INSIDE OIL Friday, March 16, 2012 BEYOND THE HEADLINES MARKET NEWS OIL: Crude prices fell by $2 a barrel on Thursday after Reuters reported that the United States and Britain were preparing a release from strate- gic oil reserves this year. "It all depends on how much they are going to release," said analyst Chris Dillman at Tradition Energy in Connecticut. NATURALGAS: Front month U.S. natural gas futures ended lower for a second straight day on Thursday on continuing concerns over a mild winter and inventories that remain bloated despite a weekly storage draw that came in above expectations. "Today's ever-so-slightly-more- than-expected storage withdrawal does nothing whatsoever to alter existing fundamentals. That said, natural gas is grappling with technical support, the forward curve seemingly more supported than the front, from a growing question mark on the potential for future production and drilling cuts," said Jay Levine, broker with enerjay, LLC in Portland, Maine. EURO COAL: Prompt physical coal prices held steady on Thursday but could see fresh falls as unsold U.S. and Colombian coal weighs on the European market. China has been forecast to import around the same tonnage this year as last year, more than enough to tip the supply/ demand balance, traders said. COMMODITIES: Oil prices fell for a second day in a row on Thursday, hit by news of a possible release in U.S. and British strategic oil re- serves, while most other commodities rose due to a weaker dollar. "It all depends on how much they are going to release," said analyst Chris Dillman at Tradition Energy in Connecticut. GLOBAL MARKETS: Asian shares steadied on Friday and the dollar took a breather after its recent broad rally spurred some profit taking, but a fresh batch of data suggesting the U.S. economy may be picking up momentum underpinned investor sentiment. "The market is still go- ing through a relief rally more than chasing a new trend on global growth," Barclays Capital analysts said. "We are getting into profit- taking territory," they added. Argentina will sue over Falklands oil exploration Chevron halts Brazil production after new leak Transocean lands 3 new contracts at higher rates Colombia oil industry pushes back on tax hikes Releasing oil reserves "worth looking at" -Cameron GE invests in Texas shale gas pipeline operator Brazil to fine Chevron after new, small leak -ANP UK says backs Falkland islanders' right to drill for oil FERC warns US power, natgas traders on manipulation U.S., UK set to agree emergency oil stocks release Croatia plans gas, oil exploration tender in 2012 Klesch submits bid for Petroplus plant in France CLICK HERE TO SEE UPCOMING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES Asia Cash Prices Price Net Change Differential Diff Change Dubai Crude $123.68 $0.62 2.37 $1.08 Tokyo Naphtha (Ts) $1,107.50 $2.00 13.50 $0.00 Gasoline (92 RON) $135.60 $0.00 14.72 $0.27 Diesel (0.5 pct) $137.10 $0.56 0.22 $0.04 Jet-Kerosene $137.22 $0.20 0.40 $0.05 Fuel Oil (180 cst) $749.10 $4.45 1.75 $0.30 Fuel Oil (380 cst) $735.90 $5.30 0.75 $0.35 Futures as on Mar 15 Close Net Change Pct change NYMEX light crude $105.11 $0.32 0.3% NYMEX RBOB gasoline $3.2885 $0.0585 1.8% NYMEX heating oil $3.2225 $0.0393 1.2% ICE Brent crude $122.60 $2.37 1.9% ICE gas oil $1,024.00 $14.50 1.4% DME Oman crude $122.15 $1.85 1.5% NYMEX Natgas $2.279 $0.005 0.2% CHART OF THE DAY TODAY’S MARKETS ROBERT CAMPBELL ON THE MARKETS COLUMN-Obama nears dropping IEA fig leaf for oil release U.S. President Barack Obama, itching to pull the trigger on a fresh release from the strategic oil reserves to quell surging fuel prices, is getting closer to plunging into the market without backup from other Western nations. Robert Campbell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own. Click here to read more.. EZ EUROSTAT TRADE NSA, EUR JAN (1000) U.S. CONSUMER PRICES FEB (1230) U.S. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION FEB (1315) U.S. CFTC COMMITMENT OF TRADERS DATA WEEKLY (1930) EVENTS TO WATCH TODAY (GMT) Continental Resources CEO on Shale Boom Talking Numbers: Crude's Slick Ride (Click on the headline to view the show ) Click on the chart for full-size image
Transcript
INSIDE OIL Friday, March 16, 2012
BEYOND THE HEADLINES
MARKET NEWS
