested low-level officials.

[Turnovec]

Bulgarian Bulgargaz Buys Stake in Romanian Transgaz

Bulgargaz' Holding, the Bulgarian gas distributor, informed it acquired less than 1% of the 10% share stake floated on its internal market by Romanian gas company ‘Transgaz', Dnevnik a.m. reports.

Bulgargaz division Bulgartransgaz and Transgaz are involved in the Nabucco project for the delivery of Caspian gas to Central and Eastern Europe.

The distributors are potential participants in an initiative spearheaded by Hungary's MOL for the creation of a regional gas holding consolidating the business of operators from six countries.

The executive director of Bulgargaz Holding, Lyubomir Denchev said, the company paid 1,1 million BGN (550,000 EUR) to acquire 9,000 of the 1,17 million shares offered by Transgaz.

The deal marks the first overseas acquisition for Bulgargaz which is aiming for a market cap of 4-6 billion EUR, Denchev informed.

Bulgargaz will become that first state enterprise, which realizes such a transaction.

Bulgaria's Vice Energy Minister Galina Tosheva said that Bulgaria will consolidate the state-owned power stations, mining companies, national power grid operator NEK and Bulgargaz Holding into an energy holding.

Unless the new holding is set up promptly and lists in 2009, it may miss its opportunities to tap the financial markets, told from Dnevnik a. m.

[joce23]

Regal Petroleum finds gas in Romania
http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=56416543168873

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Regal Petroleum PLC said it found gas in the first exploration well it drilled in the Barlad license in Romania.
The well, known as RBN-4, flowed up to 3.74 mln standard cubic feet of dry gas per day, said Regal, which holds a 100 pct stake in the project.

'This initial test of the first zone of the RBN-4 well is very encouraging and the flow rates achieved are in excess of those expected,' said David Greer, Regal's chairman and chief executive.
Regal said it has spudded the second exploration hole, RBN-3, located 5 kilometres to the northwest of RBN-4. Drilling will take about 20 days at a cost of around 1.1 mln usd.

[Le Clerk]

Business Standard:

Distrigaz Sud to invest €90 million in 2008

14 decembrie 2007

Natural gas distributor Distrigaz Sud, owned by French group Gaz de France (GdF), has an investment budget for 2008 worth RON 300 million (€91 mln), some 20 percent lower year-on-year, when it allocated some €108 mln for investments.

The investments will be used mainly to ensure safety of operations, through the modernizing of the distribution network, according to the company's Development Manager, Dan Pantilie. Some 56 percent of the budget will be used to replace old pipes and modernize protection, monitoring and operations systems, Distrigaz officials said.

[skingrad]

^^ what a monster!

That's some commie legacy right there:lol:

[nebunul]

Romania: Companies Named To Build Pipeline
December 19, 2007 10 55 GMT

Romania's Ministry of Economy and Finance appointed the Oil Terminal company and Conpet Ploiesti as the consortium that will participate in the building of the pan-European oil pipeline, ReporterNet reported Dec. 19. The pipeline is planned to transport oil from the Caspian Sea area (Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) through Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, according to the report. :cheers:

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?selected=Situation%20Reports&sitrep=1&id=300269

[ToNY_Montana]

Dobrogea, the paradise of eolian energy

http://www.businessmagazin.ro/energie/dobrogea-raiul-energiei-eoliene.html?5849;2307910

[Yury]

some news just in :D

Russian gas deal dashes EU hopes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7153769.stm

Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have signed a landmark deal to build a gas pipeline.

The pipeline will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asian energy export routes, analysts said.

It also deals a blow to European Union hopes of securing alternate routes that would bypass Russia.

The pipeline will skirt the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern Russia via Kazakhstan and will be built by the end of 2010.

The trilateral agreement was signed in Moscow in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.
EU disappointment

The agreement will likely disappoint the US and the EU, which have been lobbying for a rival pipeline to be built under the Caspian Sea, analysts said.

They had hoped to pipe Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea via Turkey, in order to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian-controlled energy.

The EU relies on Russia for about a quarter of its gas consumption.

Prospects for pipelines under the Caspian have been clouded by high costs, environmental concerns and disputes over ownership of the sea resources.
"This is a very important agreement for the energy industries of our countries as well as for Europe's energy," President Putin told reporters.

The deal follows a preliminary agreement reached in May.

The pipeline will export 20 billion cubic metres of gas a year - enough to cover the demand of a country such as France for almost half a year.

Other countries are also seeking access to the resource-rich region and work has begun on building another gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China.

[Le Clerk]

British groups Continental Wind Partners and Good Energies ordered 150 wind turbines from the GE Energy, in value of 400 million Euro. They will be set up in Romania and Poland in wind energy parks by the end of 2008 and generate 600 megawatts in Romania and 289 megawatts in Poland. Further orders will follow in 2008 and 2009.

Ziarul Financiar:

Comanda de 400 mil. euro pentru 150 turbine eoliene pentru Romania si Polonia
20-12-2007

Grupul britanic de investitii in proiecte de energie regenerabila Good Energies si dezvoltatorul Continental Wind Partners au avansat o comanda de peste 400 milioane euro pentru 150 de turbine eoliene fabricate de GE Energy, care vor fi amplasate in Romania si Polonia, informeaza Mediafax.

Turbinele de noua generatie, cu o capacitate cumulata de 375 megawati, vor fi livrate incepand cu primavara anului 2009 si distribuite catre firme controlate de Good Energies si Continental Wind Partners (CWP), urmand sa fie instalate mai ales in Polonia si Romania.

"Comanda este destinata celor mai dezvoltate amplasamente din Romania si Polonia. In anii 2008 si 2009 vor fi anuntate comenzi suplimentare, intrucat vrem sa primim aprobarea pentru construirea de parcuri eoliene cu o capacitate totala de 600 de megawati in Romania pana la finele anului 2008 si de 280 megawati in Polonia", a declarat, intr-un comunicat, presedintele CWP, Adam de Sola Pool.

[bgrs]

Bourgas Municipality councilors decided to make a local referendum on ‘Burgas-Aleksandrupolis' oil-conduct on February 17 next year.

The question, which the municipality inhabitants will answer to, is: 'Do you approve the oil-conduct Bourgas-Aleksandrupolis construction with pipeline layout and installations, situated over Bourgas Municipality territory?'

The referendum realization was decided today and the Municipality Council voted 60,00 BGN (30,000 EUR) for its organization.

The proposal for referendum was made by ‘Ataka' Party representative group in the Municipality Council.

[nebunul]

They better say ... YESSSSSSSS :lol:

[bgrs]

^^ It puts the tourism in the region to a risk. Imagine the pipe breaks somewhere near the coast and the lovely beaches get polluted with smelly ugly oil :(

[nebunul]

Regal Petroleum Announces Gas Discovery in Dornesti Sud-1 Well in Romania
Friday, December 21, 2007

Regal Petroleum announces that Aurelian Oil and Gas plc, through its wholly owned Romanian subsidiary, Aurelian Oil & Gas Romania S.R.L. (”Aurelian”), as operator of the Suceava EV-1 Concession (the “Concession”) in Romania has completed flow testing of the Dornesti Sud-1 exploration well.

A flow test of a 12.5 metre interval, from 531.8 metres to 544.3 metres, produced gas at an average rate of 24,840 Sm3/d (876 Mscf/d) with a flowing wellhead pressure of 32 bar (464 psi) on a 12mm choke over a 8 hour main flow period.

The Dornesti Sud-1 well was drilled through the Sarmatian formation to a total depth of 910 metres and encountered gas in the interval 528 metres to 545 metres. This section, which consists of sandstones interbedded with siltstones and claystones, was interpreted to be gas bearing on evaluation with electrical logs.

