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From Bulgaria
06.03.2013 12:45
© publics.bg
Traditionally the Black Sea has been seen as the closest route between hydrocarbon resources in the East and consumers in the West. Now it has itself turned out to be a hydrocarbon resource base, according to Peter Poptchev, Bulgarian Ambassador at Large and National Coordinator for Nabucco at the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism of Bulgaria. Mr Poptchev was the official welcoming keynote speaker at the Black Sea Oil & Gas Forum, which takes place on 6-7 March, organized in Sofia, Bulgaria, by the British company DMG-events and sponsored by OMV, Total, Repsol, and Weatherford.
According to Alex Jackson from MENAS Associates, there is still lack of integration between Black Sea countries, even though there is a working Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization. One of the risk factors for further Black Sea oil & gas exploration and production development is related to the limited capacity of the Bosphorus – the Istanbul Strait, even though there is a bold idea to increase its capacity through the construction of a new canal to the west of the existing one – a project worth about 12 billion USD and with a construction lasting several years. This could diminish the transport delays of the strait and reduce the estimated costs of delays of about 1.4 billion USD per year. According to Alex Jackson, AGRI and White Stream are plausible projects, but they would not change much the general gas picture of the region. New exploration and production projects, however, may change the geopolitical situation in the Black Sea region.
William Ramsey from IFRI (Institut français des relations internationals) suggested, that the shale gas boom in the United States will play a rising global role in diminishing equilibrium prices. According to him, lower prices in the USA may lead to LNG exports, thus diminishing gas prices in Europe and Asia. This could mean that some of the proposed Russian exploration and production projects may have difficulty in financing costs through the new prices. Moreover, lower prices may lead to under-capacity of proposed new infrastructure projects.
Alex Scheur, Global Regulatory Advisor of ExxonMobil presented his views on the liquidity of European gas markets. According to him, liquidity is “moving East”. The highly competitive gas markets of UK, BENELUX, and Germany will be followed by other Central and Eastern European markets, which are currently suffering from low levels of diversification and competition.
Evgenia Haritonova, Deputy-minister of economy, energy, and tourism of Bulgaria also made a presentation on the prospects of the Bulgarian gas market. In her presentation, she reminded the three main priorities of the government, which is currently in resignation procedure – development of own hydrocarbon resources, diversification of sources, suppliers, and routes, and construction of gas interconnectors with neighboring countries. Mrs Haritonova stressed, that a lot more and deeper consultations need to take place at EU level in order to foster the Southern Gas Corridor development.
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