OIL: Crude prices fell by $2 a barrel on Thursday after Reuters reported that the United States and Britain were preparing a release from strate-gic oil reserves this year. "It all depends on how much they are going to release," said analyst Chris Dillman at Tradition Energy in Connecticut. NATURALGAS: Front month U.S. natural gas futures ended lower for a second straight day on Thursday on continuing concerns over a mild winter and inventories that remain bloated despite a weekly storage draw that came in above expectations. "Today's ever-so-slightly-more-than-expected storage withdrawal does nothing whatsoever to alter existing fundamentals. That said, natural gas is grappling with technical support, the forward curve seemingly more supported than the front, from a growing question mark on the potential for future production and drilling cuts," said Jay Levine, broker with enerjay, LLC in Portland, Maine. EURO COAL: Prompt physical coal prices held steady on Thursday but could see fresh falls as unsold U.S. and Colombian coal weighs on the European market. China has been forecast to import around the same tonnage this year as last year, more than enough to tip the supply/demand balance, traders said. COMMODITIES: Oil prices fell for a second day in a row on Thursday, hit by news of a possible release in U.S. and British strategic oil re-serves, while most other commodities rose due to a weaker dollar. "It all depends on how much they are going to release," said analyst Chris Dillman at Tradition Energy in Connecticut. GLOBAL MARKETS: Asian shares steadied on Friday and the dollar took a breather after its recent broad rally spurred some profit taking, but a fresh batch of data suggesting the U.S. economy may be picking up momentum underpinned investor sentiment. "The market is still go-ing through a relief rally more than chasing a new trend on global growth," Barclays Capital analysts said. "We are getting into profit-taking territory," they added.
ROBERT CAMPBELL ON THE MARKETS COLUMN-Obama nears dropping IEA fig leaf for oil release U.S. President Barack Obama, itching to pull the trigger on a fresh release from the strategic oil reserves to quell surging fuel prices, is getting closer to plunging into the market without backup from other Western nations. Robert Campbell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.
Click here to read more..
EZ EUROSTAT TRADE NSA, EUR JAN (1000) U.S. CONSUMER PRICES FEB (1230) U.S. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION FEB (1315) U.S. CFTC COMMITMENT OF TRADERS DATA WEEKLY (1930)
BUENOS AIRES, March 15 (Reuters) - Argentina will take legal action against any companies involved in oil exploration off the disputed Falkland Islands as part of a drive to pressure Britain into sovereignty talks, the foreign minister said on Thursday.
Three decades after it repelled an Argentine invasion of the Falklands, Britain has vowed to defend the archipelago, saying it will negotiate sovereignty or oil rights only in the unlikely event that the 3,000 islanders want that.
The conflict has heated up in recent months as the war's 30-year anniversary nears and findings by British exploration firms raise hopes of a potential tax windfall and boon to the islands' economy.
Transocean lands 3 new contracts at higher rates
March 15 (Reuters) - Transocean Ltd , owner of the world's largest offshore drilling fleet, secured new contracts for three floating rigs, reflecting the steady growth in global demand.
Transocean said the Deepwater Expedition was picked up by an unidentified client for two years at a rate of $650,000 a day starting in November this year. The ultra-deepwater rig's previ-ous contract, at a dayrate of $640,000, was terminated early after months of downtime.
In an indication of a deepwater rig shortage that has been an-ticipated by drilling executives, the Expedition also secured fixed-price options through 2016 for $695,000 per day, accord-ing to Transocean's fleet status update out on Thursday.
NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday a possible release of strategic oil reserves to tame soaring fuel prices is "worth looking at," but that no decision had been made after the discussions he had with U.S. President Barack Obama.
"Short term, should we look at reserves? Yes, we should," he said in New York after meeting with top Wall Street financial executives following meetings in Washington with Obama and other senior officials.
"We'd both like to see global oil prices at a lower level than they are," he said at a question and answer event with students at New York University. "We didn't make any decisions - this has to be discussed broadly."
Brazil to fine Chevron after new, small leak -ANP
BRASILIA, March 15 (Reuters) - Brazil's oil regulator, ANP, said on Thursday it would fine Chevron an undisclosed amount after the company failed to put in place the necessary safe-guards to prevent a new oil leak from the offshore Frade field which it operates.
