Investment potential of Western Siberia attracts more and more exciting market players. Corporation Urals Industrial – Urals Polar signs three investor agreements. Tyumen region draws a prestigious foreign investor over from the neighboring regions. Gazprom makes more corrections to its investment budget, while independent Novatek plans to stimulate is employees. Read details in the weekly events review at UralPolit.Ru.
Investment potential of Western Siberia attracts more and more exciting market players. Corporation Urals Industrial – Urals Polar signs three investor agreements. Tyumen region draws a prestigious foreign investor over from the neighboring regions. Gazprom makes more corrections to its investment budget, while independent Novatek plans to stimulate is employees. Read details in the weekly events review at UralPolit.Ru.
More changes in Gazprom
Unexpected decision was announced by Gazprom last week. Valery Golubev, deputy chairman of the board of directors, delivered an official statement that the investment program of the company may be corrected again. The last correction took place in the beginning of the summer and established 16% rise of investments totaling estimating 821,66 billion rubles. Now, according to Mr. Golubev, the company plans to increase investments by 20% more, totaling 1.027 trillion rubles in 2008 and projecting 1.232 trillion rubles in 2009. Experts say that this is going to be the biggest amount ever invested into the oil and gas industry.
Financial analysts see ambiguous consequences following the frequent budget corrections. In the short run this may cast negative effect on the capitalization of Gazprom and mar the company’s image. But in the long run, taken that the company manages its money wisely and creates profitable projects, investments will help keep high rates of gas production and processing.
Gazprom does not give any comments regarding the new budget correction. It is known though that the company’s previously announced priorities will remain the same – Bovanenkovo and Shtokman fields, pipelines Bovanenkovo-Ukhta, Gryazovets-Vyborg, Pochinki-Gryazovets and trunkline SRTO-Torzhok.
It also became public last week that Gazprom returned to the project of constructing one of the Russia’s biggest gas and chemical complexes in Novy Urengoy for ethylene and polyethylene production.
Knauf Insulation in Tyumen
Last week Tyumen Region and Knauf Insulation signed a long waited for agreement. The world’s leader in insulation materials will build a huge industrial complex in Tyumen consisting of 10-15 production facilities. The total amount of the company’s investments estimates 120 million euros. Knauf considered other locations in the Urals Federal District, but the Tyumen government made the most attractive offer. The government will finance construction of the required infrastructure including roads, gas pipeline, electric lines, and railway.
Managing director of Knauf Insulation Jean Keup personally came to Tyumen to sign the agreement. He says that the company plans to start production of insulation materials by 2010, expected production capacity being 65 thousand tons of heat-insulating materials a year.
Knauf is the biggest manufacturer of construction materials in the world possessing over 120 production facilities in more than 30 countries. Knauf Insulation brings about 30% of the total company’s profits.
SPS in Tyumen tries to bring right forces together
Leader of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) Tyumen division Dmitry Kavetsky reported that the party was making a new effort to unite all democratic forces in the region. Supposedly a conference will be held inviting all parties and public organizations of the democratic wing to participate.
Mr. Kavetsky further explains that this re-union of the right forces is seen by the party’s Moscow leader Nikita Belykh as the way to survive in the currently difficult political situation in Russia.
There is little clarity with this re-union project yet. At the moment it reminds of a forum held in Tyumen four year ago for the same purpose, when four democratic parties gathered together, adopted an agreement on mutual support, and stopped right there.
NOVATEK finds incentive
NOVATEK, the biggest independent gas producer, announced its plans to make corrections in the company’s development strategy for 2015. At a teleconference on August 20, Mark Jetway, financial director, promised that the updated strategy would be published in October.
Independent financial analysts comment that corrections might be connected with the statement of the Minister of Finance of Russia Aleksey Kudrin regarding the mineral extraction tax. MET will not be increased by 5 times as announced before, but will be indexed gradually following the inflation rate. Investors indicate that Novatek will get more spare cash due to such tax change. The second influential governmental decision to be adopted in Russia soon is an act granting equal access to gas pipeline for independent producers. Both factors will work for the increase of NOVATEK’s profits.
In a last week press release NOVATEK also speaks about purchasing 3% of global depositary receipts at London Stock Exchange. The company aims at creating incentives for its staff and finding a cheaper source of financing in the future. By the analysts’ estimations, the company will buy about 9,1 million of GDR spending about 650 million dollars.
Demchenko adds to the pool of investors
General Director of the corporation Urals Industrial – Urals Polar Oleg Demchenko signed three investor relations agreements last week. The first document was signed with the government of Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District – Yugra. The second came to be the memorandum of cooperation in a complex investment project of the corporation and Russian Bank of Development.
The third agreement was signed between the corporation Urals Industrial and GPK-Sever referring to the development of Northern Sosva copper and zinc deposit (Severo-Sosvinsky deposit). This project requires about 10 billion rubles of investments.