SCEE Weekly News Review

By
Michael LaBelle
– November 19, 2010Posted in: Commentary, News

The quick turn around by the Bulgarian government to support at least one Russian/Bulgarian project was displayed fully on Saturday Nov. 13, 2010. The prime ministers of Russia and Bulgaria Vladamir Putin and Boiko Borisov sat down and agreed to establish South Stream Bulgaria AD to develop the Bulgarian section of the pipeline. Gazprom and the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) will be the main principles in this project. However, as reported by novinite.com in the Russian press, this means little.

“The establishment of a joint company in general does not make the destiny of real construction clearer. This would happen only when an investment decision is made, but the perspectives here are very difficult to forecast,” expert Mihail Krutin points out cited by “Nezavisimaya Gazeta.”

Of course finally getting the Borisov government to agree to a project with Russia didn’t have any impact on current Russian gas prices for Bulgaria. According to novinite.com the Bulgarian PM stated after the Russian PM left town that they would be getting lower gas prices – contradicting Putin’s assertion that these things are not connected.

And finally, according to publics.bg, the visit also produced statements that technical progress is still being made in building Belene NPP and other partners will be joining the project. At a Climate Strategies conference in Budapest this week and the 5th Energy Forum last week, it is clear that despite widespread energy industry perspectives on the future growth of nuclear power (excluding German and Austrian perspectives that were vocalized at the Climate Strategies conference), financing and ownership structures still remain key hurdles to building nuclear power. And Belene is turning out to be the poster child for the difficulty of building nuclear power.

In other Russian interest related news, the Hungarians prove again they have Surgetneftegaz pinned to the mat. According to Portfolio.hu,the Metropolitan High Court of Appeal supported the earlier ruling of a lower court that the MOL was right to bar Surget from being listed in the share registry. Outside this narrow legal ruling, this is also connected to the Hungarian Energy Office not approving participation of Surget in MOL due to it not clarifying the companies ownership structure. Well, the only joke that can come from this ruling is that even if Surgut was now listed as a full owner of MOL, the Hungarian government would no doubt come up with a special tax to apply to Surget.

And in broader EU news, and something that will need to be followed up on in separate post, Bloomberg reports that the EU Commission outlined its energy infrastructure priorities for the next two decades. But specific projects won’t be identified until 2012. So maybe I have two years to write that post.

And finally, not only did the Bulgarian visit have energy as a central focus, but it just may set off a new round of democracy in Russia. Apparently, you can now vote and suggest a name for the dog that PM Borisov gave to PM Putin.



Tags: , , , , , , ,

About Michael LaBelle

Michael LaBelle provides a critical but light hearted analysis of the complex field of EU and CEE/SEE energy politics and business. He is based in Budapest, Hungary. He can be reached at michael.labelle(at)energyscee.com