Tanzania Oil companies want fuel testing Galp wants ... - ErpecNews

INA sees Croatian investment improving
Croatian refiner INA-Indusrtija Nafte d.d.
majority owned by MOL Nyrt. sees Croatia’
investment environment improving said INA
Chairman Zoltan Aldott. The Croatian government,
which has a 44.84 percent stake in
INA, is also interested in raising the company’s
market share and strengthening its position
in the south-eastern European region. The
firm plans to re-invest all of its 2011 profits of
1.9 billion kuna (US $ 333 million) this year
into developing its gas station network and
its refineries in Sisak and Rijeka, as well as
international and Croatian production. “INA
is one of the few European companies that
believes in the future of refineries”, Aldott
said, adding the firm will start an investment
program of about US $ 450 million at
the refineries.
Alimentation Couche-Tard bid for statoil
Statoil ASA’s Board of Directors has decided
to pre-accept, subject to certain conditions,
a cash offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard
for the shares in the listed energy and retail
company Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA at a con-
sideration of NOK 53 per share (adjusted for
any dividends and other distributions after 31st
December 2011). The proceeds for Statoil’s
54 percent stake in the company are estimated
to NOK 8.6 billion (US $ 1.5 billion), assuming
successful closing of the transaction. The
offer delivers a premium of 53 percent to the
current trading price. The parties expect to
complete the transaction during the second
quarter of 2012. As a result of the transaction,
Statoil Fuel & Retail will no longer be
consolidated in Statoil ASA’s accounts.
LUKOIL buys in Belgium & Netherlands
LUKOIL has signed a deal with Dutch Verolma
Groep to acquire 59 gas stations in Belgium and
the Netherlands, but did not disclose financial
details. LUKOIL already has 168 gas stations in
Belgium and in 2009 it bought a 45 percent stake
in the Zeeland oil refinery in the Netherlands
in which French oil major TOTAL holds the
other 55 percent. “Entering the Dutch market fits
with LUKOIL’s gas station expansion strategy”,
Bulat Subaev, Managing Director of LUKOIL
Belgium, said in a statement. Els Ruysen, LU-
KOIL Spokeswoman in Belgium, said the deal
was due to be completed in the second quarter
once cleared by the anti-competition authorities.
russia wastes enough energy to power Britain
The world’s top oil and gas producer may be
watching its energy riches blow away in the
wind. Russia, in 2008, was wasting enough
energy to power Britain for a whole year. It
was then that President Dmitry Medvedev
set a target to reduce energy intensity by
40 percent before 2020. Russian companies
were 10 to 20 times less energy efficient than
their foreign rivals, he said. Not enough has
changed since Soviet times, critics say and
wide-open windows remain a typical way of
cooling overheated housing blocks. Even today
around one-fifth of Russian boilers date back
to the era of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s space
flight in 1961, or earlier. “We are two and half
times less energy efficient than other comparative
modern countries in Europe”, said Vasily
Belov, head of the energy efficiency cluster
at the Skolkovo Foundation.
Friesacher builds budget station in slovenia
Free Energy Trading (FE) Boss Markus Friesacher
has said his enterprise has started
constructing new no-frill service stations in
Slovenia. The company currently manages 30
low-cost petrol stations across Austria. Customers
pay by credit or bank card at the stations
which do not offer any extra services like a
shop, car wash facilities or toilets. “We invest
a third less in our stations than our rivals do”,
said Friesacher. He said that regular petrol
stations situated near FE service stations
were usually lowering their prices. Asked
for his secret of success, the businessman
said he was trying to underbid them by 1.5
to 2.5 eurocents per litre regardless of the
general price levels.
latest news, events, jobs online – www.PetrolPlaza.com
News – eUrOPe
YPF expropriation is unjustified
& damaging
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has
said that Argentina’s decision to nationalize
Spanish-controlled oil company YPF SA has
no economic justification and damages the
understanding between the two countries.
“This regrettable decision has no economic
justification or any reason”, Rajoy said at the
World Economic Forum’s Latin America
event in the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto
Vallarta. Argentine President Cristina
Kirchner asked her country’s Congress to
put 51 percent of YP, Argentina’s biggest
oil company, in state hands, ousting flagship
Spanish energy firm Repsol YPF SA
as the majority shareholder. The Spanish
prime minister said the decision by the
Kirchner government, which accuses
YPF of not producing enough from its
concessions, sets a serious precedent and is
negative for everyone. Rajoy said the “good
understanding” with Argentina is broken
following the expropriation.
OMv predicts energy
price jumps in europe
OMV AG Chief Gerhard Roiss has claimed
that psychological aspects often matter more
regarding the price of oil than fundamental
grounds. Roiss called the increase of car
fuel prices a “delicate topic”. He said the
price for mineral oil might rather drop in
the future than rise further. But Roiss also
stressed that he was not aware of trustworthy
indicators for the development of oil
prices in the coming years. He said that
the price for energy products and services
like car petrol and household heating could
be twice as high as these days. The former
OMV deputy chief – who has headed the
Viennese company since 2011 – identified
renewable energy sources as key factor for
spiralling expenses.
Hungarian government
keeps excise tax
Hungarian Economy Minister György
Matolcsy has said that the government
does not intend to lower the excise tax
on petrol. Opposition MPs have urged
the cabinet on numerous occasions to
reduce the tax on fuel, the highest in
the region. Matolcsy argued that lowering
the excise tax would not significantly
reduce prices at petrol stations and would
cost the budget tens of billions of forints.
Matolcsy also cited an EU directive that
sets a minimum level of excise tax on fuel.
High fuel prices are not a specifically
Hungarian phenomenon, he said.
9