Duke Natural Gas rate Hike

By: John Matarese

As if electric rates....gasoline prices...And everything else isn't high enough, our heating bills may be going up again!

Duke Energy says it plans to request a 34 million dollar natural gas price boost. This has nothing to do with the price of natural gas, which has been on a roller coaster in recent years.

Rather, this involves the delivery charge to get the gas to your home.

This will affect Duke's Ohio customers only.The increase will raise the average bill 8.5%....or about 12-dollars a month over the next three years.

This is the first delivery price increase since 2001, and will help pay for new gas lines in the street.

Source : http://www.wcpo.com/content/news/localshows/dontwasteyourmoney/story.aspx?content_id=70ecd92d-992b-4dda-b813-774262c4f351

Gazprom bid to cut off China gas

Russian energy giant Gazprom has asked the government to cancel an agreement to pipe large quantities of gas to China from fields in Siberia.

Alexander Ananenkov, the group's deputy chief executive, said plans to deliver 80bn cubic metres of gas a year to China would leave Russia short.

The gas was due to be exported from Exxon Mobil's Sakhalin-1 project on Russia's Pacific coast.
The move could fan fears over Moscow's hold on key gas and oil projects.

"We consider it necessary for a directive to be issued and Sakhalin-1 gas to be sold to Gazprom so we could supply gas to Russia's regions, and for the gas not to be exported as proposed by Exxon Mobile," said Mr Ananenkov, speaking at a meeting of a regional social and economic development council.

He claimed that Russia's four far eastern regions alone need more than 15bn cubic metres of gas a year.

Gas shortages

If the Russian government responds to Gazprom's proposal and intervenes in the export agreements on Sakhalin-1, China will not have any access to Russian gas, despite a growing need for energy supplies to power its booming economy.

Such an action will also heighten concerns over the growing influence of state-run Gazprom and the Kremlin's grip on its domestic gas industry.

Russian gas accounts for 25% of supplies to the European Union (EU).

But critically, it means that gas shortages in Russia must be more serious than what is being said, analysts believe.

Shell was forced to sell its stake in the Sakhalin-2 project to Gazprom after pressure from Russian regulators.

And BP is currently waiting to hear if its licence for the Kovytka gas field in East Siberia - operated under a joint venture - will be withdrawn.

Analysts say Gazprom could face a fight in wresting control of Sakhalin-1 from rival Rosneft - the state-controlled oil firm - which is a shareholder in the project, together with Japan's Sadeco and India's Videsh.

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6769797.stm

Gazprom participation could solve gas field dispute: minister

19 June 2007

MOSCOW - A dispute between Russian authorities and British-Russian joint venture TNK-BP over the Kovykta gas field could be overcome by involving state-owned Gazprom in the project, a top minister was reported as saying on Tuesday.

Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said the long-standing question of whether to rescind the licence of TNK-BP could be resolved by a decision as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Russian officials have repeatedly threatened to remove the licence as the project has failed to keep up with production timetables set for the vast Siberian gas field.

TNK-BP in turn has argued that it has been unable to boost production because Gazprom has blocked its attempts to build a pipeline to ship the gas to China.

On Tuesday, Trutnev indicated that bringing Gazprom in to the project in some form could remove the need to actually remove TNK-BP’s licence.

‘If the problem of connecting Kovykta gas to Gazprom’s system is solved, this would provide the opportunity to re-examine the licence agreement,’ ITAR-TASS news agency cited Trutnev as saying.

‘If this problem is solved -- through Gazprom’s entry into the project, or by some other means -- the question will resolve itself,’ Interfax quoted Trutnev as saying.

Under the licence, Kovykta was due to produce nine billion cubic metres of gas last year but British-Russian joint venture TNK-BP only managed 33.8 million cubic metres.

A decision on whether to withdraw the licence will be taken ‘today or tomorrow,’ Interfax cited Trutnev as saying.

If TNK-BP loses its license, it will not be compensated, he added.

The Kovykta field in the Siberian province of Irkutsk is a flagship project for TNK-BP, which is 50-percent owned by Britain’s BP and 50-percent owned by Russian consortium Alfa Access Renova.

The licence to Kovykta is held by Rusia Petroleum, in which TNK-BP holds a 62.7 percent stake, the Interros company holds 25.8 percent and Irkutsk province owns 10.8 percent.

Source : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/business/2007/June/business_June589.xml§ion=business&col=

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