MOSCOW, March 16 (RIA Novosti) Trans-Balkan oil pipeline will benefit Europe more than Russia - expert/ Russian Government chooses strategic partner for national aerospace industry/ Gazprom resumes talks with partners shortlisted for Shtokman project/ Sberbank forces employees to buy its shares/ Liberals unable to overcome crisis
Gazeta.ru
Trans-Balkan oil pipeline will benefit Europe more than Russia - expert
Russia, Greece and Bulgaria have at last given the go ahead for a trans-Balkan oil pipeline project. Promising significant profit for Russia, but it will be even more beneficial for Europe, experts say.
Transporting oil by pipeline is less costly than in oil tankers by sea. "The Bosphorus is so jammed that our ships have to remain in the ports for long periods and we get fined for that," said Gazpromneft company. "The Burgas-Alexandroupolis line will be a welcome relief for the straits. Besides, pipe transportation is more cost-effective". Rosneft also said they were interested in the project, but did not give details.
Chevron would also have liked to contribute oil to the project. But the Americans backed out saying the capacity of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium line was unlikely to be increased. The assumption was that Burgas-Alexandroupolis could transport oil both from Novorossiisk and Kazakhstan. Chevron as a Kazakh producer wanted the Caspian pipe to have a larger capacity and make more deliveries through the new pipe. But the Russian side, with a 24% stake in the consortium, blocked the expansion decision, and Chevron said it would switch to another line - Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan.
According to Konstantin Cherepanov, an analyst with Rye, Man & Gor Securities, Europe will benefit from Burgas far more than Russia. "To begin with, delivery routes will become more diversified and risks of stoppages drastically reduced," the analyst said. "Secondly, diversification may overtake the suppliers themselves, and then Europe will be less dependent on Russian oil. The point is that if the new pipeline transports oil through it from Kazakhstan, then even without Chevron, Kazakhstan could make sizeable deliveries. Such oil majors as Eni and Shell operate in Kazakhstan. One of the world's biggest oil deposits found in Kazakhstan, Kashagan (4.8 billion metric tons), is already divided between foreign companies, and is to begin commercial production within the next few years."
The upshot may be that the new oil pipeline, while bringing Russia a profitable income, will strip it of its political influence - and European dependence on Russian energy deliveries may lessen dramatically.
Gazeta
Russian Government chooses strategic partner for national aerospace industry
On Thursday, Valery Okulov, general director of Aeroflot Russian Airlines, the largest national air carrier, said the company will sign a contract in the next few weeks for the delivery of 22 long-haul Airbus A-350 planes worth $4.1 billion. The planes will be delivered in 2015.
The company's strategic partnership talks with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing have been postponed indefinitely.
Aeroflot will be entitled to a discount because A-350 airliners have yet to be assembled and tested. Experts said the sides had previously discussed a $3.2-3.5 billion contract.
Okulov said the company plans to acquire A-330 liners under operational leasing contracts as an interim measure; these airliners will be gradually scrapped with the arrival of the first A-350s.
Some of the new planes, which have yet to earn a reputation, will also be covered by operational leasing contracts and will subsequently be returned to their owners, Okulov said.
He said the rest will arrive under financial leasing agreements.
Aeroflot's politically motivated decision to buy A-350 airliners implies that the Russian aircraft industry has decided to cooperate with the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) and Airbus, its main subsidiary, in the long-term.
"Fortunately, after numerous abortive attempts with EADS, we have decided not to take offense and strike a deal with the United States. This confirms our serious intentions to Europe," Ruslan Pukhov, general director of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, told the paper.
"Although top Aeroflot managers backed cooperation with Boeing, rather than Airbus, the state preferred subsequent rapprochement with Europe," Pukhov said.
It may be a paradox, but the Russian aircraft industry may benefit, even if cooperation with EADS and Airbus does not go beyond the Aeroflot contract.
"In this case, we will not gain access to Western technologies," Pukhov said.
According to Pukhov, if it became part of the European aviation giant the Russian aircraft industry could saturate the market with Airbus planes which could mean not having to find a replacement for the Tupolev Tu-134 medium-range jetliner.
"We have no choice but to make the MS-21 medium-haul airliner because we are being forced to do this," Pukhov told the paper.
Kommersant
Gazprom resumes talks with partners shortlisted for Shtokman project
Russian energy giant Gazprom has resumed negotiations with foreign partners shortlisted to participate in the development of the Shtokman gas condensate deposit. The company plans to provide new guidelines for foreign companies wishing to participate within a month, although it is not prepared to accept them as mineral users.
The main task for foreign companies in this case will be the opportunity to transfer the monetary equivalent of the Shtokman reserves, if not the reserves themselves, to their balance sheets in a proportion equal to their company share. The process is called booking.
Gazprom has confirmed the resumption of talks with U.S. Chevron and ConocoPhillips, Norway's Statoil and Hydro, and French Total.
