Page 14 - EurOil Week 21 2021

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Engie offloads 10% stake in LNG

containment firm GTT

FRANCE FRENCH energy group Engie reported on May strategic plan towards simplifying the group and
26 it had shed a 10% stake in LNG tech firm GTT its investor proposition through existing non-
Engie sold most of its for €290mn ($355mn). core activities,” Engie CEO Catherine MacGre-
LNG-related activities to The company has sold 3.7mn shares in GTT, gor commented. “GTT is an innovative and high
Total in 2017. which designs and supplies LNG containment performing business, and as a major shareholder
systems for LNG carriers and LNG import, Engie has benefited from GTT’s continuing
export and terminals across the world. The sale strong growth over the years.”
was made through an accelerated bookbuild Engie has been left with a 30% holding in
process at a price of €67 per share. GTT, of which 10% represents the exchange-
Simultaneously, Engie has also issued an able bond. GTT said its board of directors
exchange bond into existing ordinary shares of would be altered to reflect Engie’s diminished
GTT for a nominal €290mn in total. The bond ownership.
has a zero coupon rate and has a maturity of Engie already scaled back its LNG activities
three years, with a premium exchange rate of considerably in 2017 when it sold its stakes in liq-
20% versus the placement price of the GTT uefaction plants, an LNG tanker fleet and access
shares that have been sold. to regasification capacities in Europe to Total for
GTT bought back around 185,400 of the $1.5bn. The company is looking to withdraw
shares, also at a price of €67 apiece. from other fossil fuel businesses as well while
“Today’s announcement is in line with Engie’s expanding in renewables. ™

NEWS IN BRIEF

Equinor adds third Odfjell picked for Baltic Pipe work for the acquisition of the 49% stake in its oil
refinery INA from Hungary’s MOL within
rig to drilling fleet Rohde Nielsen’s new multi-purpose vessel two months, it said in a statement.
Grane R has secured its first job on the Baltic
In 2016, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej
Norwegian giant Equinor has awarded a Pipe project. Plenkovic said that the government would
drilling contract to Odfjell Drilling for the Grane R will carry out boulder removal, try to buy MOL’s almost 50% INA stake,
use of the sixth-generation semi-submersible trench maintenance dredging, and backfilling after years of rows over its management and
rig Deepsea Stavanger. for the gas pipeline between the Norwegian investment policies.
Odfjell Drilling said on on May 26 that sector of the North Sea and Poland. In July 2019, the government picked the
the contract has a firm period of three wells For the boulder removal operations, Anglo-French investment bank Lazard as
with an expected duration of four months the vessel’s crane is equipped with a peel a new consultant for the planned purchase.
and an expected start date during 1Q 2022. grab supplied with video camera for visual The government was hoping to place its offer
The day rate will be similar to that agreed monitoring, Rohde Nielsen said. in the first quarter of 2020 but the procedure
for the sister rig Deepsea Aberdeen under its The 274-km Baltic Pipe project is a was delayed due to the coronavirus
Breidablikk contract, which is also set to start strategic infrastructure project between (COVID-19) outbreak.
during the first half of 2022. This contract Poland’s GAZ-SYSTEM and the Danish “I expect that by the summer of this year,
has a scope of fifteen firm wells and an Energinet. in the coming month and a half or two, we
estimated duration of 2.5 years. In addition, It will create a new corridor supplying shall have e clear direction to go to,” Croatia’s
there are nine optional wells. gas from Norway to the markets in Poland, Economy and Sustainable Development
The rig owner said that the Deepsea Denmark and neighboring countries. Minister Tomislav Coric said in a statement.
Stavanger’s contract includes a notable GAZ-SYSTEM reported at the beginning In September 2020, Lazard estimated that
performance incentive rate which shall apply of the month that it had started carrying out MOL’s 49.08% stake in INA could be worth
when wells are delivered safely and ahead of final preparations to begin laying the offshore around $800mn.
target. gas pipeline. The Hungarian oil giant holds just
In a separate statement on May 26, under half of INA’s shares, but exercises
Equinor said that the contract value is management rights in the company. MOL
estimated at around $40mn for the fixed part Croatia to clear plans for has long been at odds with the Croatian
of the contract. government, the other big stakeholder in
acquisition of MOL’s stake INA, over investments at the company.
Croatia’s government announced its
Rohde Nielsen’s new vessel in INA within two months intention to buy back MOL’s stake in INA
late in 2016.
Croatia’s government hopes to clear the plans

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