Page 15 - EurOil Week 22 2021

EurOil NEWS IN BRIEF EurOil

Turkey’s natural gas fifth in the ranking were missing in what in Kovacevic’s garage. He has claimed the
was received from the ISO (hence the
money belonged to his business partners and
imports leap 48% y/y in missing line in the table below). was intended for the purchase of 250 ha of land
in Slavonia.

March
Turkey imported 5.82bn cubic metres Oil refinery secures £7.2mn Bulgaria delays launch of
(bcm) of natural gas in March, marking hydrogen furnace grant
a 47.8% y/y increase, data from energy gas link with Greece until
market regulator EPDK have shown. Essar Oil UK has secured £7.2mn in
The country’s total gas consumption government funding to build a hydrogen end-June 2022
rose by 42.3% to 6.54 bcm from 4.6 bcm in furnace at its Stanlow refinery in Cheshire.
March 2020. The company will install a new furnace in Bulgaria’s Energy and Water Regulatory
Households’ consumption expanded by its crude distillation unit, which will be able to Commission (KEVR) said on May 26 it
43.3% to 2.83 bcm, while the use of gas in run on 100% hydrogen fuel. has agreed to delay the launch of the Gas
power plants jumped 248% to 1.36 bcm in It is believed to become the UK’s first Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (ICGB) until
the month. refinery-based furnace able to be fuelled the end of June 2022.
Imports from Russia amounted to 2.58 entirely by hydrogen. The interconnector was supposed to
bcm, up 563% y/y, while Turkey purchased With the help of the new system, the become operational at the end of 2021, but
1.07 bcm of natural gas from Azerbaijan refinery, which supplies nearly 16% of all road the construction was delayed due to the
and 850 mcm from Iran. transport fuels used in the UK, will be able coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Consumption growth in natural gas to cut its annual carbon dioxide emissions by The construction of the interconnector,
power plants increased as the plants were 11%. which will help Bulgaria to diversify natural
required to generate more electricity due Essar Chief Operating Officer Jon Barden gas sources and reduce its dependence
to drought pushing down hydro capacity commented: “The funding from BEIS is an on Russia, has been delayed by numerous
over the past few months, state-run news endorsement of the steps we’re taking, as objections in Bulgaria.
service Anadolu said. well as a signal of the government’s intent to In May 2019, ICGB picked Greece’s J&P-
transform the North West into a clean energy Avax to build the gas link for €144.8mn, while
hub supporting jobs and economic growth for Corinth Pipeworks Industry was selected to
Refiner Tupras remains years to come.” supply line pipes worth €58.2mn. In October,
contracts were signed with J&P-Avax and

Turkey’s largest industrial Former CEO of Croatian Corinth Pipeworks Industry.
The interconnector will have a length of
producer in 2020 182 km, of which 151 km will be on Bulgarian
territory. Its capacity is planned to be 3bn
Turkey’s main refiner Tupras (TUPRS), pipeline operator Janaf cubic metres. Bulgaria and Greece signed a
a Koc Holding (KCHOL) subsidiary, has released from detention delayed final investment decision on building
kept top place in the Top 500 Industrial the interconnector in December 2015.
Enterprises ranking for Turkey in 2020, A court in Zagreb released Dragan Kovacevic, The interconnector is part of the Vertical
published by the Istanbul Chamber of the former CEO of state oil pipeline operator Gas Corridor (Greece – Bulgaria – Romania
Industry (ISO). Janaf, from detention after all the witnesses in – Hungary), providing access to natural gas
Tupras’ production-based sales dropped the Janaf graft case had been questioned, N1 from the Southern Gas Corridor and LNG
sharply to TRY59bn ($6.9bn) in virus-hit reported on May 27. to Southeast and Central Europe as well as
2020 from TRY88bn in 2019. However, Kovacevic was first detained in December Ukraine.
the company still led the ranking by far, 2020, before being released. He was re-arrested
despite carmaker Ford Otosan (FROTO), in February along with 16 others, including
another Koc company, increasing its sales a judge of the Commercial Court in Zagreb, OKEA to develop Hasselmus
to TRY45bn from TRY37bn. on suspicion of wrongdoing in bankruptcy
Another carmaker, Oyak-Renault, proceedings. He was subsequently released, gas discovery as tie-back
overtook Toyota Turkey, increasing its only to be arrested for the third time in April. s
sales to TRY31.2bn in 2020 from TRY25bn Kovacevic’s third arrest was on accusation of to Draugen platform
in 2019. Toyota increased its sales to taking bribes for fixing jobs.
TRY30.8bn from TRY26bn. Croatian prosecutors suspect that Kovacevic Norwegian oil company OKEA has with
Double-digit inflation is the main driver received a bribe from Kreso Petek, the owner partners Petoro and Neptune Energy decided
in the huge jumps seen in Turkish lira- of the Elektro Petek company. Allegedly, Petek to develop the Hasselmus offshore gas
denominated corporate sales. also gave bribes to former Velika Gorica mayor discovery in the Norwegian Sea as a tie-back
Star Refinery, a subsidiary of and former Croatian Democratic Union MP, to the Draugen platform.
Azerbaijan’s national oil company SOCAR, Drazen Barisic, and former Social Democratic The Hasselmus gas discovery is located on
fell to sixth place in the ranking despite Party MP and former Nova Gradiska mayor the western edge of the Trøndelag platform
sales rising to TRY24bn in 2020 from Vinko Grgic. In return, his company was in the Norwegian Sea, 7 km northwest of the
TRY21bn in 2019. awarded projects for millions of euros. Draugen platform, in production licence 093.
The details of the company that placed Back in December, the police found €1mn A single well (6407/9-9 T2) was drilled on

Week 22 03•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15