Page 15 - AsianOil Week 29 2020

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In the Czech Republic, gas grid operator FSU: Gazprom maintains dividends
Net4Gas has scaled back plans for new gas links Russia’s Gazprom is maintaining its 40% div-
with Austria and Poland after failing to secure idend policy for this year, it has said, despite
the EU financial support it was hoping for. The booking its first quarterly loss since 2015 in the
company’s Stork II pipeline was due to become first quarter.
operational in 2023, pumping up 13.7 mcm per Gazprom suffered as a result of low prices, a
day of gas in the direction of the Czech Republic collapse in European sales because of coronavi-
and 19.6 mcm per day in the direction of Poland. rus lockdowns and ruble devaluation. It will face
Net4Gas was also looking to build an 18 mcm even greater difficulty in the second and third
per day bidirectional pipeline connecting the quarters.
Czech Republic with Austria, known as BACI, Gazprom has sought to reassure investors
by 2024. that its dividend policy remains unchanged, but
However, Net4Gas has excluded both pro- these investors remain sceptical, with this sen-
jects in its 2021-2030 development programme timent reflected in the company’s share price.
published this month. It may build smaller-sized The supplier is taking steps to cut its operat-
interconnections instead, depending on the ing costs and capital investments in 2020, with
results of capacity auctions scheduled for 2021. the latter due to be reduced to RUB1.3 trillion
The operator has also pushed back the launch ($18.21bn), from an earlier forecast of RUB1.6
of these potential pipelines, to 2027-28 for the trillion ($22.42bn).
Polish link and 2026 for the connection with Azerbaijan’s state energy group SOCAR has
Austria. warned that some of the infrastructure that car-
Net4Gas attributes these decisions to its ries Caspian oil and gas to world markets could
failure to get either project on the EU’s list of be at risk, following border clashes with Arme-
projects of common interest (PCIs), which can nia. 15 servicemen from Azerbaijan and six from
gain access to grants from the bloc’s Connecting Armenia died last week. The countries have a
Europe Facility (CEF). Under its new president, long-standing dispute over the Nagorno-Karab-
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commis- akh region that has periodically flared up.
sion has taken a tougher stance against fossil The infrastructure SOCAR was referring
fuels. This shift in policy was reflected in the to includes various oil and gas pipelines, some
fact that the EC’s latest PCI proposals presented of which are situated not far from the territory
in November included far fewer new gas infra- where clashes took place.
structure projects. In Kazakhstan, a long-standing dispute
between the government and Moldovan busi-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping nessman Anatolie Stati wages on. Stati claims
Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for that in 2010, oilfields controlled by his com-
NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor. panies were expropriated by the Kazakh state.

Week 29 23•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15