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[grupo] 16/1/2021 21:44

Swiss Insurance Giant Reportedly Pulls Out of Nord Stream 2 Amid Threat of US Sanctions

Business
18:38 GMT 16.01.2021(updated 19:02 GMT 16.01.2021)
by Ilya Tsukanov


The $9.5 billion gas pipeline infrastructure project is on course to being completed later this year, with German and Danish regulators recently giving the go-ahead for more pipelaying works in their waters, and a state in northeastern Germany setting up a special fund meant to help shield companies from extraterritorial sanctions.

Swiss insurance giant Zurich Insurance Group will stop insuring the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project due to the threat of US sanctions, Bloomberg has reported, citing people said to be familiar with the situation.

[waldron] 14/1/2021 06:17

Engie Romania takes over 9.3MW PV park
14 January 2021
Andrei Chirileasa


Engie Romania, the largest natural gas distributor and supplier on the local market, has completed the acquisition of a photovoltaic park consisting of two farms, located in the village of Cristuru Secuiesc in Harghita county, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The project was formerly owned by Ever Solar, a subsidiary of the German group Soventix, and Alpine Solar.

The park has a total installed capacity of 9.3 MW and has been in operation since 2015.

How The Winner Of A Presidential Election Is Really Declared

"This acquisition marks a new stage in achieving the goal of becoming, by 2030, an important investor in the field of renewable energy in Romania and thus contributing to the group's ambition to be the leader of the energy transition. Our goal is to occupy a leading position in the segment of centralized renewable energy - given that wind and solar energy will have an increasing share in the country's future energy mix - and to provide green energy to our customers, natural or legal persons," said Eric Stab, President & CEO of ENGIE Romania.


[e-mail]

[sarkasm] 13/1/2021 08:20

Total SE and Engie SA are teaming up to set up a renewable hydrogen production site in Chateauneuf-les-Martigues, France.

The French energy companies said Wednesday that they have agreed to start construction of the project--called Masshylia--in 2022, aiming to begin production two years later.

The project will be located at Total's La Mede biorefinery site and produce five metric tons of green hydrogen a day for the biofuel production process.

The companies didn't disclose financial terms of the collaboration.



Write to Kim Richters at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 13, 2021 02:58 ET (07:58 GMT)

[grupo] 12/1/2021 08:19

In a research note published by Ajay Patel, Goldman Sachs advises its customers to buy the stock. The target price has been revised upwards and is now set at EUR 15.40, compared with EUR 13.90 previously.

[the grumpy old men] 09/1/2021 20:01

Viktor Katona is an Group Physical Trader at MOL Group and Expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, currently based in Budapest. Disclaimer: views set…




The World’s Most Controversial Pipeline Project Enters Its Final Phase
By Viktor Katona - Jan 09, 2021, 10:00 AM CST


It took more than a year to break the Nord Stream 2 stalemate and now - amidst the world expecting full-scale coronavirus vaccination, amidst the United States expecting the inauguration of President-elect Biden and Europe preoccupied with the future of the EU-UK cooperation rather than energy issues – Gazprom has restarted pipelaying operations on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Fortuna pipelaying vessel has finished working on the NS2 section in Germany’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and now it is only the Danish EEZ that remains to be laid. Coincidence or by some unfathomable design, it is exactly now that the next round of US sanctions goes into effect, indicating that the pipeline’s endgame will take place in the upcoming 3-4 months. Gazprom took quite some time to fully prepare itself for the pipelaying, almost a year has passed since Allseas ceased all operations out of concern for potential US retaliation and the Fortuna vessel started pipelaying in Germany’s EEZ. Such a massive timespan has left many analysts wondering how exactly would the Russian side opt to finish the pipeline and most of them, betting on Akademik Cherskiy, had been caught wrong. Fortuna started its operations off the Adlergrund shoal on December 11 and it took the vessel 17 days to complete both parallel strings (the 55 bcm per year throughput capacity is split between two strings the capacity of both which stands at 27.5 cm per year) of the German section, implying that the average pipelaying speed was much lower than the 1-1.5km per day initially assumed by industry watchers.

There have been very few offshore pipeline projects, if any, that had such a plethora of pipelaying vessel and supporting tugs appearing and disappearing, involved directly in pipelaying or acting merely as smoke and mirrors. Ever since Allseas stopped its pipelaying works in December 2019, the Akademik Cherskiy vessel was the prime candidate to carry on where the Swiss company has stalled – for this she circumnavigated half the planet, moving from Nakhodka in Russia’s Far East around the Cape of Good Hope to the Baltic Sea. Akademik Cherskiy, however, was inactive throughout pipelaying operations in Germany’s EEZ. Moreover, Cherskiy sits idle quite a distance from Germany, off Russia’s Kaliningrad region, accompanied by a couple of anchor-handling tugs, Artemis Offshore and Errie.