The well has been completed as a production well and efforts will be directed to tying it in during 2008 to the Bilca Gas Plant, operated by Aurelian on its adjacent Brodina Block EIII-1 concession.

Regal holds a 50% working interest in the Concession with Aurelian holding the remaining 50% interest, and the Concession covers an area of 4,103 square kilometres onshore in the north-east of Romania.

http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Regal_Petroleum_Announces_Gas_Discovery_in_Dornesti_Sud1_Well_in_Romania/ba5c62ac.aspx



Is this another Frank Timis bluff ?! :nuts:

[nebunul]

Regal Petroleum Announces Gas Discovery in Dornesti Sud-1 Well in Romania
Friday, December 21, 2007


Is this another Frank Timis bluff ?! :nuts:


Yes it is :lol:

Regal Petroleum abandons hydrocarbon well in Romania
www.zf.ro

UK-based petroleum and gas company Regal Petroleum has given up one of the oil fields for which it holds an exploration licence in Barlad, Vaslui county, after drilling showed hydrocarbon reserves are not big enough to justify commercial operations. The second well drilling was intended for evaluating the volume of hydrocarbon reserves and the well was drilled to a total depth of 1,116 metres, shows a company release. Regal Petroleum announced in October that it would start drilling on two natural gas wells in the Barlad concession, which entails overall costs of 2.1 million dollars, and on a Suceava-based concession, managed in partnership with Aurelian Oil & Gas, based in London. Regal Petroleum has exploration, development and production activities in states such as Romania, Ukraine and Greece. Last year, the company posted business worth 10.8 million dollars, 3.4 times lower than in 2005, and turned a profit, worth 2.53 million dollars, against 1.25 million-dollar losses seen in the previous year.

[Turnovec]

Some of the new wind generators north of Varna, Bulgaria

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/2167029392_bbb0e08d42_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/2166233013_0977fb427c_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2150/2167005676_1be49ba491_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/2166190951_9422a4d7a2_b.jpg

[nebunul]

^^ Great for environment and Bulgaria’s energy sector :cheers: … but bloody ugly things :ohno:

[zzibit]

Bulgaria's Kozloduy produced more than planned in 2007

Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) realised a production that was 6.31 per cent above the planned production for 2007.

The plant produced more than 14.643 billion kWh of energy in 2007, while the scheduled amount of energy to be produced was nearly 13.775 billion kWh.

Kozloduy reached its production target for 2007 as early as on December 14, Focus news agency said.

The unit five and six of the plan were functioning at full power, the plant said. Two of the reactors of six-unit Kozloduy NPP were shut down in 2002, the other two were closed on December 31 2006 as precondition for Bulgaria’s EU accession.

Nearly 83.5 per cent of the capacity of the two reactors was used for production. Unit five produced 7.134 billion kWh of energy and unit six produced 7.509 billion kWh. The figures were record-breaking for the whole period of exploitation of the units.

[Turnovec]

Greek company to invest 500 million euro in wind energy plant

The Greek company Marivent Ltd. will invest 500 million euro in a wind-energy park near the town of Pernik.

The park's energy capacity would be 800 MWh, Greek embassy to Finland said in a media statement.

Marivent announced that it had already signed a contract for the construction with local authorities.

The new plant will sell energy to the Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEC) for 20 years.

Marivent would complete the project in less than 30 months, the bulletin said. The company itself and EU funds would provide money for the project, according to investor.bg said. Marivent expected 4.5 billion euro in revenues over the next 20 years.

The project was considered one of the biggest in the sector in the EU.

[joce23]

Moscow paper: Bulgaria to become the new Russian energy outpost
http://www.hotnews.ro/english/regional_europe/articol_2195367/moscow_paper_bulgaria_become_the_new_russian_energy_outpost.htm


Every year, European countries find it more difficult to cut loose from Russia&apos;s natural resource exports, which transforms Gazprom into one of the main pillars on the European energy market, daily newspaper Gazeta writes, noting that new EU member state Bulgaria makes an exception to the rule.

The paper reads that not all European countries cope with this vision. The European Commission searches for plans to put an end to the monopoly in the energy sector as the market is split into transportation, production and development companies.

However, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy find it rewarding to collaborate with Russian infrastructures, wishing to exploit its transit potential.

Bulgarian monitoring center Top Energy data show that Russian gas deliveries for Balkan countries grew by 13.2% in 2007.

In the same time, Bulgaria, the main Russian partner in the region increased its purchases by 4.7%. Plus, for 2007, authorities established a maximum quota of gas transportation on its territory as gas pipes cannot cope with the amount of gas requested.

During his visit to Bulgaria on January 17 and 18, Russia President Putin will discuss among others about the South Stream project that aims at building a pipeline between Russia and Bulgaria through the Black Sea to West Europe. A three party accord between Russia, Bulgaria and Greece will also be signed to establish a company due to project the Bourgas-Alexandropolis pipeline.

[joce23]

Romgaz to expand activities to Central Asia
http://www.interfax.com/5/353926/news.aspx

BUDAPEST. JANUARY 14. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - Romanian state-owned gas company Romgaz is interested in expanding its activities to Central Asia according to Viorel Palasca, the secretary of the Romanian Economy Ministry, Romanian national daily Ziarul Financiar reported Monday.
"Romgaz has two possibilities," Palasca said. "Either to seek concession of gas fields - with the main interest being in the Central Asian region and Turkmenistan - or to become involved in development of underground gas depots."

According to Palasca, a delegation of the Economy Ministry, the majority-owner of Romgaz, will visit Turkmenistan in February to discuss the possibilities of further cooperation.

The Romanian state controls about 85% of Romgaz, which controls around half of Romania's annual 13 bln cbm natural gas production. Romgaz recorded a RON 248.8 mln net profit in the first nine months of 2007, down 30% on the year, while the company's revenues came in at RON 2.6 bln (EUR 780 mln), up 12% year on year.

[Le Clerk]

Business Standard
16 ianuarie 2008


The Racova Com Agro Pan Vaslui group of companies, owned by former international soccer referee Adrian Porumboiu, is to invest some €18 million this year in two electrical and thermal energy units. :nuts:

“The new units, to be built in Barlad and Tarzii (Ed. n.: towns in Vaslui County), are to be operational by the end of the year, and will have a production capacity of four and two megawatts, respectively,” Porumboiu said. Half of the investment will be made with European funds, he added.

The units will be part of the national green energy system.

Porumboiu is one of the top five agricultural group owners, and other major players in the field are TCE 3 Brazi, Agro Chirnogi, Comcereal Dolj, and Interagro.

[new bulgaria]

Moscow paper: Bulgaria to become the new Russian energy outpost
http://www.hotnews.ro/english/regional_europe/articol_2195367/moscow_paper_bulgaria_become_the_new_russian_energy_outpost.htm


Every year, European countries find it more difficult to cut loose from Russia&apos;s natural resource exports, which transforms Gazprom into one of the main pillars on the European energy market, daily newspaper Gazeta writes, noting that new EU member state Bulgaria makes an exception to the rule.

The paper reads that not all European countries cope with this vision. The European Commission searches for plans to put an end to the monopoly in the energy sector as the market is split into transportation, production and development companies.

However, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy find it rewarding to collaborate with Russian infrastructures, wishing to exploit its transit potential.

Bulgarian monitoring center Top Energy data show that Russian gas deliveries for Balkan countries grew by 13.2% in 2007.

In the same time, Bulgaria, the main Russian partner in the region increased its purchases by 4.7%. Plus, for 2007, authorities established a maximum quota of gas transportation on its territory as gas pipes cannot cope with the amount of gas requested.