Chevron described the leak as only a seepage and said it has begun mechanical dispersion of the oil patch on the sea sur-face.
Chevron halts Brazil production after new leak
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 15 (Reuters) - Chevron filed to tem-porarily halt production operations in Brazil on Thursday after it detected a "small new seep" of oil in the same offshore field where it suffered a high-profile leak in November.
The U.S. oil company said it was taking the step as a precau-tionary measure to study its "reservoir management plans" in Brazil, where it has spent over $2 billion developing the largest foreign-run oil field. If approved by Brazilian regulators, the sus-pension will shut down a field with the capacity to produce 80,000 barrels a day, more than 3 percent of Brazil's oil output.
Colombia oil industry pushes back on tax hikes
BOGOTA, March 15 (Reuters) - Leaders of Colombia's oil in-dustry on Thursday urged the government to keep tax rates stable for the sector amid growing insistence by politicians that energy firms pay a greater share of their earnings to the Andean nation.
A group of legislators want President Juan Manuel Santos's upcoming tax overhaul proposal to include royalty and tax hikes on the oil industry, which is one of the fastest-growing in the region thanks to improved security under a U.S.-backed military crackdown on Marxist rebels.
Sector representatives say hiking taxes could limit the competi-tiveness of the country's oil and gas projects, which already face challenging logistics due to limited pipeline capacity in key pro-duction areas.
GE invests in Texas shale gas pipeline operator
March 15 (Reuters) - General Electric Co has sunk its teeth further into the energy infrastructure and services business by investing in Howard Energy Partners, a natural gas pipeline operator in the booming Eagle Ford shale fields of south Texas.
GE Energy Financial Services will pay an undisclosed amount for 30.6 percent of Howard, GE said on Thursday. Other inves-tors include Crosstex Energy LP , Quanta Services Inc and Clear Springs Energy Company LLC, and the deal is expected to close in April. "The shale boom has created the need for a dramatic build out of oil and gas infrastructure in North America, requiring significant capital," John Shepherd, a managing direc-tor at GE Energy Financial Services, said in a statement.
UK says backs Falkland islanders' right to drill for oil
LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it sup-ported the rights of Falkland islanders to exploit their oil re-serves after Argentina said it would take legal action against companies involved in energy exploration around the South Atlantic islands.
"Hydrocarbon exploration is a legitimate commercial venture and the British government supports the rights of the Falkland islanders to develop their hydrocarbons sector," a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said.
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COLUMN
Obama nears dropping IEA fig leaf for oil release
By Robert Campbell
NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, itching to pull the trigger on a fresh release from the strategic oil reserves to quell surging fuel prices, is getting closer to plunging into the market without backup from other Western nations.
Opposition to a fresh use of strategic oil stocks has come from European members of the International Energy Agency, threat-ening to slow any stock release.
In recent weeks senior European and IEA officials have down-played the need for a release arguing there is no clear and pre-sent supply shortage in the oil market.
Top U.S. officials have said publicly in recent weeks that a U.S. oil release is among the options the government is considering but that no decision has been taken.
But Washington is clearly not willing to wait for a consensus to emerge. With gasoline prices moving up the list of concerns for Americans just as a general election looms, Obama will be keen to get extra crude onto the market in time to nip a further price increase in the bud.
In the clearest sign yet that independent action is getting nearer, British officials have said they expect a formal request to re-lease oil to come from the United States "shortly" and that they have decided to cooperate in any "bilateral" action.
Given the time it takes to get oil to the market, and the fact that much of the current tightness is not in the Atlantic basin but rather the Pacific, action must come sooner than later if it is to have the greatest impact.
Indeed, it can be argued that the immediate impact of last year's IEA action in response to the civil war in Libya was blunted by the time it took for the group to agree on a release.
For the most part the absence of some European partners will not greatly diminish the impact of any action by the United States. The U.S. mainly holds its strategic stocks in the form of crude oil.
The support of the IEA mainly gives the United States cover for what is tantamount to intervention in the market. A bilateral ac-cord with Britain is mainly a downgraded version of this cover, especially as London has relatively little in the way of strategic oil stocks.
