Friday 19 August 2011

TAQA to continue Dutch gas storage capacity tender | Reuters

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company TAQA will continue a process to allocate long-term capacity at Europe's largest gas storage project in the Netherlands despite a court order last week which suspended early site work.

"We are pressing ahead with marketing long-term capacity according to schedule and plan to award the first long-term capacity by year-end," a spokesman for TAQA said.

The delivery of the Bergermeer project, which aims to store up to 4.1 billion cubic metres of gas, was thrown into doubt when the Netherlands' top court suspended site preparation work on Aug. 8 on concerns that injecting gas into the depleted field may cause strong earth tremors.

Reliance Com to sell tower unit for $5 bn?

Billionaire Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications has hired UBS to sell its 95-percent stake in tower unit Reliance Infratel and has reached out to several strategic and private-equity firms, including Blackstone and UAE's Etisalat, asking for $5 billion for the stake, three sources with direct knowledge said.

Potential bidders for the sale have said Reliance's valuation of the stake is at least a billion dollars too high, two of the sources said, adding that the process was still in a very early stage.

UBS has reached out to U.S. companies American Tower and Crown Castle International , India's Viom Networks and UAE's Etisalat , said the sources, who declined to be identified because the process is not public yet.

CBI continues searches in Jagan, Emaar cases - Maktoob News

For the second day Friday, the CBI continued its searches at offices and homes of those believed involved in alleged illegal assets of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and irregularities in the Emaar township project here.

About 10 teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began searches at the offices of the companies in which YSR Congress party chief, popularly known as Jagan, and his family members have stakes and also those who invested in his businesses.

For the second consecutive day, the investigating agency searched the residence of businessman Nimmagadda Prasad. Another team was searching Nimmagadda Foundation in Secunderabad.


Oil Price Drop Caused by Financial Markets, Qatar Minister Says - Bloomberg

Crude oil’s recent price declines were caused by financial markets, not supply and demand issues, Qatar’s oil minister, Mohammed Saleh al Sada, said today in Doha.

“In view of the fact that oil is a strategic commodity, we are watching what is happening in global markets,” he said.

Brent crude oil for October settlement fell $3.55, or 3.2 percent, to $106.99 a barrel today on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.