Page 17 - EurOil Week 04 2023

EurOil NEWS IN BRIEF EurOil

Slovak gas transmission Montenegro seeks natural gas construction of ten injection wells and
three for observation. The third lot includes
operator Eustream reportedly supply from Azerbaijan construction of gas pipeline from Chiren to
the village of Butan that would connect it to
lost close to 90% of profits Montenegro is interested in importing the national grid.
natural gas from Azerbaijan through the
So far, Bulgartransgaz has signed a
Slovak public broadcaster RTVS reported port of Bar, outgoing Prime Minister contract only for the first lot.
that the operator of the gas transmission Dritan Abazovic said during a meeting with
network Eustream lost 87% of its profits Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev.
from August to December 2022. Eustream’s Abazovic said his country is interested in Croatia’s Janaf signs oil storage
profit in that period was €17mn and it was deepening cooperation with Azerbaijan in
€131mn in the corresponding period in infrastructure and energy during a meeting deal with Lukoil-owned Litasco
2021. on the sidelines of the Davos economic
The steep drop in profits comes as a forum, the government said in a statement. Croatian oil pipeline operator Janaf said it
result of decreased flow of Russian gas. Abazovic also noted that the completion has signed a contract on crude oil storage
“Currently the company [Eustream] is of the Ionian-Adriatic pipeline (IAP) would with Swiss-based trading company Litasco,
transporting approximately 32mn cubic contribute to the stability and diversification a unit of Russian Lukoil.
meters [m3] of natural gas,“ Eustream of natural gas supplies and Montenegro, According to the contract, Janaf will
member of the board Miroslav Bodnar was along with its neighbours, would serve as store 239,856 cubic metres of crude oil
quoted as saying by RTVS. a bridge between the Caspian region and between April 1, 2023 and end-March 2025.
The public broadcaster notes that at Western Europe. Janaf, which is majority state-owned,
this rate Eustream would transport some If built, the pipeline will run from Fier operates terminals for crude oil and oil
17bn m3 annually. Last year Eustream in Albania through Montenegro and Bosnia products located on the island of Krk, as
transported 26bn m3 and in 2019 it was & Herzegovina to Split in Croatia. The IAP well as in Sisak, Virje, Slavonski Brod and
69bn m3. would be connected with the Trans Adriatic Zitnjak.
The Slovak state is a 51% shareholder in Pipeline (TAP) in Fier. Earlier in January, Janaf signed new
Eustream through its gas distribution utility contracts on oil transport and storage with
Slovensky plynarensky priemysel (SPP). Hungary’s MOL.
The remaining 49% shareholder is Central Bulgaria launches project to The Croatian government took steps
European energy conglomerate EPH of to increase Janaf’s storage capacity to
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his double gas storage capacity guarantee energy security during the
Slovak business partner Patrik Tkac, who is Russian war in Ukraine.
also a partner in the Slovak financial group Bulgaria has launched a project to double The new storage covers an area of
J&T. EPH has managerial control over the capacity of its Chiren gas storage facility 640,000 square metres and will increase
Eustream. to 1bn cubic metres (bcm), the country’s the Omisalj terminal’s capacity to 2.04mn
EPH has been criticised for profting from state-owned gras transmission system cubic metres, while new storage for refined
the energy crisis and it was also reported operator Bulgartransgaz said in a statement products is 220,000 cubic metres of capacity.
that it was registering record high profits. on January 20.
When the Czech parliament ratified the It signed a contract on the expansion
windfall tax aimed at collecting 2023 profits project with the Tech Energy consortium North Macedonia’s NER, GA-MA
from energy and refinery companies and that includes Polish Techmadex and the
banks, EPH announced it will relocate its Bulgarian Glavborgarstroy, Glavbolgarstroy complete merger into Nomagas
trading branch EP Commodities outside of International and Protracing.
Czechia. The project also includes the expansion North Macedonia’s state-owned
In December Eustream heavily criticised of Chiren’s capacity for extraction and National Energy Resources (NER) and gas
the proposed Slovak tax aimed at profits injection of natural gas to between 8bcm transmission system operator GA-MA have
made on the transportation of Russian gas and 10bcm from current 3.5-4bcm per day. completed their merger into a company
as selectively aiming at one company. Slovak The outdated Russian equipment will with a new name, Nomagas, Nomagas
president Zuzana Caputova vetoed the tax be replaced by US equipment delivered announced on January 18.
proposal, arguing the law could threaten by the US companies Solar Turbine, Nomagas will operate as a natural gas
the financial stability of Eustream, but Honeywell and Emmerson. The value of distributor.
parliament can still override the veto. that equipment is BGM298mn (€€152.4mn) The new company was entered into the
Eustream operates a robust pipeline without VAT. register on December 30, 2022, Nomagas
infrastructure connected to Ukraine, The total value of the project is said in a bourse filing.
Hungary, Austria, Czechia, and Poland, and BGN600mn divided in three lots. The NER was established in 2010 to
has been key in distributing gas from Russia project should be completed within two implement the project of construction
and CIS countries. years. and development of the gas system in the
The first lot envisages the expansion of country. ™
the capacity, while the second is for the

Week 04 26•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P17