Viktor Vekselberg refused to store gas in Italy

According to analysts, the reason for selling a promising asset may be fear of international sanctions.
14.02.2018
Forbes
Origin source
The gas storage is located in the south of Italy along the TransMed and Greendream pipelines from Algeria and Libya and the projected TAP pipeline from Albania and Greece

Swiss "daughter" Renova Avelar Energy Group continues its attempts to sell part of the assets. As it became known to Forbes, the group put up for sale its Geogastock company, which owns a 40-year concession (received in 2012) for the construction and operation of one of the largest gas storage facilities in Italy for 1 billion cubic meters of gas (an initial capacity of 700 million). This was told by a source close to Renova, and an employee of the oil and gas sector, who is familiar with the materials of the company. In the "Renova" did not respond to the request of Forbes.

The total cost of the project was € 400 million, it was previously known about Renova's investments in the project of € 30-40 million. The Forbes source, which received the Renova proposal, said that the price of the gas storage in the region is $ 50 million. According to one of the Renova's presentations, 450 million cubic meters of buffer gas are located. The Geogastock project is one of Italy's strategic national projects, which provides for a mechanism for returning investments at the expense of the state. The repository is located in the south of Italy along the TransMed and Greendstream pipelines from Algeria and Libya and the projected TAP pipeline from Albania and Greece.

RusEnergy's partner Mikhail Krutikhin believes that the direction in which the gas storage facility is located is very promising. "In 2020, Caspian gas will flow to southern Italy, and storage is a good way to ensure uninterrupted supply during peak demand periods," Krutikhin said. In his opinion, Vekselberg sells good business, as he is afraid of the development of the situation with sanctions.

Major players in the market of the management of the gas storage in Italy are Stogit (SNAM) with a volume of 15.1 billion cubic meters, Edison Stoccaggio (Edison EDF) - 0.5 billion cubic meters and Ital Gas (Morgan Stanley) with 1.3 billion cubic meters. The annual gas consumption is 70 billion cubic meters, of which 95% is imported.

For Renova, this is a long-planned exit from non-core assets, says a source close to Renova. Vekselberg's companies previously exited other assets in Italy, in particular, the solar energy business Aión Renewables, where Vekselberg's company had 28%.

Before the construction of UGS in European countries from Russian companies was engaged only in Gazprom. At the end of 2008 it became known that the Russian concern would build the largest UGS in the Netherlands together with Abu Dhabi National Energy Company from the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Before that, it was reported that Gazprom would also build UGS facilities in Germany with a volume of several billion cubic meters - this is the largest underground complex in Europe.

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