Confounding the Gazprom-owned pipeline’s opponents even further, the ownership structure of the Fortuna vessel has become even more untraceable as she was sold resold again in mid-December, this time to a completely unknown company called KVT-RUS. Crudely put, all the pertinent vessels that are active in pipelaying operations on Nord Stream-2 or merely have been linked to its construction have been sold away from Gazprom amidst the looming threat of US sanctions. Speaking of supply vessels, there are at least half a dozen others scattered across the Baltic Sea. In and around Kaliningrad at least 3 vessels have been biding their time – the vessels Ostap Sheremeta, Yasniy and Vengeri were all linked to Nord Stream-2 at some point. Another anchor handling tug vessel, Ivan Sidorenko, has been moving somewhere in the Baltic Sea with its transponders switched off in mid-December, only to resurface in Mukran and then in Kaliningrad by the end of the same month.

Russian media reports state that Fortuna would start pipe-laying in Danish territorial waters from January 15, 2021, providing no specific date for the completion of works. There remain some 120km to be laid in Danish territorial waters, however, laying the pipelines in the middle of winter has always been the least preferable scenario for Gazprom given the difficult weather conditions that could slow down Fortuna’s assumed 1.5 km per day nominal speed. Therefore, it would be unreasonable to expect the completion of pipelaying works before April-May 2021. Generally speaking, Gazprom has two years left to conclude the construction of Nord Stream 2 before its transit agreement with Ukraine’s Naftogaz runs out and confronts the two companies (and two nations) once again in another round of a Russo-Ukrainian gas standoff.


An immutable aspect of Nord Stream-2 is the United States’ ever-tightening sanctions regime. Despite President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act of which the Nord Stream-relevant sanctions formed part, the US Congress overrode his decision, thus activating a new round of targeted sanctions from December 29 onwards. From now on, any entity, be it Russian or European, that helps build Nord Stream 2, provides retrofitting and upgrading services to vessels participating in the project, or provides insurance and/or underwriting might be subject to sanctions. Though the new sanctions package provides for a 30-day wind-down period, most European companies providing a technical assessment of Nord Stream-2 will cease any sort of cooperation with the pipe-laying vessels and Gazprom as the coordinator of its construction.

The European Union has so far refrained from robust political steps vis-à-vis the US Administration against what it perceives to be meddling in its internal affairs, however, the cohesion of the European block seems to have solidified over the course of 2020 and will fortify even more with Britain’s departure. Lack of progress on the Ukrainian dossier and Alexei Navalny’s poisoning notwithstanding, virtually the entirety of Germany’s financial leaders continue to support the project, stating that canceling Nord Stream-2 would not only hurt European customers and consumers but would also damage the financial standing of the top oil and gas majors involved in the project. Against such a geopolitical landscape, the US should find an elegant way to avoid acknowledging the failure of its multi-step sanctions-tightening.

By Viktor Katona for Oilprice.com

[grupo guitarlumber] 09/1/2021 10:39

Upcoming events on ENGIE

FEBRUARY/26/2021 FY 2020 Earnings Release

[waldron] 08/1/2021 20:29

Bp
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[waldron] 07/1/2021 10:14

Veolia Environnement SA said Thursday it has notified peer Suez SA of its intention to file for the stake in the company it doesn't already own.

The French resource-management company said it sent Suez a public-offer proposal regarding the 70.1% stake.

"This formal proposal describes all the elements of the industrial project, the social project and the financial conditions that Veolia will offer when the offer is actually submitted," Veolia said.

Veolia previously acquired a 29.9% stake in Suez from energy company Engie SA, though the process has become mired in legal disputes, with Suez opposed to what it considers a hostile takeover by Veolia.

In Thursday's letter to Suez, Veolia said it will launch a voluntary public tender offer at 18 euros ($22.19) a share, the price at which it agreed to buy the initial stake from Engie. The company added that it intends to complete the merger in nine to 15 months, but that it cannot yet make a formal offer since the Suez board is "standing in its way."