During his visit to Bulgaria on January 17 and 18, Russia President Putin will discuss among others about the South Stream project that aims at building a pipeline between Russia and Bulgaria through the Black Sea to West Europe. A three party accord between Russia, Bulgaria and Greece will also be signed to establish a company due to project the Bourgas-Alexandropolis pipeline.

Show me the money.:lol:

[Olympios]

Nice pic from the Hellenic Agora's member Skaros. It shows the windparks of the private company Rokas in Greece, which have producing capacity of circa 200MW.

ROKAS windpark map

http://www.rokasgroup.gr/images/map.jpg

[bgrs]

"AEC Belene" nuclear power plant claimed to be Europe's biggest construction project

A large number of international construction companies will be working on the site according to the contract. The final agreements will be signed by Putin on his visit to Sofia. The construction will take 4 years. AEC Belene is going to strengthen Bulgaria's position on the regional energy markets.

Строителството на АЕЦ “Белене” е най-големият строителен проект в Европа.


Това заяви министърът на регионалното развитие и благоустройството Асен Гагаузов днес по bTV.
По думите му в реализацията на проекта участват много международни компании.
Гагаузов обясни, че при посещението на Владимир Путин ще бъде подписано споразумение за изграждането на централата и ще започне подготовката за нейния строеж.
„След четири години България ще разполага с ново енергийно бижу, което ще дава сериозна позиция на нашата страна както на Балканите, така и в Южна Европа”, похвали се министърът.

[Turnovec]

NPP ‘Kozloduy' Units 3 and 4 in Readiness to Work in Crisis

http://images.ibox.bg/2006/11/10/kozloduy/519x290.jpg

NPP ‘Kozloduy' units 3 and 4 are held in readiness and could start working in conditions of energy crisis in the country or on the Balkans, said the Regional Development and Public Works Minister Asen Gagauzov.

We remind you, yesterday Premier Stanishev announced that Government is conducting talks with international companies to take on lease units 3 and 4 of NPP ‘Kozloduy' with the engagement to assure political support in decisions which will help prolonging the terms of units' exploitation.

Minister Gagauzov pointed the state have to accept Russia as a partner in the energy policy, but in the borders of common interests of the both countries and the EU policy.

The building of NPP ‘Belene' is the biggest project in Europe, in which parts are taken by many international companies, not only from Russian side, remained Gagauzov.

In four to five years Bulgaria will have a new energy jewel, which will give the country a serious position not only on the Balkans, but in whole Southern Europe.

The Minister also added about the oil pipeline ‘Bourgas-Alexandroupolis' contestable aspects. He assured all ecological norms will be observed not only of Bulgarian, but of the International law.

‘There is still none ecological valuation of this project, because it is actually still not existing. After tomorrow's establishing of the project's association, the valuation process will be activated.' explained Gagauzov.

---------------------------------

Solar Park in Project Near Sofia

Energy Invest, part of Bulgaria's Advance Equity Holding, informed that plan to build a solar park near Bulgaria's capital of Sofia, Dnevnik a.m. reported.

The company will win the rights of the majority stake in Intersol EAD for the implementation of a solar power station project. The solar park will be on the ammount of 3 million EUR.

Energy Invest will enter in the the company about 1,1 million BGN (550,000 EUR). The solar park will be situated in the Paunovo village, municipality of Ihtiman, Sofia district.

Japan's Kaneka will supply the equipment for the 882kW facility, the Dnevnik told.

Energy Invest is planning to install wind turbines with a combined capacity of 12MW in the land areas of the seaside towns of Balchik and Kavarna.

Energy Invests already operates a 2.4MW wind station near Kavarna.

[Turnovec]

We sign the "South Stream" contract as Putin surprisingly agreed the future company that will run it on Bulgarian territory to have a 50/50 shares from the Russian and Bulgarian side....

It is great when a sphere of interests colide over the small country that you live in :) In this case you can get say louder your interest and receive some pretty good allowances from the big players ;)

Bulgaria and Russia Sign the “South Stream” Project

http://www.eni.it/eni/images_static/immagini/23_06_07/south_stream_map.jpg

http://bsdp.org/files/img/South_Stream.jpg

The agreement for the “South stream” project will be signed today by the Bulgarian minister of economy and energy Peter Dimitrov.

Bulgaria has defended to a maximum level its interests, claimed Prime minister Stanishev after the project was discussed and adopted during an exclusive session of the government.

Russia agreed to an equal in rights participation of Bulgaria in the company on the “South stream” project.

Most probably the main talks were held yesterday late night after the arrival of president Putin in Bulgaria.

Two days ago I thought that the agreement will not be signed during the visit of the Russian president due to the remaining unsolved questions said the Bulgarian prime minister and added that in the last two days intensive and constructive negotiations were carried on the draft agreement.

One of the key questions on which there were differences and which is already settled was about the share proportion in the ownership of the company of the South Stream project. An agreement has been reached the proportion to be 50-50, informed Stanishev.

This is an agreement for a company, set on Bulgarian territory and Bulgargas will be invited to participate on equal terms.

Bulgaria will have a real influence in the decision-making, because the Bulgarian side cannot be neglected after the agreed proportion, claimed Stanishev and stressed on the personal contribution of the Russian president for the achieving of this result.

The prime minister pointed out that the signing of the “South stream” project was of strategical interest for Bulgaria because it diversified the roads for energy supplies and gives higher importance of Bulgaria on the European energy map.

[Yury]

good news and a confirmation (if any was needed) that it is possible to do business with Russia on an equal basis :cheers:

[bgrs]

Already signed!

Bulgaria has defended to a maximum level its interests, claimed Prime minister Stanishev after the project was discussed and adopted during an exclusive session of the government.

Russia agreed to an equal in rights participation of Bulgaria in the company on the “South stream” project.

Most probably the main talks were held yesterday late night after the arrival of president Putin in Bulgaria.

Two days ago I thought that the agreement will not be signed during the visit of the Russian president due to the remaining unsolved questions said the Bulgarian prime minister and added that in the last two days intensive and constructive negotiations were carried on the draft agreement.

One of the key questions on which there were differences and which is already settled was about the share proportion in the ownership of the company of the South Stream project. An agreement has been reached the proportion to be 50-50, informed Stanishev.

This is an agreement for a company, set on Bulgarian territory and Bulgargas will be invited to participate on equal terms.

Bulgaria will have a real influence in the decision-making, because the Bulgarian side cannot be neglected after the agreed proportion, claimed Stanishev and stressed on the personal contribution of the Russian president for the achieving of this result.

The prime minister pointed out that the signing of the “South stream” project was of strategical interest for Bulgaria because it diversified the roads for energy supplies and gives higher importance of Bulgaria on the European energy map.


A total 1.4 billion EUR will be invested in the project:

Относно икономическите параметри, шефът на МИЕ Петър Димитров е пояснил, че Булгаргаз чрез участието си вероятно ще инвестира 200 млн. евро, а очакваните инвестиции на компанията са около 700 млн. евро. Нормата на печалбата ще бъде такава, че да се осигури възвращаемост на инвестициите в рамките на 15 години.

Премиерът е допълнил, че общите инвестиции по проекта се очаква да възлязат на 1.4 млрд. евро в зависимост от маршрута, като само от ДДС се очакват 220 млн. евро.

В очите на европейските анализатори Южен поток представлява пряка конкуренция на европейския проект за тръбопровод Набуко, който трябва да намали зависимостта на Стария континент от енергийните доставки на Русия.

