January 1st, 2007:

By Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow
Published: January 1 2007 18:13 | Last updated: January 1 2007 18:13

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is unlikely to approve a loan for the giant Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project in Russia’s Far East, following its effective re-nationalisation by the Kremlin, according to officials.

The recent emergence of Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas company, as the majority owner of the project “made it more difficult” for the EBRD to approve a $300m loan to the $20bn project, the London-based multi-lateral bank said on Monday. read more

Marianne Barriaux
Monday January 1, 2007

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may pull out of the Sakhalin-2 liquefied gas project in Russia in a further blow to a scheme already mired in controversy.

The bank, which invests in countries from central Europe to central Asia with the aim of building up market economies, had been in discussions with shareholders Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi about providing a $300m (£150m) loan for the $20bn project, with a further $300m coming from a loan syndicated to other financial institutions. read more

By James Quinn
Last Updated: 12:05am GMT 01/01/2007
 
Royal Dutch Shell and its Japanese partners in Sakhalin-2 are to re-examine the financing of the $20bn (£10.2bn) energy project after their deal to sell a controlling stake to Russia’s Gazprom.

Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui are due to speak to the four potential project lenders about whether or not the four will potentially still invest in the scheme.

The talks will begin later this month amid suggestions that one of the four – the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development – does not now want to provide a €400m (£270m) loan as the project is effectively state-owned. Gazprom, which is owned by the Russian state, took a controlling stake of 50pc plus one share in Sakhalin-2 days before Christmas after the three original investors each sold half of their stakes in return for a total $7.45bn cash. read more

January

Gazprom cut off supplies to Ukraine in a row over gas price increases. Ukraine stole gas from transit pipelines, creating shortages and soaring prices in Europe.
 
July

Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, raised $10 billion (£5.1 billion) in a London share offering after Yukos shareholders failed in a legal attempt to stop the float.

August 
 
BP, the oil and gas giant, said that it was shutting down oil production at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, after discovering serious corrosion in the pipelines. read more

Business in Brief
January 01, 2007

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) may walk away from investing in Sakhalin-2 after Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, and its two Japanese partners were forced to sell stakes in the energy project to Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas company. The EBRD had been in talks with Shell and its associates Mitsubishi and Mitsu about lending £270 million to the project.
 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-2525641.html

Monday, January 1, 2007

In an effort to offset expected shortages in diesel fuel supplies, the Argentine government has announced a project to build a refinery that will require an about 2.3-billion-dollar investment which will be mainly made by some 30 private oil companies, with the exception of Royal/Dutch Shell, which is engaged in a dispute with the administration.

Fuel Secretary Cristian Folgar said earlier this week that of the total investment required, oil firms would provide about 1.6 billion dollars while investment banks and other investors such as the AFJPs pension funds would account for the balance. read more