Greece: ‘Heading for turmoil in the Aegean?’

Turkey have recently received a special boat with which it will start surveying inside Cyprus’ EEZ

Recently Greece’s creditors expressed their disappointment on the issue of privatizations.

One that is pending without any visible reason is that of DEPA and DESFA the state oil and gas companies since November.

 It seems that from the 5 companies that have expressed interest and are still in the bid giving non-biding offers the two Russian are the favourites as their offers are almost the double from the second.

The state company that arranges the privatizations (TAIPED) said that it is going to accept the highest bid (without any regard on geopolitics).

But it seems that Washington as well as Brussels have a different opinion.

That is why TAIPED changed the clauses and now asks from companies that had left the bid during an earlier stage to come back and make new offers cooperating with any of the five existing ones.

On February 13th it will be signed the agreement between Greece-Italy-Albania on the TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline).

There will be present a delegate from Azerbaijan from where the gas will be transported to Europe and which is to decide if TAP will be built rendering Greece’s existing infrastructure useful.

Interestingly the ‘second’ company apart from the two Russian (Gazprom and Negusneft) is the Azerbaijani state oil and gas company SOCAR which is the head of the Shah Deniz joint venture.

SOCAR is said that after the change of clauses will join the two Greek consortiums comprising M&M GasCo, Mytilineos Holdings, Motor Oil Hellas Corinth Refineries and a joint bid by PPF and GEK Terna Holding Real Estate Construction. Bilateral relations with Greece with emphasis on the energy sector are dated back to 2011.

This scheme is supported by US ( U.S. ties with Azerbaijan serve to “contain” Russian and Iranian influence and diversify the European energy sector, See page 50) and the owner of Motor Oil Mr. Vardinoyannis knows personally the President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev.

On early March Mr. Samaras is going to visit Washington while a trip to Moscow is reported as canceled. At the same time EU is going to decide about bailing out Cyprus (which is accusing of laundering money of the Russian mafia), Russia will decide on easing the terms of the loan it has already extended to Cyprus and Turkey have recently received a special boat with which it will start surveying inside Cyprus’ EEZ and near the Greek island Kastelorizo (inside Greece’s potential EEZ that recently the government leaked that is ready to declare).

At the same time in Athens the 54th round of exploratory talks between Greece and Turkey have started but passing unmentioned.


UPD: It is said that finally Sintez (Negusneft's affiliated company) decided to leave from the bid since its offer (1,9 million euros) was by far the highest but TAIPED hesitated to make decisions and delayed the possess.

UPD1: Sintez on Feb 7th denied that is leaving from the bid. The deadline for the final offers will be on April 12th.

Cyprus and Turkey Speed up their Gas Research

Πηγή: Natural Gas
Jan 7 2013

Natural gas research in the eastern Mediterranean will result in Cyprus and Turkey engaging in activities to explore for new reserves.

Cypriot energy Minister, Neocles Sylikiotis, met recently with a high-level delegation from Total SA in order to push forward negotiations regarding the research of a sea block awarded to the company. Cyprus has concluded final details with Italian Eni and the Korean Kogas, who have pledged to invest into researching two other sea blocks. Sylikotis in the meantime relayed to local media that over the coming years when all sea blocks are awarded, a total amount of USD 10 billion in investments should be expected based on the estimations that considerable amounts of gas will be found, similar to Noble Energy’s Block 12.

According to estimations by the Cypriot Ministry, by early 2013 all negotiations should have reached an end and by mid 2014 the newly established Cypriot hydrocarbon state agency should have found a strategic investor. The schedule details that by 2018 production at Block 12 should have started and by 2020 other potential gas reserves should also be exploited. For the moment companies such as Gazprom, Shell, BP and E.ON seem unofficially interested in becoming strategic partners with the Cypriot agency, although negotiations for that sector will commence in the near future, once the remaining blocks are awarded to various competing companies.

Turkey is also speeding up its Mediterranean gas investment strategy. It has started negotiating with the Norwegian corporation Polarcus in order for the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPAO) to acquire the research vessel Polarcus Samur built in 2001. TPAO is in a final negotiation stage with the Norwegians for the acquisition that is said to cost USD 165 million, according to the Oslo based bank DNB. If the deal is concluded, the vessel could be in Turkish ports by March 2013. Polarcus Samur has eight streamer sensors and multitude of other high-tech equipment for far-ranging offshore research.

The CEO of Polarcus, Rolf Ronningen, stated recently that TPAO is interested in wide-range 3D seismic research in all corners of the Turkish continental self, including the Black Sea.

It is also interesting to note that TPAO in 2011 signed an agreement with Shell to jointly conduct natural gas research in the eastern Mediterranean through an energy exploration and production sharing agreement. This deal details that first a region offshore Antalya should be explored. Shell is estimated it will contribute USD 300 million along with technical expertise and according to the Hurriyet newspaper, reserves to be found will be equally divided between TPAO and Shell.