Въпреки плановете, ЕС досега не е напреднал съществено и засега проектът Набуко за € 5 млрд. съществува само върху хартия. Не е ясно дори откъде ще се вземе газа за тръбопровода. Има споразумение с Азербайджан, но експертите се съмняват, че в Кавказката държава ще има нужните за такъв голям проект запаси. Държавите от Централна Азия, например Тюркменистан, са богати на енергийни ресурси, но там руското влияние традиционно е твърде силно. Иран би могъл да помогне с газовите си резерви, но съвместна работа с иранския режим пропада по политически причини.

Така че трябва да се признаят многото положителни страни в проекта, който ни предлага Русия. В момента в съдействие с германски корпорации се строи аналогичен тръбопровод „Северен поток" по дъното на Балтийско море. Така че можем да очакваме техническото изпълнение и на Южен поток да бъде на ниво: участват Газпром и италианския концерн Eni. Амбициозните планове предвиждат тръбопроводът да продължи към Италия, Австрия и Унгария.

Сегашните преговори в София са особени заради участието в тях на Дмитрий Медведев, първи вицепремиер, председател на съвета на директорите на Газпром и почти със сигурност президент на Русия от май 2008. Той посети Италия в средата на юни миналата година, а в края на юни Газпром и Eni вече подписваха в Рим меморандум за взаимно разбирателство по проекта за Южен поток.

Преди отпътуването на руската делегация за България, Кремъл изтъкна, че иска да „избута" съглашението докрай. Или съглашение ще бъде подписано, или параметрите на проекта ще се продължат по време на визитата.

Руските медии коментираха уклончивия отговор на министър Петр Димитров от вчера, че България може да отложи подписването на съглашението за свето участие в Южен поток. Цитиран е източник от българската страна: „Искаме да гарантираме някаква икономическа изгода за държавата от този тръбопровод. Преговорите са сложни".

Все паяк руските анализатори бяха на мнение, че България не иска да удря спирачки на Южен поток в полза на имагинерния Набуко и просто иска да получи по-изгодни условия за своето участие.

„Това което се случва, е обикновен процес на търг за дял в нови активи" - казва ръководител на отдела за изследвания в газовата промишленост от Института по проблемите на естествените монополи. „Вероятността България да се откаже от руския проект е крайно малка, даже с оглед на възможността за оказван й натиск от други членове на ЕС".

В случай на създаване на Южен поток, България ще се превърне във втори по обем транзитьор на руски газ в западна Европа след Словакия. Това не само ще донесе допълнителни печалби от транзитни такси, а и ще даде дългосрочни гаранции за вътрешните потребители на газ, също така ще повиши икономическото и геополитическото значение на страната.

Това са солидни аргументи за София, още повече, че в краен случай Газпром и Eni могат да проведат газопровода под Черно море и през територията на Румъния, пише Независимая газета.

Даже частица от процента, спечелена за България в преговорите, означава допълнителен доход в размер на десетки милиони долари и затова участниците в преговорите търгуват до последно.

[nebunul]

Alternative Energy - http://ibdhome.gs.com/gsweb/gsr?nodeID=69936

[bgrs]

Actually, I didn't expect that the treaty would be signed. Putin wanted a majority stakes over the pipes on Bulgarian territory and that was not acceptable to our country. Good for us, they reached some kind of compromise and signed it.

[nebunul]

Good for Bulgaria! :cheers:

I sincerely hope that this is not seen as a/the chosen alternative for USA/EU backed Nabuco project. If it is, I suspect EU may get upset and work against Bulgaria … long term …

And why I say this: EU is looking to adopt a common energy policy. And so this may send the wrong message to Brussels ...

[Turnovec]

^^ I don't see a problem if both "Nabuco" and "South Stream" go through Bulgaria. After all Italy is behind "South Stream" too and following your logic , Brusseles should get upset to the Italians too :)

Anyway "Nabuco" still looks just like a good dream and nothing else... Can't figure how Iran is more trustable country than Russia ?

If EU's common energy policy means just to force us to close PPs and doesn't give us any options in exchange than the hell with it!

I am glad for the agreement on the "South Stream" as Putin finally accepted our terms :) :cheers:

[Yury]

EU will not be happy for sure, but what can it do? Nabuco now seems to be less and less likely to ever be built after Russia first signed a deal with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to transport their gas through Russia (instead of Western-backed Transcaspian pipeline) and now the deal with Bulgaria on South Stream to bring this same gas across the Black Sea and further West to its final consumers.

[nebunul]

^^ I don't see a problem if both "Nabuco" and "South Stream" go through Bulgaria.

I agree

EU will not be happy for sure, but what can it do?

May establish future energy routes outside Bulgaria ...

BTW wasn't approved?! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5121394.stm

[Yury]

May establish future energy routes outside Bulgaria ...

The energy routes from the Caspian Basin have now been taken care of and Bulragia is in the centre of it. I doubt there will be any additional pipelines built in that direction any time soon. And the algerian gas won't be passing through Bulgaria anyway.

[nebunul]

Turkey-Grece - (Albania maybe)-Italy-WE ?!

[Yury]

and which gas will fill that pipeline? Iranian?

[nebunul]

Does it matter which one? Iran, Iraq, Syria,Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan etc. Will be through Turkey anyway … so the question is - in this case - not where is coming from, but where is going through after leaving Turkey …

[RODINVEST]

nabuco needs to be built. Europe can not depend only on one nation. One of the first things that they teach you in highschool economics is that monopols are not good.
Gasprom is corupt and more than that it belongs it is not independent it is not ruled by economic rules but by political ones. Europe can not afford to be at the hand of Russia. The best example is Romania because we depend on Russian gas we pay much more than it is worth. That's why we need alternatives. It is logical from an economic point of view not to mention the political one.

[Yury]

Does it matter which one? Iran, Iraq, Syria,Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan etc. Will be through Turkey anyway … so the question is - in this case - not where is coming from, but where is going through after leaving Turkey …

my question was, where will EU get so much gas to fill all these existing and planned pipelines? If no supply guarantees exists, no one is going to participate and invest into this purely political project

[Turnovec]

nabuco needs to be built. Europe can not depend only on one nation. One of the first things that they teach you in highschool economics is that monopols are not good.
Gasprom is corupt and more than that it belongs it is not independent it is not ruled by economic rules but by political ones. Europe can not afford to be at the hand of Russia. The best example is Romania because we depend on Russian gas we pay much more than it is worth. That's why we need alternatives. It is logical from an economic point of view not to mention the political one.

^^ All this is true ... but why Nabuco is just standing in the air , on empty talks, and nobody moves it forward ? And what if The Nabuco gas appears to be more expensive than the one coming from Russia (if Nabuco ever gets built) ?

[Olympios]

Good job for Bulgaria!
It's interesting how the Russian sources say that SS will end in Greece (Ionian) and the map of ENI presents Albania (Adriatic) as the end...I suppose that the route isn't finalized yet.

[nebunul]

my question was, where will EU get so much gas to fill all these existing and planned pipelines? If no supply guarantees exists, no one is going to participate and invest into this purely political project

No worries ... Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan ... money talks :nuts::cheers:

[nebunul]

Good job for Bulgaria!
It's interesting how the Russian sources say that SS will end in Greece (Ionian) and the map of ENI presents Albania (Adriatic) as the end...I suppose that the route isn't finalized yet.

Albania will only agree to a USA/EU pipeline. 100% :nuts:

[RODINVEST]

Nabuco is for gas from Kazakhstan and other former soviet states.

[Turnovec]

Albania will only agree to a USA/EU pipeline. 100% :nuts:

^^ IMO It is bad to be a puppet of ONLY one of the major players .... nothing good comes out of such situation. :ohno: If Albania is wise they should use their geostrategical situation the best way they can.