"The new proposals differ dramatically from the old ones, because they do not stipulate an asset swap," said a source in the gas monopoly.
The company's management plans to discuss new guidelines for attracting foreigners to the project in April.
Until then, Gazprom's strategic development department is to scrutinize once again substantiation for investment in the first stage of Shtokman, and forward requisite documents to the monopoly's investment department. A Gazprom manager said the first stage had been evaluated at $12-$14 billion.
Hydro's initial proposals stipulated drilling underwater wells without constructing a drilling platform, which would have cut costs to $8.5 billion. But Gazprom rejected the proposal as environmentally hazardous and technically unsafe. It has decided to construct a drilling platform.
"The project will be financed irrespective of the results of Gazprom's talks with potential partners," the source in the company said.
A spokesman of a foreign company explained the confusion by saying that foreign companies wanted to book part of Shtokman reserves in one form or another. If they fail to attain this goal, there will be no reason for their participation in the project.
Maxim Shein, an analyst with Broker Credit Service, said Gazprom needs Western technologies, while its foreign partners need the project's virtual reserves to increase their exchange quotations.
Andrei Gromadin, an analyst with MDM Bank, said it will be difficult to register these reserves in standard international accounting, because the procedure is rather strict.
Vedomosti
Sberbank forces employees to buy its shares
The sale of Sberbank shares, Russia's state-run savings bank, has become a serious test for its employees. As is known, the managers forced many of them to buy these shares at a price of 89,000 rubles ($3,406). Some Sberbank subsidiaries were given obligatory "quotas" or "assignments" and promised bonuses for share placement. Heads of Central Sberbank dubbed this as "an uncalled-for local initiative" and denied that it was a planned action.
People decided to spend even more on Sberbank shares than in the previous "public IPO", i.e., the placement of shares of state-run oil company Rosneft. The Bank received applications to a total amount of 21 billion rubles ($803.67 million), against 20.3 billion rubles ($776.88 million) received by the oil company. The said figures were publicly announced by Andrei Kazmin, chairman of the Sberbank board. He said that over 46,000 people had decided to become shareholders of Sberbank, the largest bank in Eastern Europe, but there is no information available on how many of them were Sberbank employees.
Meanwhile, Sberbank employees complained to journalists (on condition of anonymity) that the shares were forced on them. "Each subsidiary chief was given an assignment at the Moscow Sberbank branch to buy two shares," a Sberbank employee said. "People were upset but they could not disobey [the order]. The initial quota voiced was 500 shares per subsidiary."
A credit inspector of the bank's Moscow branch said that "those who subscribed to the shares received an annual bonus several time higher than usual." Head of an additional office in the Ryazan Region said they "were offered shares but nobody insisted on it." "With a bonus of 3,000 rubles ($115), it is hard to force people to buy [shares] if they have no money. Besides, it was said that the plan had been fulfilled at the expense of other subsidiaries."
Pressure put on Sberbank employees to make them buy shares puts in question the legality of this action. It also seriously affects employees' motivation, says Yulia Kochetygova, director of Standard & Poor's corporate governance ratings department. She believes this is an alarming signal testifying to a lack of good corporate culture and social responsibility at the company. She also warned that the use of administrative pressure could push up the demand for shares and inflate prices, resulting in instability of quotations.
Vremya Novostei
Liberals unable to overcome crisis
With only six months left until the parliamentary elections, it is becoming clear that those right-wing parties which failed to pass the 5% barrier in 2003 and were thrown off the winners' boat, have been unable to deal with the crisis, a prominent analyst writes in the popular daily Vremya Novostei.
Leonty Byzov, head of socio-political analysis at the VTsIOM pollster, writes that according to its latest express polls, only 0.9% of the respondents said they would vote for the right-wing Yabloko party, and 0.8% for the Union of Right Forces (SPS). Other market research companies cited similar figures, 1.5%, for the two parties.
The obvious conclusion is that right-wing parties will not win seats in parliament this year either.
According to Byzov, the poll results show that the electoral niche for liberal ideas is fairly significant, with a core of 8.5% and a possibility of this growing to 23%-24%, taking into account the provinces. The electoral core is set in opposition to governmental policy, whereas the provinces may be more open to compromise and view the current government as the least of possible evils.
Quite a few people support liberal values only as part, and not the dominant part, of the [social] package, but they are still in the minority. Social mainstream is moving in the opposite direction to the liberal path. They expect the future president to strengthen the state's position in politics and the economy, enhance the social package, and continue fighting the "oligarchs," the analyst writes.
The group of liberally minded opponents to the mainstream (25%-35%) can be described as "soft," not "hard" liberals.
Byzov concludes that despite the general desire in society to see the state gain stronger positions in all spheres, right-wing liberal ideas may still find support among a considerable section of Russians, predominantly young people with above average incomes living in large cities (especially capital cities), whose specific occupations make them consider themselves part of the global, rather than domestic market.
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