Bp
denies Russian advance
The Trinidad Guardian
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
08 26 07
BpTT yesterday quashed speculation that
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, has been offered
a share of its stake in Atlantic LNG.
BpTT
has a 34 per cent stake in Atlantic LNG’s
Train 1, a 42.5 per cent share of Trains 2 and
3 and a 38 per cent stake in Train 4.
“There have been reports circulating in
the international media about Gazprom and BP’s
interests in Trinidad and Tobago.
“This unconfirmed article with information
attributed to an un-named source was first reported
in the Vedomosti newspaper in Moscow earlier this
week. BP considers the story to be pure speculation
and, as such, does not comment on speculation or
rumours,” bpTT said in a release issued yesterday.
A
Reuters news story on Thursday claimed that BP
Plc has offered to contribute part of its liquefied
natural gas business in T&T to its global venture
with Gazprom.
Vedomosti
business daily quoted sources close to BP’s
Russian vehicle TNK-BP as saying bp also had
made a few other contribution proposals,
which the sources declined to disclose.
Gazprom,
the world’s largest gas producer,
already supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas
needs, but wants to expand into the fast growing
US LNG market. It gained notoriety last year after
it temporarily switched off gas supplies to the
Ukraine.
Stephen
Beard of London’s Marketplace noted
that if such a deal went through Gazprom could
become the major gas supplier to the US. Beard
noted that while LNG accounted for a small percentage
of America’s total natural gas consumption,
it is set to grow.
Vedomosti
quoted Deutsche UFG brokerage, which claimed
that BP’s Trinidad offer represented
good news for Gazprom but added that it expected
long discussions around the venture’s asset
composition.
“Gazprom was originally willing to offer
stakes in the Shtokman field to foreign investors
in exchange for their assets worldwide but later
concluded that the would-be partners were not able
to offer assets similar in size and quality to
the Shtokman field,” said Deutsche UFG.
Shtokman is a giant Barents Sea field, which Gazprom
wants to use to supply both the European and the
US markets.
The Trinidad Guardian
Saturday 25th August,
2007
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©2007 Trinidad Publishing . All Rights Reserved.