[Yury]

Did not I say that before? Russia already agreed with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that their gas will be transported through Russia. I think I even posted this news here. And that means it is likely there will be not enough spare gas production in the Caspian region to justify a multi-billion dollar project like Nabucco

[Yury]

there you go:

some news just in :D

Russian gas deal dashes EU hopes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7153769.stm

Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have signed a landmark deal to build a gas pipeline.

The pipeline will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asian energy export routes, analysts said.

It also deals a blow to European Union hopes of securing alternate routes that would bypass Russia.

The pipeline will skirt the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern Russia via Kazakhstan and will be built by the end of 2010.

The trilateral agreement was signed in Moscow in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.
EU disappointment

The agreement will likely disappoint the US and the EU, which have been lobbying for a rival pipeline to be built under the Caspian Sea, analysts said.

They had hoped to pipe Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea via Turkey, in order to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian-controlled energy.

The EU relies on Russia for about a quarter of its gas consumption.

Prospects for pipelines under the Caspian have been clouded by high costs, environmental concerns and disputes over ownership of the sea resources.
"This is a very important agreement for the energy industries of our countries as well as for Europe's energy," President Putin told reporters.

The deal follows a preliminary agreement reached in May.

The pipeline will export 20 billion cubic metres of gas a year - enough to cover the demand of a country such as France for almost half a year.

Other countries are also seeking access to the resource-rich region and work has begun on building another gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China.

[nebunul]

It is not being a puppet; it's about keeping promises - opportunism has no place in developing strong relationships. You can't be in EU, get EU status, help and money; but when it comes to strategic/important moves knock on the other's door. I think Bulgaria made a bad move; and will cost you money and credibility long term ...

[RODINVEST]

Did not I say that before? Russia already agreed with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that their gas will be transported through Russia. I think I even posted this news here. And that means it is likely there will be not enough spare gas production in the Caspian region to justify a multi-billion dollar project like Nabucco

Contracts are made to be broken. Look at ENI. I simply do not like depending on Russia for gas. It is not economically feasible. Nabuco would be built if EU would act more as a team. But unfortunately everyone deals separately with Russia. ‘Divide and conquer’ applies well to this situation. I hope that the EU will wake up before it will be to late.

[Turnovec]

It is not being a puppet; it's about keeping promises - opportunism has no place in developing strong relationships. You can't be in EU, get EU status, help and money; but when it comes to strategic/important moves knock on the other's door. I think Bulgaria made a bad move; and will cost you money and credibility long term ...

^^ Why can't we be in EU and in NATO , have USA military bases on our territory and in the same time have a pipe(contorolled by us) transfering russian gas to Italy ? I see nothing wrong with this.

As for EU's help in our energy sector - all we have seen in the last 10 years is forcings to close many of our power plants .... and nothing reasonable in exchange.

Why do you think yestrday there were news in our medias that EU commission might allow us to open again the 3rd and 4th reactors of NPP Kozloduy that we were forced to close on 1st January 2007 ? Even though reactors of the same type and technology are still used and not closed in Slovakia and some other EU countries, EU was uncompromising with us .... Well, they finally saw that we've been treated with double standarts. But apperantly too late ....

Excuse me but we don't want to import energy from the French built NPP in Romania and to throw in the garbage can our incomes and strong positions as an electricity exporter on the Balkans ...

[Yury]

Time will tell. Of course depending on one source of energy is never good, but as far as Caspian gas is concerned, I think it is already too late.

As for Bulgaria, I think the most successful countries in EE will be the ones who manage to balance good relations with both East and West. If Bulgaria can manage that - they have a bright future no doubt :cheers:

[RODINVEST]

^^
I agree. But can you honestly guarantee that Russia will behave like a good neighbor. It would be a first for Russia. Let's hope that now with an educated population it will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

[nebunul]

It is the first time :crazy: in the last few years when I started to - strongly - doubt EE commitment for EU ... so Russia is clearly gaining pace while EU is losing it ... I am disappointed ... time will tell :cheers:

[Yury]

hehe, looks like the EU honeymoon is coming to an end :D

[nebunul]

As for Bulgaria, I think the most successful countries in EE will be the ones who manage to balance good relations with both East and West. If Bulgaria can manage that - they have a bright future no doubt :cheers:

I hope this will not happen - as wanted by Russia - deal individually with EU countries ... as EU will have a common energy policy ... soon

[nebunul]

hehe, looks like the EU honeymoon is coming to an end :D

common energy policy - that I agree :nuts: may take a while to establish - will solve it :cheers: ...

[Turnovec]

It is the first time :crazy: in the last few years when I started to - strongly - doubt EE commitment for EU ... so Russia is clearly gaining pace while EU is losing it ... I am disappointed ... time will tell :cheers:

^^ Don't lose hope :) Though it is true that EU must start to act quicker and with less burocracy. Truth is we have no time to sit and wait for years for someone to decide what are we going to do instead of us.

[RODINVEST]

I do not blame Bulgaria. Bigger and older EU countries negotiated separately with Russia. I blame the EU for not having an energy policy. Bulgaria is poor like us and by this their status grows in the area. Plus that it always had good relations with Russia.

[Turnovec]

I do not blame Bulgaria. Bigger and older EU countries negotiated separately with Russia. I blame the EU for not having an energy policy. Bulgaria is poor like us and by this their status grows in the area. Plus that it always had good relations with Russia.

^^ I second that. Besides don't forget that we would always prefer a pipe coming from Russia , than a pipe coming from Turkey if you know what i mean ;)

[nebunul]

Never ... just makes me think that a real bond between EE countries is a utopia ... and Russia exploits our fucked up (by them with our own help) systems very easily in their own interest ... beside Romania's kind of isolated in EE/SE ... all neighbours bow to Moscow ... so we've got only one clear option ... USA :cheers:

[RODINVEST]

I know. We on the other hand prefer the one from Turkey. Such is life in the Balkans :)

[Turnovec]

^^ :okay:

[nebunul]

^^ IMO It is bad to be a puppet of ONLY one of the major players .... nothing good comes out of such situation. :ohno: If Albania is wise they should use their geostrategical situation the best way they can.

I still have doubts on this one ... US Army is building bases in Bulgaria/Romania to protect their interests ... not Russia's ... so if you play in-between "major players" there is a 100% chance you will upset at least one ... if not two as in this particular case. So the question is: who's best/worst :nuts: to upset?

Anyway, I agree that on short term Bulgaria has made a good move. But long term, this was a bad choice IMO ... time will tell :)

[bgrs]

Never ... just makes me think that a real bond between EE countries is a utopia ... and Russia exploits our fucked up (by them with our own help) systems very easily in their own interest ... beside Romania's kind of isolated in EE/SE ... all neighbours bow to Moscow ... so we've got only one clear option ... USA :cheers:

Yeah, if the USA could provide us some cheap energy source, we'd be very glad. At the moment, we're sending our people to fight in Iraq for their petrol and they must return us the favor somehow :)

[nebunul]

I still have doubts on this one ... US Army is building bases in Bulgaria/Romania to protect their interests ... not Russia's ... :)

A tale of two allies
www.csmonitor.com

Washington - This week, Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich traveled to Washington to negotiate his country's participation in the US antiballistic missile-defense system. In a break with previous policy, the new center-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has demanded fresh concessions – cash, Patriot missiles, and security guarantees – in exchange for hosting the bases on Polish soil.

The visit provided America with its first glimpse of a more assertive Poland, whose leaders are determined to drive a "hard bargain" for support of US policies. Warsaw's new mind-set is replicated across the capitals of the "New Europe," where officials are weary of what they see as Washington's failure to reward its allies for support in the Iraq war.

