Page 11 - Euroil Week 02 2020

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
French fuel strikes continue
FRANCE
Unions have prolonged the strike, but so far there have been no major fuel shortages.
FRANCE’S Total has delayed the restart of a distillation unit at its 220,000 barrels per day Donges refinery until January 17 because of nationwide industrial action over planned pen- sion reforms, it said on January 15.
Unions began a strike at France’s oil refiner- ies on January 7, with workers downing tools at plants and protestors attempting to block them from delivering fuel supplies to depots.
Total, with operates five of the country’s seven processing plants, said shipments of refined products from Donges had been suspended on January 14 for 72 hours because of strike action. Operations continue at its other refineries in Normandy, Grandpuits, Feyzin and La Mede, it said, but shipments of refined products to depots are on hold.
Total was previously forced to close the Donges distillation unit on France’s west coast on January 12 after port workers prevented oil supplies from reaching the facility.
Unions initially had planned to stage a
four-day strike until January 11 but later decided to prolong the action. According to Total and other refinery operators, most of their staff are not taking part in the strike. The more serious disruption has been caused by picketers prevent- ing oil and fuels being supplied to and from the plants.
Total and other operators said ahead of the strike that their depots and filling stations were well stocked to safeguard against shortages. And only a small fraction of filling stations have run out of fuel. Previous industrial action in Decem- ber caught the industry offguard, causing worse shortages.
National railway SNCF and Paris metro RATP have also been on strike since December 5, causing severe disruption. So far the transport strike has cost RATP almost EUR200mn and the SNCF around EUR850mn, according to officials.
However, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said the walkout again pension reform “will
go nowhere, the
government is determined.” ™
is that Moscow has different views. Moscow is using its energy sources as a political tool for influencing, dividing Europe,” Hale said.
He added that Turkish Stream and North Stream 2 are problematic as they do not secure energy diversification for Europe. Instead, they are destabilising Ukraine
as Russia gets opportunity to bypass the pipelines in that country, he said.
TurkStream spans a 930-km route across the Black Sea. It helps to meet Turkey’s ambition of becoming a gas hub serving European markets. However, analysts have noted that Turkey will not be able to use
its role as a transit state for Russian gas to Europe as leverage over Moscow because if it attempted to play politics in that way the Kremlin could simply switch gas volumes back to Ukraine.
Serbia has already completed its
part of the extension, while Bulgaria is currently building the pipeline through
its territory. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has insisted that the local section is called “Balkan Stream” and is part of the country’s efforts for gas delivery diversification.
At the beginning of December, Putin accused Bulgaria for intentionally delaying the pipeline’s completion. Meanwhile, Borissov claims that the pipeline will be completed before May 2020.
bne IntelliNews, January 11 2020
Italy-focused Po Valley secures key approval
Po Valley Energy Limited has secured a key environmental approval for its 63%-owned Selva gas field in northern Italy, slated to start production later this year.
The Italian Environment Ministry has granted formal technical environmental approval for Selva Malvezzi production concession – a precursor to final sign off by Environment Minister decree.
It also precedes issuing of the required INTESA intergovernmental agreement and the final grant of a production concession as issued by Italy’s Economic Development Ministry.
Selva project has gas reserves of 13.3bn cubic feet and PVE has already secured the grant of a preliminary production concession ahead of final development.
Under the first phase of the development plan, Po Valley intends to initially install a fully automated gas plant at the existing Selva/Podere Maiar 1dir well site.
The company will also install a 1-km long pipeline to connect the well with the nearby Italian national gas grid.
Based on dynamic reservoir studies, the field development is designed to produce at a daily rate of up to 150,000 cubic metres from successfully tested C1 and C2 production levels in the Medium-Upper
Week 02 16•January•2020
NEWS IN BRIEF
Pliocene sands of the Porto Garibaldi Formation.
January 8 2020
US official speaks out
against TurkStream
extension via Bulgaria
The US is against the construction of a second line of the Turkish Stream (also known as TurkStream) pipeline via Bulgaria as it views it as a geo-strategic project of Russia, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale said in an interview with public broadcaster BNR.
The statement came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the Turkish Stream pipeline built to carry Russian natural gas to southern Europe through Turkey.
Gazprom has determined the itinerary of the second line of the Turkish Stream pipeline will span Bulgaria and Serbia starting from 2020, then go through Hungary and Slovakia starting from 2021 and the second half of 2022, respectively.
“We realise that the energy efficiency
is very important for Europe and we understand that when our allies have secure access to energy sources they are stronger, more reliable allies. The problem
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