Write to Joshua Kirby at [e-mail]; @joshualeokirby



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 07, 2021 03:30 ET (08:30 GMT)

[grupo] 04/1/2021 11:19

Engie sets up unit to integrate assets in Saudi
RIYADH, 0 hours, 49 minutes ago

France-based Engie, a leading low-carbon energy and service solution provider, has expanded its presence in Saudi Arabia by establishing a dedicated holding company to bring all the Group’s assets in the Kingdom under one umbrella.

Engie appointed Turki Al Shehri as Chief Executive Officer to manage the local office and bring Engie’s global experience closer to its customers.

Despite delays and potential setbacks that the world experienced as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, Engie has managed to keep its expansion in the Kingdom on track building its asset and project value to over $8 billion, with plans to invest in assets worth an additional $6.34 billion in the Kingdom by 2025.

Engie is a major player in the development of Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy, co-generation, energy efficiency and other green initiatives. In the past 12 months, Engie secured nine new contracts for projects in facilities management, a seawater reverse osmosis plant and projects for the provision of energy services through its service providers and in partnership with Saudi actors.

In February, Engie was awarded the Yanbu-4 independent water producer (IWP) desalination plant by the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), projected to supply 450,000 m3/day of desalinated seawater using clean energy. Engie and its partners have also been awarded three facilities management projects and five energy efficiency projects within the Kingdom.

These new projects add $944 million to Engie’s existing portfolio of projects and assets, making Engie a 10% provider of electricity and an 11% provider potable water in Saudi Arabia.

In its growth this year, the company has hired 62 new employees bringing the total of Engie staff in the Kingdom to 2000.Engie’s most recent acquisition of Saudi-based facilities management firm, Allied Maintenance Company (AMC) adds 1,300 more employees to Engie’s workforce. Engie plans to expand its workforce to over 5,000 employees by 2025 with new hires joining various service providers and project development entities under the domain of Engie across the entire Kingdom.

A key area of Engie’s development in Saudi Arabia lies in supporting local talent acquisition and career development through dedicated and continuous training programs to lead the way for value-added services of a foreign company.

In this effort, Engie has formed three partnerships with local entities including the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and the Ministry of Investment to support with practical and vocational training programs both in and outside of the Kingdom, ensuring that Saudi’s workforce can meet the long-term demand of the labour market. – TradeArabia News Service

[grupo] 04/1/2021 09:14

MOSCOW, January 4. /TASS/. US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are blatant protectionism aimed at advancing its liquefied natural gas on the European market, but the EU countries understand this and support the project, and thanks to this it will be completed, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told RBC TV.

"Certainly, this is blatant protectionism. The key idea why our colleagues from overseas are opposing Nord Stream 2 is linked first of all to the need to promote their own product, their LNG," Novak said.

"This tool is absolutely uncompetitive. Everyone understands this, including the countries that are interested in fulfilling the [Nord Stream 2] project, the European countries and companies. They support the project and I’m sure that given this support it will be implemented," Novak noted.

[waldron] 03/1/2021 15:47

Norwegian company turns its back on Nord Stream 2 under threat of US sanctions

3 Jan, 2021 14:54 / Updated 1 minute ago

/ Axel Schmidt


Spooked by the US’ latest punitive measures, a Norwegian Nord Stream 2 contractor has refused to support the Gazprom-led gas pipeline project after eight years of close cooperation with Russian energy giant.

Det Norske Veritas – Germanischer Lloyd (DNV GL), which is in charge of verification procedures, confirmed it has stopped working on Nord Stream 2 as a result of broadened sanctions introduced by Washington on the project.

“DNV GL will stop all activities to verify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline system in accordance with the sanctions, and as long as these sanctions remain in force. We are implementing a plan to curtail our support for the project,” the Oslo-based firm said in a statement.


The move puts an end to longstanding cooperation that began as early as 2012, when Gazprom started constructing the Nord Stream pipeline.

On Friday, the US Senate voted to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA includes a package of sanctions on corporations involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipelines.

Nord Stream 2 will supply Europe with up to 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year, on top of the 55 bcm already pumped through Nord Stream 1. TurkStream will deliver Russian gas to Turkey and on to southern European states.

RT's business section

[grupo guitarlumber] 02/1/2021 22:00

Norway firm refuses to certify Russia's Nord Stream 2 over new U.S. sanctions – media
22:57, 02.01.21
Economy
1 min. 74

The launch of the pipeline operation is impossible without such a certificate.


Norway's risk management and quality assurance firm DNV GL has refused to certify Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline when its construction is completed over new U.S. sanctions.