One notable exception to this trend is Romania. Like Poland, Romania sent troops to Iraq and has been disappointed by its exclusion from the US Visa Waiver Program. But unlike Poland, Romania has welcomed the construction of American military bases. Three features of US strategy toward Romania allowed it to succeed and could provide a blueprint for revitalizing relations with American allies worldwide.

First, in contrast to its dealings with Warsaw, Washington has worked to maintain a relationship with Bucharest on reciprocal footing. When Bucharest backed the US bid for exclusion from the International Criminal Court, Washington backed Romania's bid to join NATO.

When Bucharest granted America access to its airspace early in the Iraq war, Washington granted Romania its coveted designation as a "functional market economy." And when Bucharest cosponsored a US push for Iraqi sovereignty at the United Nations, Washington agreed to locate lucrative US bases on Romania's Black Sea coast.

In each instance, Romanian assistance was matched – usually within one or two months – by US backing for a specific Romanian interest. By contrast, for years the Poles have watched their leaders fly to Washington seeking help – on oil contracts, military aid, visas – only to come away empty-handed. Hence the desire for upfront perks in the talks this week on missile defense.

Second, Washington has been careful to maintain the appearance of an equal relationship with Romania. In negotiations over US bases, the Bush administration stressed that ultimate sovereignty for the installations would rest with Bucharest. As David McKiernan, America's top Army general in Europe, often told the press, "We are guests, tenants." Such humility was necessary, Washington knew, for Bucharest to convince its citizens they were partners rather than pawns of US policy.

Failure to take a similar tack with Poland has done much to fuel problems on missile defense. By failing to consult Warsaw and Prague before offering Russian observers access to the bases, Washington unwittingly tapped into a deep-seated regional fear of being "talked over" by the Great Powers. As a former Polish diplomat told me, the move confirmed that America views Poland "as a playground rather than a player."

Third, in its dealings with Romania, Washington has eschewed the temptation to try to operate today's alliances on the logic that guided alliances during the cold war. This holds that countries stand with America in pursuit of common values, over virtually limitless time horizons, and without any need for enticements. With Romania, Washington has pursued finite goals over a short time frame with frequent quid pro quos to incentivize cooperation.

Why not take a similar approach with Warsaw? A Pentagon official told me, "Romania is not likely to be as significant an ally as Poland over the long-term." That's right: current US thinking holds that it shouldn't reward its most valuable allies. In Washington's view, "mature" partners don't require coaxing – they support America for the sheer satisfaction of knowing they're friends with the sole remaining superpower.

The problem with this approach is that it no longer works. As the Pentagon discovered in meetings with Mr. Klich, Poland is not prepared to move an inch on missile defense until Washington provides offsets to justify hosting the system.

This is not, as some critics say, extortion; it is reciprocity – a feature of healthy, interest-based alliances from time immemorial. Like politicians anywhere, Poland's new leaders have to be able to show that risks undertaken on behalf of a foreign power bring tangible benefits to their own citizens. Failure to do so contributed to the fall from grace of Tusk's predecessor, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Britain's Tony Blair, and Australia's John Howard.

A breakthrough on missile defense is unlikely this year: Congress doesn't want to release the funds and Bush doesn't have enough political capital to change their minds. Whatever the next president does with the system, he or she should take a close look at which methods have worked – and which ones haven't – in America's recent interactions with allies. Keeping their support in the post-unipolar age will probably prove more valuable than 10 missile shields.

A. Wess Mitchell is director of research at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based institute dedicated to the study of Central Europe.

[Ivailo]

Good job for Bulgaria!
It's interesting how the Russian sources say that SS will end in Greece (Ionian) and the map of ENI presents Albania (Adriatic) as the end...I suppose that the route isn't finalized yet.
It`s sure that the line will pass through Greece and then will continue towards Italy.The question is for the second line- it will reach Austria through Hungary but it`s not known which will be the connection between Bulgaria and Hungary- Romania or Serbia.

In regards to Nabucco, the minister of the economis and the energetics of Bulgaria confirmed that there aren`t any clauses in the contract for SS which concern the construction of Nabucco and Bulgaria supports the realisation of the both projects because it will lead to two alternative, competing each other, gas-mains.BTW there was an interview with the EU commissioner who is responsible for the energetics and he said that the EU is NOT against Burgas-Alexandropolis or SS but won`t fund them because Nabucco remains as a main priority.BTW after the fourth largest economy in the EU(Italy) is part of SS, I think that everything should be in accordance with the other members of the union.

[nebunul]

It`s sure that the line will pass through Greece and then will continue towards Italy.The question is for the second line- it will reach Austria through Hungary but it`s not known which will be the connection between Bulgaria and Hungary- Romania or Serbia.


100%

[joce23]

Canada’s Sterling Resources Makes Another Gas Discovery in Romania

http://www.newswire.ca/en/search/index.cgi?okey=38452&Submit=Submit&FormType=general&Flags=31&AllDates=&StartDate=&EndDate=

[bgrs]

Well, that's the map of SS:

http://www.eni.it/eni/images_static/immagini/23_06_07/south_stream_map.jpg

[Yury]

It`s sure that the line will pass through Greece and then will continue towards Italy.The question is for the second line- it will reach Austria through Hungary but it`s not known which will be the connection between Bulgaria and Hungary- Romania or Serbia.

yes, I guess Serbia is more likely, especially if NIS is sold to Gazprom

[Corneliu]

How should we call Bulgaria after Putin's visit to Sofia?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Bulgazia :) :) :)

[bgrs]

I think you're quite nervous for some reason.

[Gordion]

^^ I second that. Besides don't forget that we would always prefer a pipe coming from Russia , than a pipe coming from Turkey if you know what i mean ;)



Pipe from Turkey is already been built, it will end up in Austria. You can use the Russian gaz :cheers:

[Corneliu]

I think you're quite nervous for some reason.

http://gdb.rferl.org/85E13C0D-A626-40F7-B5E9-4ECF9836FC30_w220_s.jpg

That's your own countrymen speaking. Do not pretend that everyone in Bulgaria was happy about this deal.

[ВОДА]

http://images.ibox.bg/2008/01/18/39577/430x214.jpg

RED - Nabucco gas pipe
BLUE - South Stream gas pipes

[Le Clerk]

yes, I guess Serbia is more likely, especially if NIS is sold to Gazprom

As I see it, the Romanian route is more direct and shorter. Why would they chose a longer (and possibly more expensive) route?

[ВОДА]

^^

Because of the Soviet - Bulgarian druzhba*. :lol::lol:

Just a joke! :)

*friendship from russian and bulgarian

[Le Clerk]

^^

Because of the Soviet - Bulgarian druzhba. :lol::lol:

Just a joke! :)

^^
I meant why Gazprom would chose Serbia instead of Romania, when the Romanian route is shorter and thus cheaper?:cheers:

[ВОДА]

^^

I don`t think it would be shorter or cheaper.

If you move the outspot up the upper pipe gets shorter but the lower pipe gets longer.

So, whats the deal? :nuts:

[ВОДА]

Hmm, you were talking about Serbia and Romania. Sorry, I didnt understand correct.

In this case i would add that the upper/more northern/ you go the more expensive it gets.

[Le Clerk]

Hmm, you were talking about Serbia and Romania. Sorry, I didnt understand correct.

In this case i would add that the upper/more northern/ you go the more expensive it gets.

It must go North to Austria anyway, only the map shows it's shorter through Romania. :dunno:

PS: Romania is safer than Serbia from the POV of transportation as it is EU member, has much better relations with Austria and Austria has more means of control over Romania (through it's investments here - Austria is number 1 investor in Romania) than Serbia.

[ВОДА]

^^

Ofcourse Romania is safer than Serbia altough I think it would be a little bit more expensive but it will go through Romania anyway.

