London Following are highlights from today’s editions of the European press. Click on links to see related Argus stories.
Financial
Times
Energy companies face a crackdown following a Brussels-led inquiry into
sectoral competition (p1).
A big rise in UK electricity companies’ coal use has set back hopes to reduce emissions (p4).
New EU measures tackling competition and cross-border trade are to be unveiled next week, in an attempt to end doubts about current failings (p6).
A Venezuelan cabinet reshuffle paves the way for a more radical administration during President Hugo Chavez’s third term of office, which begins next week (p7).
Canada’s environment minister, Rona Ambrose, has lost her portfolio following months of criticism in preparation for the election expected this year (p7).
Pakistan’s biggest power company, Wapda, began a series of electricity cuts yesterday revealing a deepening crisis in the sector (p8).
Hedge fund managers are considering listing their firms on stock markets to profit from current buoyancy (p13)
Opinion — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plan for harmonising transatlantic investment regulation could be damaging (p14).
Clean energy companies were up by 67pc year-on-year on London’s Alternative Investment Market last year, but New Energy Finance warns that this may be the result of a bounce following initial public offerings (p20).
Australian energy firm AGL has approached rival Origin Energy on a $13bn merger that would create an integrated powerhouse with 6mn customers and upstream and downstream operations (p21).
US biotechnology company Monsanto is confident that GM corn will boost biofuels (p22)
A sharp fall in oil prices has punished energy firms, with ExxonMobil down by 1.9pc and Chevron off by 1pc (p36) yesterday.
John Arnold’s fund, Centaurus Energy, has made a large profit from gas futures by running contrary to rivals such as Amaranth (p37).
The price of crude has tumbled after US weekly inventory data show a larger than expected rise in US gasoline and distillate stocks (p37).
Wall
Street Journal
Canadian energy
company Irving Oil owns land earmarked for the possible construction of a
300,000 boe/d crude oil refinery, as Canada seeks to ease the US’ growing
energy needs and capacity constraints (p4).
The French market regulator will set a deadline on 9 January for French investment company Artemis to declare its intentions regarding a potential takeover bid for Franco-Belgian utility Suez (p6).
Venture capitalists may start investing more money in the alternative energy markets in 2007 (p17).
Franco-Belgian utility Suez’s largest shareholder Albert Frere has raised his stake in the company, strengthening his role as a key player in the company’s merger with French utility Gaz de France (p19).
The South Korean government has forecasted economic growth to slow to 4.5pc in 2007 from an estimated 5pc in 2006 because of the lagging effects of high oil prices (p27).
Lloyd’s
List
UK gas firm BG has
confirmed orders for two more LNG carriers at Samsung Heavy Industries in a
deal which marks another stage in the evolution of the UK integrated gas
major’s shipping strategy (p1).
BG and Chevron have signed an interim agreement with the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago for the supply of 22mn ft³/d of gas from the East Coast Marine Area for up to 15 years, beginning on 1 January 2009 (p1).
New York fund manager QVT Financial has raised its stake in Nasdaq-listed TOP Tankers to 8.4pc, adding about 566,000 shares over the Christmas period for an outlay of $2.7mn (p1).
Offshore energy businesses are rebelling against high insurance premiums, and are set to resist even sweetened terms offered by underwriters (p2).
Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras is raising its investments this year to R$47.5bn ($22.3bn) to boost oil exports but has been forced to delay tendering on its latest project — a floating production storage and offloading vessel for the Jubarte field (p2).
McMoRan Exploration’s plans for a $1bn LNG import facility in the Gulf of Mexico — the Main Pass Energy deepwater port — have been approved by the US Maritime Administration (p2).
BP’s plans to replace all of its transit pipelines on the ageing Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska have been delayed until mid-2008 owing to the complexity of the $200mn project (p2).
Iran has cut off gas supplies to Turkey after cold weather left it short of reserves at home (p2).
President of Mitsui OSK Lines, Akimitsu Ashida, has expressed regret over the string of maritime accidents that plagued the company in 2006 (p3).
China is vital to the future of the fuel oil market — importers are poised to buy more directly from Middle Eastern and western suppliers, bypassing the local trading hub in Singapore (p4).
Canada’s second-largest pipeline operator, Enbridge, aimed to resume partial operation today of a Wisconsin line that leaked an estimated 500 bl (p8).
Philippine Coast Guard officials are looking into the involvement of the owner of non-specific tanker Patricia in the hijacking of its cargo of 600,000 litres of diesel (p8).
A gas pipeline in the southwestern Pakistani district of Dera Bugti was blown up on 1 January by unknown persons, according to the website of local newspaper The News (p9).
Iron ore, oil and LNG production in Western Australia’s north was expected back on stream quickly yesterday after a weakened Cyclone Isobel left facilities largely unscathed (p9).
US-Japanese joint venture Modec will be looking to convert another very large crude carrier after gaining a $1.2bn contract from Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras to supply a floating production storage and offloading vessel from 2008 (p14).
Somali gunmen fired a rocket at an oil tanker truck near Mogadishu, wounding three people in what some feared was a return to clan-based violence that had largely stopped during a six-month rule by Islamists (p14).
Russia has received official notification that Belarus has imposed a transit duty on its oil exports but does not expect an escalating trade row to disrupt crude oil supplies to Europe, the Kremlin said (p14).
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