EASTWARD HO
The real question is just how the mechanics of any release might work. In 2011, the United States sold off sweet crude stocks which pushed American refiners to reduce imports of foreign sweet crude, allowing these cargoes to be diverted to Europe where supplies of light, sweet crude were extremely tight.
This year it is not so easy as U.S. imports of sweet crude have plunged. Purchases of Nigerian crude oil, generally light sweet grades, are down sharply as rising domestic light crude output displaces imports.
Preliminary data complied by the Energy Information Admini-stration show imports of Nigerian crude oil averaging only
310,000 bpd over the last four weeks, less than half the average level in 2011.
That could curb the impact of any stock release simply because it would not displace as much imported crude oil as in 2011 as well as running the risk that U.S. refiners might not take up all the oil being offered due to plentiful domestic supplies.
As such, it seems likely that any release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will include sour grades in order to maxi-mize the amount of imported crude oil that can be displaced and freed up for buyers in Asia and Europe.
All this raises awkward questions that Obama appears deter-mined to face. In essence unilateral action, or near unilateral action with the token support of some allies, means the United States will be indirectly shouldering the cost to transfer crude oil stocks to Asia.
It also cannot appear to be nakedly political, coming the sum-mer of an election.
It also cannot fail or risk being a massive embarrassment for the president. If too few barrels are pumped out of the SPR to make an appreciable impact on oil prices then Obama's opponents will have been handed another weapon to bash him with on energy policy.
But if the president is willing to gamble on intervening in the market without the support of allies he may also be willing to gamble with a much bigger release than the market expects.
--Robert Campbell is a Reuters market analyst. The views ex-pressed are his own--
FERC warns US power, natgas traders on manipulation
By Scott DiSavino and Eileen O'Grady
NEW YORK/HOUSTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The top U.S. energy regulator on Thursday warned power and natural gas traders that the agency has beefed up enforcement activity to discourage market manipulation, citing last week's record fine against Constellation Energy.
That's the message Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff told Reuters the agency is sending with a record $245 million fine against Baltimore-based Constellation Energy.
"The penalty amount will send the signal that you will not profit from market manipulation," Wellinghoff said. "It will cost you dearly. There is no profit to be made in manipulating the market; it will be a huge net loss for you."
Constellation agreed to pay a $135 million civil penalty and to disgorge unjust profits of $110 million. It was the largest penalty FERC has imposed since Congress expanded its enforcement authority in 2005 to prevent another electricity crisis like the one that hit California in 2000 and 2001.
Before the Constellation settlement FERC had only issued $172 million in fines since 2007.
FERC's enforcement staff determined Constellation engaged in manipulation in New York from September 2007 to December 2008, resulting in economic losses to market participants who bought and sold energy in the New York and New England power grids.
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Specifics of the trading violations outlined in FERC's agreement with Constellation should also be viewed by industry as a mes-sage, commissioner Cheryl LaFleur told Reuters.
"The details of the settlement agreement which sets out what the alleged market manipulation was as well as the compliance that we are expecting from the companies going forward - whether intended as a message or not - it is a good message for people who are market participants to learn from," LaFleur said.
"It's good reading," she said.
More than 10 years after the collapse of Enron and the Califor-nia energy crisis, which was exacerbated by illegal trading activ-ity and cost companies billions of dollars, the need for constant market oversight remains, Wellinghoff said.
"It will always be necessary to have oversight and enforcement of these markets," Wellinghoff told Reuters. "You have to make sure people are trading and operating fairly and openly. There are going to be some people to test the limits and others who will go beyond the limits and actually engage in fraud, manipula-tion and abuse."
FERC has been building its enforcement office in the years since the California crisis.
"We're now maturing to a full robust office that has the capability to ensure these markets operate fairly for consumers," Welling-hoff said.
BEEFING UP ENFORCEMENT
Adding staff with analytical skills and energy market experience will allow the enforcement division "to dive deeper into the data and be able to bring cases where they are appropriate," he said.
Wellinghoff credited former New Mexico U.S. Attorney Norman Bay, named to lead the FERC enforcement office in 2009, for prosecutorial and energy market expertise.
As part of the Constellation settlement, FERC plans to grant $1 million to six regional transmission grid operators (RTOs), in-cluding New York and New England, to enable them to better analyze trading and price data.