[Yury]

As I see it, the Romanian route is more direct and shorter. Why would they chose a longer (and possibly more expensive) route?

for the same reason why Russia decided to build this pipeline on the bottom of the Black sea instead of increasing the capacity of current pipeline network that goes through Ukraine. Because energy is the most political of all businesses :)

[nebunul]

http://images.ibox.bg/2008/01/18/39577/430x214.jpg

RED - Nabucco gas pipe
BLUE - South Stream gas pipes

So, is Nabucco still ON?

[Le Clerk]

16 Ianuarie 2008


The development of hydro and nuclear energy production facilities will lower imports and will have a calming effect over Romania’s trade deficit, Minister of Economy and Finance Varujan Vosganian said, within a seminar in Vienna.


Some 40 percent of Romania’s energy needs comes from Russia, the trade deficit with this country being one of Romania’s widest, Vosganian said.



The official explained Romania doubled the production of nuclear energy after the second reactor at the country's sole nuclear power plant in Cernavoda (southeast Romania) went online. By 2015, other two reactors will start the production of energy, the minister said.


The companies that will construct Romania’s third and fourth nuclear reactors in Cernavoda will be chosen by the end of this month. Electrabel-Belgium, Enel-Italy, Iberdrola-Spain, CEZ-the Czech Republic, Arcelor-Mittal Romania and RWE-Germany submitted their offers, wanting to join the race along with a Romanian partner.



Source: NewsIn

[Le Clerk]

for the same reason why Russia decided to build this pipeline on the bottom of the Black sea instead of increasing the capacity of current pipeline network that goes through Ukraine. Because energy is the most political of all businesses :)

^^ Russia has a chance to improve its relationship with Romania, and viceversa, by means of this project. Mind you that Russia will have good relations with Serbia no matter what. But Romania (and Poland) is Russia's stumble block for furthering its economic interests further into Europe (energy transportation wise: in Romania Transgas will be soon up for sale). I think this is a chance for both countries to get together and share their interests.

[Yury]

the thing is, pipelines are usually built through the countries that are already trusted partners and not in order to improve relations. And Romania is viewed as too pro-American, I am afraid. Moreover, Serbian NIS is on sale right now and Russia offered to build South Stream through Serbia if Gazprom buys it.

[Ivailo]

As I see it, the Romanian route is more direct and shorter. Why would they chose a longer (and possibly more expensive) route?
Because Russia wants to buy the monopolistic state-owned company of Serbia for lower than its real price and for compensation suggests Serbia to be part of SS.

[Le Clerk]

the thing is, pipelines are usually built through the countries that are already trusted partners and not in order to improve relations. And Romania is viewed as too pro-American, I am afraid. Moreover, Serbian NIS is on sale right now and Russia offered to build South Stream through Serbia if Gazprom buys it.

Well, I do not know how Romania could (if such thing existed) put into practice a (presumptive) hostility against Russia and do what? Cut supplies to Austria?

[ВОДА]

So, is Nabucco still ON?

I hope it is!:)

[Le Clerk]

EDIT

[Le Clerk]

If I think better this deal about pipelines, Romania needs not actually build pipelines on its soil or sell the transportation company Transgas, but develop its nuclear energy to the limit of scrapping the need for gas in the economy. France has already done that up to 80% and I think Romania can do that as well in the next 10-15 years. By 2015, Romania will have had already almost 50% of its electrical energy needs suplied by NPPs. If the gov decides to build a second NPP, as the PM stated last year, then Romania could reach France's percentage of nuclear energy supply in the economy by 2020.

[Yury]

Well, I do not know how Romania could (if such thing existed) put into practice a (presumptive) hostility against Russia and do what? Cut supplies to Austria?

potentially the same situation that happened in Ukraine a few years ago could also happen in Romania. That time around, Russia increased gas prices for Ukraine but Ukraine refused to pay the new price. As a result, Russian gas supplies to the West were reduced by the amount Ukraine consumes while Ukraine continued to take its share of gas. The consumers further West therefore did not receive the gas volumes that they were promised and all that caused a major diplomatic scandal. In general, Russia would like to have as few transit countries as possible when it builds pipelines. That is why we see these underwater projects like South Stream and North Stream

[ВОДА]

If I think better this deal about pipelines, Romania needs not actually build pipelines on its soil or sell the transportation company Transgas, but develop its nuclear energy to the limit of scrapping the need for gas in the economy. France has already done that up to 80% and I think Romania can do that as well in the next 10-15 years. By 2015, Romania will have had already almost 50% of its electrical energy needs suplied by NPPs. If the gov decides to build a second NPP, as the PM stated last year, then Romania could reach France's percentage of nuclear energy supply in the economy by 2020.

Thats very good idea but the gas is a bit cheapper than the nuclear energy IMO.

Bulgaria signed yesterday the construction of new power plant in Belene. Actually, the construction of that NPP began long ago and there were invested about USD 4 BLN. Now we will invest extra EUR 3.9 BLN for get it complished.

After the closing of 4 of the reactors of NPP Kozlodui, recently our politicians took a decision to let them on a concesion FOR FREE if the companies convince the EU commision of theirs reopenning priority.

[Le Clerk]

potentially the same situation that happened in Ukraine a few years ago could also happen in Romania. That time around, Russia increased gas prices for Ukraine but Ukraine refused to pay the new price. As a result, Russian gas supplies to the West were reduced by the amount Ukraine consumes while Ukraine continued to take its share of gas. The consumers further West therefore did not receive the gas volumes that they were promised and all that caused a major diplomatic scandal. In general, Russia would like to have as few transit countries as possible when it builds pipelines. That is why we see these underwater projects like South Stream and North Stream

And why would Serbia be more trustworthy than Romania from this POV? Because Serbia is more submissive to Russia's interests? Romania would most probably never do what Ukraine did.

[Yury]

And why would Serbia be more trustworthy than Romania from this POV? Because Serbia is more submissive to Russia's interests? Romania would most probably never do what Ukraine did.

in general better diplomatic relations between countries means better chance of them reaching an agreement and less chance of conflicts, misunderstanding etc. to arise. I think that motivates Russia into placing its strategic assets in friendly states. After all, Russia depends on the transit countries so it's logical it would rather depend on Serbia than Romania

[ufonut]

Any wind turbine lovers in here ? Some pictures from Poland.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x228/beczkarz1/IMG_7260.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x228/beczkarz1/Obraz004.jpg

http://darlowo.info/articles/galeria/galeria/darlowo%20nr%208/kubiak_marcin_010.jpg

Scroll --->
http://images31.fotosik.pl/99/fb2496508e637fe1.jpg

More photos related to setting up new turbines in Poland can be found in this thread.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=566396

[ВОДА]

^^

Nice. :cheers:

[Obelixx]

Is it correct, that there are 750 kV powerlines in Romania and Bulgaria? I know, that in Poland and Hungary there are some.

[Le Clerk]

Is it correct, that there are 750 kV powerlines in Romania and Bulgaria? I know, that in Poland and Hungary there are some.

