MOSCOW, October 19 (RIA Novosti) Foreign companies denied access to Shtokman deposit/Titanium monopoly to be state-controlled /Russia accuses Nissan and GM subsidiaries of collusion/Russians may believe the "New left"
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Kommersant
Foreign companies denied access to Shtokman deposit
Sources at energy giant Gazprom said new prospecting data from the Shtokman gas condensate deposit in the Barents Sea highlight its low development risks, because extractable resources are greater than previously believed.
Gazprom, which can sustain those risks, does not require the assistance of Western companies. It said it would be prepared to enlist them only as contractors on unprofitable terms.
The geologists have said the development risks are lower than expected, a Gazprom source told the paper. "We believe Gazprom can develop this deposit in a different way than was planned," he said.
Gazprom sources said the latest prospecting data has settled most issues and made it possible to disregard unattractive foreign offers.
A source close to the general director of VNIIGaz, a Gazprom subsidiary implementing R&D projects, said prospectors were in high spirits following drilling operations.
He said the Shtokman deposit's reserves have swelled from 3.4 trillion cubic meters on January 1, 2006 to "at least 4 trillion cubic meters."
A source at Gazprom Group said the Shtokman deposit will be developed under buy-back agreements, like those used at the South Pars natural gas deposit in Iran.
Under this plan, contractors will shoulder all production risks and will sustain any losses if the project fails.
"This is better than the Sakhalin PSA projects, where the state pays for everything," the source told the paper.
A source close to Norwegian oil major Statoil said one-sided buy-back agreements envision minimal profits for foreigners. Iran is the only country to use this scheme, while other countries avoid it for fear of not finding investors, he said.
Tatiana Mitrova, head of the Center for International Energy Markets Studies [Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences], said production risks were high at the Shtokman deposit, which is located 550 kilometers offshore.
Large icebergs, subzero seabed temperatures, polar nights and high waves may complicate production there, Mitrova said.
However, foreign companies and Gazprom will soon resume talks on the Shtokman deposit. A company that was denied access to the deposit will discuss the new project's implementation plan Friday.
Gazeta
Titanium monopoly to be state-controlled
Vladislav Tetyukhin, director general of top titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma (25% of the world total), announced Wednesday he will soon clinch a deal to sell 26% of his stock to Rosoboronexport, the Russian state-owned arms dealer. The state is gaining control over a strategic monopoly, and the arms trade intermediary becomes co-owner of yet another non-core asset.
With the company's current capitalization of $2.7 billion, the 26% stake amounts to $723 million. "The deal is unlikely to go through at a market price," said Mikhail Pak, an analyst with Capital brokerage. "The actual offer was $500-600 million, not more."
"Authorities suddenly realized they had no share in one of the country's main strategic enterprises," explained a competent source in the defense industry sector, who requested anonymity.
"Tetyukhin and [board chairman Vyacheslav] Bresht each had 30%, with another 40% traded on the market. It was rumored that the two shareholders wanted to sell their stocks - according to some sources, to the Chinese, and according to others, to the Americans.
It was intimated to them that they should sell their shares to the state, with Khodorkovsky's example in mind, and [Rosoboronexport head] Chemezov was called [to do the job]."
For Rosoboronexport, such a mission was not something it undertook for the first time - last year, Sergei Chemezov's department got control of AvtoVAZ, a major carmaker. As estimated by Capital analyst Mikhail Pak, the state now controls through its subsidiaries more than 70% of the plant. On top of everything else, Rosoboronexport's 100% subsidiary Oboronprom now owns nearly all of Russia's helicopter manufacturers.
But whereas the helicopter makers and [financial and industrial group] Oboronitelnye Sistemy are arms manufacturers, and Rosoboronexport's interest in them is understandable, AvtoVAZ and VSMPO-Avisma were approached, according to the source, "on direct instructions from above".
According to Tetyukhin, "state ownership will simplify the procedure for borrowing outside resources" to implement a production expansion program. However, the state's leg-up is in doubt. "When Rosoboronexport took over AvtoVAZ, there was much talk of state support and money coming from the Investment Fund. Nine months have passed, yet nothing has changed," Pak said.
Izvestia
Russia accuses Nissan and GM subsidiaries of collusion
The Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service yesterday opened a case against the Russian subsidiaries of Nissan and GM, Nissan Motor Rus and General Motors CIS. The service claims they colluded to set prices for post-sale services.
Russian officials have never been entirely satisfied with the work of Nissan Motor Rus. In August the anti-monopoly service accused it of using so-called vertical agreements with dealers who provide post-sale services.
The service has in its possession a letter which Nissan's subsidiary sent to agent companies announcing the introduction of fixed prices for post-sale services (technical maintenance, repairs, painting and welding, and spare parts). The dealers forwarded the information to insurance companies, which had to revise insurance contracts for Nissan cars.
The service's experts said the decision limits competition between dealers and affects clients, because the dealers cannot now offer lower prices.
The anti-monopoly service now claims that Nissan's subsidiary colluded with GM's subsidiary, General Motors CIS to "set prices for paint and varnish for Nissan, Chevrolet, SAAB, Opel, Cadillac and Hammer cars in the Moscow Region."
Timofei Nizhegorodtsev, deputy head of the service's department for advertising legislation, said the two subsidiaries' prices are the same to a kopeck. He said the service will consider the case November 13.
If it is established that the two companies violated the law, they may be liquidated by court decision. "The measure is stipulated by law," Nizhegorodtsev said. "But in this case, we do not want to punish, but to regulate the market."
Vedomosti
Russians may believe the "New left"
Russians have noticed the appearance of an "Actual Left" and may support it in the next elections. A total of 40% of the respondents in a VTsIOM poll said they might vote for the new Kremlin project.
As of now, the electoral rating of the "New Left" is 3-4%.
According to a poll of 1,600 respondents October 14 and 15, 45% of Russians have heard at least something about the unification of three parties. Six percent of them may vote, and 33% will vote for it. Four percent of Russians were prepared to support the left in August and September.
Another VTsIOM poll shows that 4% may vote for the "New Left" in parliamentary elections, 45% for the pro-Kremlin party United Russia, and 8% for the Communist Party.
The new party, to be formed from a merger of the nationalist Rodina (Motherland), the Party of Life and the Party of Pensioners, will be pro-presidential but opposed to the government, 30% of respondents said.
Russians associate the new project with Vladimir Putin, and therefore assign part of the president's rating to the New Left, said VTsIOM expert Leonty Byzov. According to the pollster, Putin's trust rating in October is 54%.
Alexander Babakov, leader of Rodina, said the 40% who are potential supporters of the left are those who have become tired of the monopoly rule of United Russia, which has not lived up to people's expectations despite its declared opposition to the government.
Sociologists caution the left against entertaining high hopes, because their rating is so far only 3-4%, and the above 39% are potential supporters who would vote for the "New Left" if the Liberal Democratic Party, United Russia and the Communists were struck off the ballot papers, said Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of the Levada Center.
The number of supporters does not reflect the federal rating of the new party, Byzov said, and therefore the "New Left" cannot yet rival United Russia.