"The RTOs are in a good position to identify discrepancies," FERC Commissioner John Norris told Reuters. "They deal with the power markets every day. We're trying to enhance our ca-pacity to watch the market by enhancing the RTOs ability."
"My hope is people will realize there are serious repercussions for manipulation. We have a very strong investigations team, beefed up with a new division of analysis and surveillance. So the end goal is we have less to investigate," Norris said.
CONSTELLATION DENIES WRONGDOING
Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck said the company did not admit to any wrongdoing but agreed to settle the case to avoid litigation and pave the way for its $7.9 billion merger with Chi-cago-based energy company Exelon Corp .
But Wellinghoff said in a statement that FERC would hold senior managers of "all companies" accountable for monitoring compli-ance. He said companies would be expected to refrain from making uneconomical trades on one position in order to lift the value of a different position.
FERC's enforcement unit said Constellation's inappropriate ac-tivity involved losing money in the New York physical power
market to favorably influence payments it received under a separate financial market.
In a statement, Wellinghoff said companies would be expected to respond truthfully to questions about their trading, and also to realize that FERC "will be vigorous in using its anti-manipulation authority to protect consumers."
In addition to the civil penalty and profit disgorgement, Con-stellation had to remove the employees involved in the ques-tionable trading activities from any position related to wholesale energy trading.
Shattuck said last week that Constellation believed its trading practices "were lawful portfolio risk management transactions." Wellinghoff's statement said "clearly that is not the case."
"The Stipulation and Consent Agreement sets forth a detailed description of the transactions that I believe Constellation know-ingly and willfully engaged in that form the basis of enforcement staff's conclusion that Constellation engaged in market manipu-lation, fraud, and misrepresentation," Wellinghoff said
U.S., UK set to agree emergency oil stocks release
By Richard Mably
LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Britain is poised to cooperate with the United States on a release of strategic oil stocks that is expected within months, two British sources said, in a bid to prevent fuel prices choking economic growth in a U.S. election year.
A formal request from the United States to the UK to join forces in a release of oil from government-controlled reserves is ex-pected "shortly" following a meeting on Wednesday in Washing-ton between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, who discussed the issue, one source said.
Britain would respond positively, the two sources said, and Cameron said a release was worth considering.
"We didn't make any decision, this has to be discussed broadly. We've got to look at this issue carefully, it's something worth looking at. Short-term should we look at reserves? Yes, we should," Cameron said during a meeting with students in New York.
"We'd both like to see global oil prices at a lower level than they are."
Details of the timing, volume and duration of a new emergency drawdown have yet to be settled but a detailed agreement is expected by the summer, one of the sources said.
Other countries may also be approached by Washington to con-tribute, a further source said, Japan among them.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and Cam-eron discussed rising oil prices, but he declined to comment on whether the leaders discussed a release of reserves. He said no deal had been reached on a release or timetable for such a move.
"As has been the case every time I'm asked about that issue (the Strategic Petroleum Reserve), I'm not going to discuss spe-cifics about it," Carney said.
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"I can tell you that among the many topics of discussion that the British prime minister and the president had were energy issues and the situation globally with the rise in the price of oil."
Rising world oil prices have pushed the cost of gasoline in the U.S. up sharply, threatening to stall economic recovery ahead of Obama's bid for re-election in November.
Brent crude has gained more than 15 percent since January to a peak of over $128 a barrel, in a repeat of last year's spike in fuel costs when the loss of Libyan oil supplies during civil war trig-gered a coordinated International Energy Agency (IEA) stock drawdown.
Brent for May tumbled $1.98 to settle at $122.60 a barrel on Thursday, while U.S. crude fell 32 cents to $105.11.
Previous emergency oil releases have been coordinated by the Paris-based IEA to meet its mandate to cover substantial supply disruptions on the world oil market.
GRAPHIC http://link.reuters.com/cak86s
The IEA has declined to coordinate a broader release among its 28 industrialised members, but says that countries may legiti-mately decide to release oil unilaterally.
"The Obama administration can only take so much political pain from rising gasoline prices, which pose a serious threat to the economy and the president's re-election," said Bob McNally, a former White House energy adviser and head of U.S. energy consultancy Rapidan.
"SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) use is more a matter of when than if. The administration strongly desires international support and coordination from other strategic stock holders, but is encountering stiff resistance from some IEA members who think strategic stocks should only be used for severe supply disruptions," McNally said.
Top U.S. officials including Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have said publicly in re-cent weeks that a U.S. oil release is among the options the gov-ernment is considering.
While there is no significant disruption of world oil supplies at the moment, sanctions on Iran are expected to cut its output when a European Union embargo takes effect from July.
Minor stoppages from South Sudan, Yemen and Syria also have contributed to the rise in oil prices.
"At the moment there is no need to use it," IEA executive direc-tor Maria van der Hoeven said of reserves at an industry confer-ence in Kuwait on Wednesday.
"There is more supply coming to the market from OPEC coun-tries. There is no price trigger for the stocks release, the trigger is a disruption in physical supplies."
"There is no real supply disruption, this is just price manage-ment", said Olivier Jakob from Vienna-based consultancy Petro-matrix.
OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia, the only oil producer with any spare capacity, has said it is prepared to fill a supply gap but will only do so to meet additional demand, rather than as a preventative measure.
While the U.S. release would be of crude oil from the national SPR, the UK contribution is likely to come from a reduction of
the minimum reserves of crude and refined products that UK commercial oil companies are required to hold.
The United States has sold crude oil directly from the 700-million barrel SPR only a handful of times, almost always in conjunction with the IEA.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy has arranged unilat-eral short-term loans from the reserve about a dozen times since it was filled in the 1980s, typically in much smaller amounts.
Croatia plans gas, oil exploration tender in 2012
By Igor Ilic
ZAGREB, March 15 (Reuters) - Croatia plans to call an interna-tional tender for concessions for gas and oil exploration this year and expects interest from major international companies, Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic said on Thursday.
He also said the government would not offer any of Adriatic oil pipeline operator Janaf for sale, despite interest from investors, because it was regarded as strategic infrastructure.
"Not even one percent of Janaf," he told Reuters in an interview.
"We plan to call a tender, probably in the first half of the year, for concessions for gas and oil exploration on-shore, in northern Croatia, and off-shore in the south Adriatic. It will be open for 90 days," said Cacic, the government's key official in charge of economic affairs.
He said the tenders might attract major companies that had already expressed interest in similar concessions in the neighbouring Adriatic country of Montenegro, such as Norway's Statoil , Italy's Eni , France's Total or Exxon Mobil from the United States.
Cacic said the government would ensure the tender was "fair and transparent".
One of the bidders is set to be Croatian energy group INA whose biggest shareholder is Hungary's MOL . INA is already active on gas fields in the northern Adriatic and oilfields in conti-nental Croatia.
MOL owns nearly 50 percent of INA, while the government has a 44.84-percent stake. Cacic said the government wanted to open talks with MOL on redefining management rights.
"At the moment there is an imbalance as the government's role in the company is more limited than it should be, given its stake. We will try to achieve a better position in the talks we hope to have later in the year," Cacic said.
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
He said he expected MOL to accept the government's stance.
"INA is a good, profitable company and there is no hurry. But if we cannot have a say, as we should in line with our stake, there are always alternatives like establishing another oil company. However, I believe reason will prevail," Cacic said.
Relations between the two shareholders have been strained over management structure and other issues after MOL tried and failed to become the majority owner in a public bid in Janu-ary 2011.
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Former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader is currently on trial on charges that he had received 10 million euros ($13.03 mil-lion) from MOL to give the Hungarian company excessive man-agement rights in INA. Both Sanader and MOL deny the charges. Cacic said the government was keen to reduce Croa-tia's energy dependence. At the moment Croatia, which is on course tod join the European Union in July 2013, imports some 80 percent of its oil needs and 40 percent of its gas, while be-tween 20 and 30 percent of its electricity consumption originates abroad.
"We strongly depend on energy imports and we want to reduce that. That's the reasoning behind our investment plans in new energy facilities, including those based on renewable sources," Cacic said. Croatia plans to kick off an investment cycle worth almost 1.6 billion euros this year and a large part of this total is associated with building new hydro-power and thermal plants.
Cacic also said that to diversify energy sources, Croatia re-mained committed to building a liquefied natural gas terminal (LNG) in the northern Adriatic.