I found this on the Romanian electricity transportation company - Transelectrica:

One of Transelectrica’s basic activities is fixed assets management (except the IT and TC ones) which are under Transelectrica’s stocks and operation:

Electric substations
77 electric substations, of which:

* 1 substation of 750 kV
* 32 substations of 400 kV
* 44 substations of 220 kV

Overhead lines
8950 km of overhead lines (OHL), of which:

* 155 km of 750 kV
* 4630.2 km of 400 kV
* 4132.4 km of 220 kV
* 38 km of 110 kV (interconnection lines to the neighbouring systems)

Facilities
135 main transformer units totalling 34525 MVA

* 2 x 750/400 kV
* 22 x 400/220+ 400/220/MT
* 22 x 400/110+400/110/MT
* 89 x 220/110 kV+220/110/MT

[Le Clerk]

Here are some projects of Transelectrica:


Projects in progress

Rehabilitation and modernisation of the transmission-dispatcher system

1. Retrofitting and modernising the HV network – electric transformer substations (UCTE compliance)

o Retrofitting the 400/220 kV substations Slatina, Rosiori, Brazi Vest
o Increasing the safety of the RPS by modernising the 400/220/110 kV substations Iernut, Gutinas, Sibiu Sud, Bucharest South
o Increasing the safety of installations within the 220/110 kV substation Fundeni
o Retrofitting the 400 kV substation Cernavoda
o The 400 kV substation Nadab
o Increasing the safety of the RPS by retrofitting the 220 kV substation Paroseni
o Modernising the control-protection-registration and auxiliary services system for eleven 220/110kV electric substations

2. Developing the HV network (UCTE compliance) – interconnection lines

o The 400 kV overhead line Oradea-Nadab-Bekescsaba
o Upgrading to 400 kV the Moldova axis (Gutinas - Bacau Sud - Roman Nord -Suceava);

3. Construction and development of the electricity market infrastructure

o Balancing market, stage II
o Developing the electricity market platform towards the infrastructure of a regional power market

4. Other projects of the branches and of the headquarters as well as other investment costs required for the best operation of Transelectrica SA


Future projects:

Electric line projects:

o the 400 kV electric interconnection line Gadalin (RO) – Suceava (RO) – Balti (MD)
o the 400 kV OHL Portile de Fier – Resita – Timisoara – Arad and Timisoara – Vrsat (Serbia)
o the dc submarine cable Romania - Turkey



Retrofitting the substations:

o 220/110 kV Isalnita,
o 400-220-110 kV Gura Ialomitei
o 220 kV Ostrovu Mare
o 400-220 kV Lacu Sarat
o 400 kV Brasov
o 220/110 kV Mintia
o 110kV Brazi Vest
o 110 kV Gutinas
o Turnu Severin Est

[nebunul]

^^ ^^

CEZ bids to build new Borzesti power plant with Romania's Termoelectrica UPDATE
01.21.08, 6:44 AM ET

PRAGUE (Thomson Financial) - Czech leading power producer CEZ said it has filed a bid to partner with Romania's Termoelectrica to build a new block at a Romanian state-owned power plant in the town of Borzesti, expanding its presence in the EU newcomer.
CEZ did not disclose details of the bid in its statement.
In June, CEZ said the new 400 to 500 megawatt block would be gas- or coal-fired.
Last week, CEZ bid to become a strategic partner with Termoelectrica to modernise a 535 MW power plant and possibly build a new plant in Galati.
In November, CEZ was selected as one of the partners to build two 720 megawatt units in a joint venture with Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica at the existing Cernavoda plant, a project valued at 2.2 bln eur.
CEZ already owns Romania's national energy distribution company Electrica Oltenia, which had operating profit of around 2 bln crowns in 2006.

[DanMs]

21 January 2008 Tirana _ Albania is to host what is expected to become Europe's biggest onshore wind farm when it is completed, according to plans announced by the Italian Moncada construction company.

The project, which has already been approved by the Albanian government, will have a total generating capacity of 500 megawatts, Moncada said on Monday.

Europe's biggest onshore wind farm, currently under construction in Scotland, will have a generating capacity of 322 MW.

It will also includes the construction of a transmission line between the Italian city of Brindisi and the Albanian port of Vlora.

The 400kV power cable, stretching 145 km across the Otranto channel under the Adriatic Sea at a depth of over 900 metres, will allow for electricity to be transmitted in either direction between the two countries.

The wind farm is expected to be located on the Karaburun peninsula close to the city of Vlora, a former military installation, off limits to the public, during Albania’s communist regime.

Moncada Costruzioni is Italy’s fifth largest producer of electricity through wind farms.

Another major Italian green energy investment was presented to Albania’s government earlier this month, by the Marseglia Group, which is seeking permission to build a wind farm and a bio-fuel power plant in northern Albania. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/7280/

The total generating capacity of these two projects is expected to be over 410 MW, with an investment value of €400 million.

In December Italian power giant Enel SpA announced plans to build a coal-fired generating plant in Albania.

Enel plans to build its plant, fuelled by imported coal, with a generating capacity of approximately 1,300 MW, which would supply electricity to both the Italian and Albanian markets.

Over the past two years, Albania has been hit by an acute energy crisis, with regular power cuts throughout the country, including the capital Tirana.

Almost all of Albania's domestically-produced electricity is generated by hydro-power plants, which are badly affected by droughts, but even when rain is plentiful, the obsolete distribution grid causes major problems

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/7470/

[DanMs]

Can the mod transfer this thread to Energy in the Balkans by chance? Thanks

[Turnovec]

LeClerk , remember what we were talking about NPP Kozloduy's reactors :)
Check out the news from today ...

Bulgaria Starts NPP “Kozloduy” Defense Campaign

The Bulgarian Nuclear Forum BULATOM and NPP “Kozloduy” start today a campaign for the reconsideration of the early closure of NPP “Kozloduy”s blocks 3 and 4.

The premiere of the documentary “Bring back Kozloduy” whose author is the journalist Toma Tomov will be held today in hall 9 of the National Palace of Culture. The documentary defends blocks 3 and 4 of NPP “Kozloduy”. After the premiere there will be a discussion on the topic.

The film will be shown at the end of the month to the members of the European parliament in Brussels.

Prime minister Sergei Stanishev is expected to take part in the event and to outline the state policy regarding the fate of NPP “Kozloduy”.

[Le Clerk]

LeClerk , remember what we were talking about NPP Kozloduy's reactors :)
Check out the news from today ...

Yeah, I know that....I wish Bulgaria good luck with that AND hope it's all as safe as it can. :cheers:

[iLiR]

21 January 2008 Tirana _ Albania is to host what is expected to become Europe's biggest onshore wind farm when it is completed, according to plans announced by the Italian Moncada construction company.

The project, which has already been approved by the Albanian government, will have a total generating capacity of 500 megawatts, Moncada said on Monday.

Europe's biggest onshore wind farm, currently under construction in Scotland, will have a generating capacity of 322 MW.

It will also includes the construction of a transmission line between the Italian city of Brindisi and the Albanian port of Vlora.

The 400kV power cable, stretching 145 km across the Otranto channel under the Adriatic Sea at a depth of over 900 metres, will allow for electricity to be transmitted in either direction between the two countries.

The wind farm is expected to be located on the Karaburun peninsula close to the city of Vlora, a former military installation, off limits to the public, during Albania’s communist regime.

Moncada Costruzioni is Italy’s fifth largest producer of electricity through wind farms.

Another major Italian green energy investment was presented to Albania’s government earlier this month, by the Marseglia Group, which is seeking permission to build a wind farm and a bio-fuel power plant in northern Albania. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/7280/

The total generating capacity of these two projects is expected to be over 410 MW, with an investment value of €400 million.

In December Italian power giant Enel SpA announced plans to build a coal-fired generating plant in Albania.

Enel plans to build its plant, fuelled by imported coal, with a generating capacity of approximately 1,300 MW, which would supply electricity to both the Italian and Albanian markets.

Over the past two years, Albania has been hit by an acute energy crisis, with regular power cuts throughout the country, including the capital Tirana.

Almost all of Albania's domestically-produced electricity is generated by hydro-power plants, which are badly affected by droughts, but even when rain is plentiful, the obsolete distribution grid causes major problems

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/7470/

:cheers: