• Sarkozy to outline plans for EdF recapitalisation

Nicolas Sarkozy, outgoing French finance minister, unveil plans to recapitalise Electricite de France to help  fund the company’s expansion and facilitate its future privatisation. An earlier government commission had suggested that the company would need  € 8-11 Bn to strengthen its position in Europe and compete in global markets. Last September, the finance ministry commissioned Marcel Roulet, former head of France Telecom, to study EdF financing needs. The commission report presents two possible scenarios.  Under the first scenario, EdF outlined a retrenchment of its international business and injection of € 5 to 8 Bn of new equity.  Under the second, the company would focus on strenghtening its core operations in France, UK, Germany and Italy, buying out minority shareholders in some key businesses.  It was suggested that this scenario, which was the preferred option, would require up to € 11 Bn. (Source: Financial Times) 

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  Latvia releases draft National Allocation Plan

  
  

  Latvian Environment Ministry has published its NAP draft. This draft has established allowances for 13.8mt of CO2 for the first period (2005-07), following a criteria based on 1996-2002 emissions and keeping 2.2mt aside for new entrants. The plan covers 86 companies, 69 generation plants and 17 plants of less than 20MW. The draft will go for consultation for a month. (Source: Energy-Directory.com)



• GE to expand product base of their Energy Finance Service

General Electric plans to expand the asset base of its energy finance service (EFS) unit to $ 20 Bn within 3 years.  The US Conglomerate is targeting a larger slice of the forecast $ 500 Bn in annual capital expenditure required by Energy sector. The Energy Finacial Service units of GE has announced a $ 400 Mn sale / leaseback with Calpine – Californian Utility – for Wisconsin power plant using GE constructed turbine.  The deal mirrors the strategy of Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO, to improve vertical integration. Analysts at Lehman Brothers have noted that in addition to organic growth, the vertical strategy is providing the division with greater domain knowledge that is being applied toward strategic decision making which expect to increase earnings of EFS to $430 Mn this year. (Source: Financial Times)

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  Scottish and Southern Energy buys Westfield

Scottish and Southern Energy has confirmed that it has bought Westfield power station, a 120MW CCGT in Cardenden, Fife. The company is reported to have paid for £12.3m for the station, which was previously owned by Global Energy of the US (Source: Energy-Directory.com)

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  Endesa announces capacity plan

Endesa has announced its New Capacity Plan for 2004-2008. The plan calls for the closure of 2,560MW of old oil and coal plants and commissioning of 5,847MW of CCGT and renewable capacity. The company intends to build 2.8GW of CCGTs in mainland Iberia and 0.9GW on the islands, plus more than 2GW on renewables. With this new capacity Endesa expects to increase the share of renewables in its total generation from 4.5% to 12% and the share of CCGT from 5.2% to 16%. Oil and coal’s combined share is projected to fall from 51% to 37%. Meanwhile Endesa has announced will sell its 11.64% in Aguas Barcelona, with InverCaixa, acting as the lead bank on the disposal. (Source: Energy-Directory.com)

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  BP sells stake in Ormen Lange for $1.2 Bn

BP has sold its stakes in Norway’s Ormen Lange gas field for $ 1.2 Bn – a much higher than expected figure once again calls into question the way oil companies book their reserves with US regulators.  Dong, the Danish state own gas utility, is the buyer of the 10% stake in Norway’s second biggest gas fields and its related pipeline. Some analyst said had said that the stake was only worth $ 300 Mn to a typical gas and oil companies but strong competitions from European utilities pushed the price up.  Several BP partners in the field including Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, Norsk Hydro were interested at the stake.  BG group also made a bid. Utilities such as Centrica and E.On are keen to acquire assets because it helps to protect them from price volatility.  Petoro, the Norwegian group, that owns 36% of the Ormen Lange, has the right to prempt the sale and is evaluating the agreement. (Source: Financial Times) 

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  Iberdrola strength its position

Iberdrola has tripled its generation in the first two months of this year, while Endesa increased its output by just 7.4%. (Source: Energy-Directory.com)

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  Unión Fenosa reducing emissions

Unión Fenosa will invest Euro 200m up to 2008 to reduce GHG emissions in its generation plants. (Source: Energy-Directory.com)

• Eni increases profit by 21.6%

Eni closed 2003 with net profits of Euro 5.6bn, which represented an increase of 21.6% over the previous year. The increase was due to a strong operating performance, a decline in the share of net income attributed to minorities resulting from the tender offer on Italgas shares. In 2003, streamlining and efficiency improvement also saved around  € 590m (Source: Energy-Directory.com)