Read alsoNord Stream 2 pipelaying in German waters completed
According to the current situation, DNV GL cannot issue a certificate upon completion of the pipeline construction, the Russian news agency RBC reported on January 2, referring to DNV GL.

The launch of the pipeline operation is impossible without such a certificate.
Nord Stream 2: Background

The Nord Stream 2 project envisages the construction and operation of two gas pipeline branches with a total throughput capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. It should connect Russia's Ust-Lug and Germany's Greifswald. This new pipeline bypassing Ukraine is to be built next to the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
The construction of the pipeline was expected to be completed before the end of 2019.
The pipeline will be 1,220 km long. The project is being implemented by Russia's Gazprom in alliance with European companies – ENGIE, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper, and Wintershall. Ukraine stands against the construction of Nord Stream 2 as it will most likely lose its status of a gas transit country, while its potential revenue losses are estimated at US$3 billion annually. The project is also highly criticized by the U.S., Poland, and the Baltic States.
According to media reports, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden intends to do his best to prevent the construction of Nord Stream 2.

Author: UNIAN


Read more on UNIAN:

[grupo guitarlumber] 01/1/2021 13:47

Upcoming events on ENGIE

FEBRUARY/26/2021 FY 2020 Earnings Release

MARCH/17/2021 | 09:45am ACI Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Energy Summit

MAY/18/2021 Q1 2021 Earnings Release

MAY/20/2021 Shareholders Meeting

[waldron] 31/12/2020 14:24

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[the grumpy old men] 30/12/2020 12:55

worldoil


Russia accelerates Nord Stream 2 project to beat U.S. sanctions
By Vanessa Dezem, Daniel Flatley and Dina Khrennikova on 12/30/2020

(Bloomberg) --Russia is stepping up work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline before the U.S. tightens sanctions against the controversial project designed to feed more natural gas into Germany.

Construction of the 1,230-kilometer (764-mile) pipeline reached a milestone on Monday with the completion of pipe-laying in German’s exclusive economic zone, the project operator said. Among the next steps is resuming work in Denmark’s part of the Baltic Sea, where the bulk of the remaining sections of the 157 kilometer link will be located.

Progress on the link is a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the nation’s gas export champion, Gazprom PJSC. When complete, the project will allow Russia to expand deliveries of gas to Europe and circumvent the traditional transport corridor through Ukraine. The U.S. and Eastern European nations say Nord Stream 2 will make Germany and the European Union too reliant on Russian gas.

“There are approximately 120 kilometers in Danish waters and approximately 30 kilometers in German EEZ to be laid,” Nord Stream 2 said in an emailed reply to questions on Tuesday. “We are not in a position to deliver further construction details. We will inform about further offshore construction activities in due time.”

Work on the 9.5 billion-euro ($11.6 billion) project was stopped a year ago by U.S. sanctions and resumed only earlier this month when Gazprom found its own ship to lay the pipeline. Nord Stream 2 can use the vessel Fortuna to carry out the work starting Jan. 15, assisted by construction vessels Murman and Baltiyskiy Issledovatel and other supply ships, the Danish Maritime Authority said last week.

Based on the Danish permit, the operator must submit an updated schedule to the nation’s Energy Agency prior to carrying out the works. So far, the regulator hasn’t received the updated plan, the agency said. The Fortuna vessel can lay as much as 1 kilometer of pipes per day.

At that rate, analysts estimate Nord Stream 2 could start operations as soon as the end of 2021 under an optimistic scenario.

“I firmly believe the pipeline will be completed,” Uniper SE Chief Executive Officer Andreas Schierenbeck said in an interview in German newspaper Rheinische Post on Wednesday. “People don’t have to like the pipeline, but Europe needs it.”

The German utility is one of the principal financiers behind the project.

The U.S. meanwhile is maneuvering to tighten sanctions, extending penalties to companies that provide technical certification and insurance for the work. That legislation was part of a broader defense bill that passed Congress but was vetoed by President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives voted to override the veto. If that’s endorsed by the Senate, which is dominated by Trump’s Republican Party, the new measures could come into force in the next few weeks.

Who’s Dependent on Russia’s Gas?

Should the Senate override Trump’s veto on the defense bill, “the new sanctions against Nord Stream 2 will turn into reality,” said Mateusz Kubiak, a senior analyst at Warsaw-based energy consultant Esperis. “It might be just another factor that will make it more difficult for the Russians to effectively and timely restart works” in the Danish waters in January, Kubiak said.