The Adria LNG consortium, comprising Germany's E.ON-Ruhrgas , Austria's OMV , France's Total and Slovenia's Geoplin, has a concession for building a terminal on the north-ern Adriatic island of Krk.
They have pushed back the final investment decision until 2013, citing falling demand for gas on the European markets, but Ca-cic said Croatia could not wait.
"They've had enough time to move on and we now have to see with them how to handle the concession, since there has been no progress with this project," Cacic said.
Klesch submits bid for Petroplus plant in France
By Emma Farge
GENEVA, March 15 (Reuters) - Private investor Gary Klesch said on Thursday his Swiss-based company has submitted the only bid for Petit-Couronne, the French plant of insolvent refiner Petroplus .
Asked if it was true that his firm had made an offer for the refin-ery, he said: "It is. We were told by the court there were no other bids."
Klesch confirmed an earlier report in French newspaper Le Fi-garo that his firm had pledged to invest 160 million euros ($209 million) in the plant over five years and to retain around 410 of 550 jobs.
Thursday is the deadline for offers to be submitted to the admin-istrators of the French refinery.
"It's bigger than some of the others. If you spend money you can get some scale out of it," he told Reuters, declining to say how much he had offered for the plant.
News of the bid is likely to come as a relief for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government has been working to re-start output at the refinery to make the site viable for a future buyer.
He announced last month that a temporary supply deal had been reached with Royal Dutch Shell to restart the Petit-Couronne refinery.
Swiss-based Petroplus, Europe's largest independent refiner by capacity, is filing for insolvency after battling with high debt and poor refining margins due to flat European oil demand and com-petition from cheaper natural gas.
Klesch Group has previously expressed interest in buying two other Petroplus assets including the Coryton plant in Britain and the Ingolstadt plant in Germany.
"We are in negotiations on the others...Nothing has changed," Klesch said, adding he was not currently considering a bid for the 68,000 barrels per day Swiss plant Cressier.
"The difficulty is that it is inland and it's very, very small," he said.
Trading firm Gunvor, co-owned by a Russian tycoon, said ear-lier this month it was acquiring the Petroplus Antwerp plant in Belgium.
BEYOND THE HEADLINES (Continued)
INSIDE OIL February 10, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 13, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 2, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 5, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 6, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 7, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 9, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 12, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 13, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 15, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 16, 2012
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INSIDE OIL Mmmm DD, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 8, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 10, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 13, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 2, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 5, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 6, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 7, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 9, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 12, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 13, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 15, 2012
Date Energy events/Indicator (Times in GMT)
Today LONDON - April 2012 ICE Brent Crude Futures contract expires.
Mar-19 BEIJING - The 12th China International Petroleum & Petrochemical Technology and Equipment Exhibi-tion (CIPPE 2012 Beijing) (to March 21).
Mar-20 NEW YORK - NYMEX April 2012 Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract expiry.
Mar-21 ANKARA, Turkey - 11th Turkish International Oil and Gas Conference and Showcase (to March 22).
Mar-21 Argus Mideast Gulf and Indian Ocean Oil Conference 2012 (to March 22). Link: http://www.argusmedia.com/Events/AMGIO-2012-
Mar-22 WASHINGTON - EIA issues weekly U.S. underground natural gas stocks - 1430 GMT
Mar-25 ABU DHABI - MEDW The Middle East Downstream Week 2012 (to March 28). Link: http://www.wraconferences.com/the-middle-east-downstream-week-13 h-annual-meeting-/s4/a105/-
Mar-27 JOHANNESBURG - Clean Technology World Africa (to March 28).
MONTH AHEAD EVENTS CALENDAR
INSIDE OIL March 16, 2012
8
INSIDE OIL February 10, 2012
(Inside Oil is compiled by Shashwat Sharma and Richa Gour in Bangalore) For questions and comments on Inside Oil, click here Your subscription: To find out more and register for our free commodities newsletters click here Privacy statement: To find out more about how we may collect, use and share your personal information please read our privacy statement here To unsubscribe to this newsletter, click here
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ANALYTIC CHARTS
Daily NYMEX Heating Oil - 30 Min
Daily ICE Brent Crude - 30 Min
INSIDE OIL February 13, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL February 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 2, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 5, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 6, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 7, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 9, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 12, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 14, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 15, 2012 INSIDE OIL March 16, 2012