“All of the additional pipe-laying activities will now be sanctioned, including surveying, trenching and rock placement,” he said.

The U.S. maintains that Nord Stream 2 gives Russia too much leverage over Europe and that American liquefied natural gas supplies are a better alternative. Nord Stream 2 benefits the economies of Germany and Europe since the price of Russian pipeline gas is 20% lower than that of U.S. LNG, according to Putin.

U.S. sanctions can complicate the completion of Nord Stream 2, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told the state TV channel Rossiya 24 on Monday that the pipeline will be completed because good for European business.

“It’s a commercial project, which is, in the first place, in the interests of our foreign partners,” Novak said.

[grupo] 30/12/2020 10:02

Oil Prices Continue Climb On Large Crude Draw
By Julianne Geiger - Dec 29, 2020, 3:43 PM CST

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a draw in crude oil inventories of 4.785 million barrels for the week ending December 25.

Analysts had predicted an inventory draw of 2.100 million barrels for the week.

In the previous week, the API reported a build in oil inventories of 2.70-million barrels, after analysts had predicted a draw of 3.135 million barrels.

Both Brent and WTI were up on Tuesday morning before the data release on hopes of a larger round of stimulus checks signed off on by President Donald Trump and the House on Monday. Gains continue to be capped, however, by OPEC's plans to gradually increase oil production after the start of the year despite lockdowns and depressed demand.

Moments before Tuesday's data release, WTI had risen by $0.41 (+0.86%) to $48.03, up $.80 per barrel on the week. The Brent crude benchmark had risen on the day $0.44 at that time (+0.87%) to $51.30—up roughly $1 per barrel on the week.

U.S. oil production held steady at 11.0 million bpd for the week ending December 18, according to the Energy Information Administration—;2.1 million bpd lower than the all-time high of 13.1 million bpd reached in March.

The API reported a draw in gasoline inventories of 718,000 barrels of gasoline for the week ending December 25—compared to the previous week's 224,000-barrel draw. Analysts had expected a 1.778-million-barrel build for the week.

Distillate inventories were down by 1.877 million barrels for the week, compared to last week's 1.03-million-barrel increase, while Cushing inventories rose this week by 131,000 barrels.­

At 4:36 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $47.99, while Brent crude was trading at $51.07.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

[the grumpy old men] 29/12/2020 17:10

UPSTREAM


Nord Stream 2 completes offshore German pipelay

Russian gas export pipeline project to resume laying remaining segments in Danish waters in January, despite growing political tensions




29 December 2020 16:03 GMT Updated 29 December 2020 16:23 GMT
By Vladimir Afanasiev
in Moscow

Gazprom-owned operator Nord Stream 2 has completed laying two short, shallow-water segments of its gas export pipeline in Germany's Baltic Sea waters over the weekend, with the pipelaying barge Fortuna returning to the port of Wismar.

Echoing earlier reports, Nord Stream 2 said it now expects to resume construction of two longer segments of the pipeline in Danish waters in mid-January. though it did not provide further details.

Once finished, these two segments will enable Nord Stream 2 to move into the commissioning phase of the project, which is already more than a year behind the original schedule because of US sanctions.

Speaking in Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, acknowledged that the sanctions are “complicating” the pipeline project, which the Kremlin believes is needed for European energy security.
'I think we will be able to finish the job' - Putin on Nord Stream 2

Peskov has described the US sanctions as a “completely overt, cowboy, raider attack” on the project, adding that Russia has met with an “unfriendly and openly hostile operating environment” in the West.

However, Gazprom has been pushing ahead with Nord Stream 2 and “is getting closer to the finalization of this project”, he said.

Peskov said that Russia and its European partners want the project to be brought on stream for the benefit of “European consumers and Russian gas suppliers”.

The Kremlin’s reputation in the West has been tarnished by independent investigation group Bellingcat alleging that Russia’s domestic intelligence service FSB played a role in masterminding the attempted poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to political observers in Moscow.
Gazprom proposes hydrogen production facility in Germany
Read more

Two YouTube videos with details of Bellingcat’s investigation into Navalny's poisoning, released earlier in December, each gathered more than 20 million views within one week, giving a boost to calls for European Union politicians to introduce new sanctions against Russia.

In a pre-emptive response, the Kremlin said it has expanded the undisclosed list of European officials barred from entering Russia for calling for such measures against the country.

In October, the EU sanctioned several Russian officials over Navalny’s poisoning.

However, the EU did not heed calls from European politicians to take punitive measures against Nord Stream 2