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Energy & Environment
Govt., minority shareholder clash over Hidroelectrica’s strategy
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Romanian economy minister Virgil Popescu slammed Fondul Proprietatea, a minority shareholder in the hydropower company Hidroelectrica, which recommended the Government to stop interfering with the company's management. The Economy Ministry controls 80% of Hidroelectrica, which is the biggest power producer in Romania and the most valuable state company. Fondul Proprietatea, managed by American group Franklin Templeon, holds the remaining ...
FONDUL PROPRIETATEA: THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD REFRAIN FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANYES WHERE IT IS SHAREHOLDER
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Fondul Proprietatea (hereinafter “The Fund”) reacts to recent declaration of the Minister of Economy, Energy, and Business Environment, according to which Hidroelectrica could supply energy directly to the population for a much lower price, as being an incautious violation of GEO 109/ 2011 on corporate governance in SOEs. The law prohibits direct involvement of the state as a shareholder in the management of the company. Concerned on ...
Minister of Energy: Fondul Proprietatea wants to prevent Hidroelectrica from delivering energy to population at low prices
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Fondul Proprietatea wants to prevent Hidroelectrica from delivering energy to domestic customers, at low prices, and wants to keep the company captive to big suppliers, the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment Virgil Popescu wrote on Facebook on Thursday."Romanians' interest comes first! I asked Hidroelectrica to communicate the volume of investments made in recent years, when they had high prices for electricity, given that they used this excuse. ...
MRS. VIVIAN NICOLI RESIGNS AS MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF NOMINEES OF FONDUL PROPRIETATEA
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Franklin Templeton Investment Management Ltd. United Kingdom Bucharest Branch, in its capacity as Investment Manager (the “Investment Manager”) of Fondul Proprietatea SA (the “Fund”), informs that Mrs. Vivian Nicoli has resigned from her positions held within the Fund’s Board of Nominees (the “Board”) and Consultative Committees due to her intention to take on other commitments. The effective date of the resignation is 1 September ...
PM Orban says deals with “Euro-Atlantic partners” for nuke reactors will be signed soon
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Romania is close to signing an agreement with undisclosed "Euro-Atlantic partners" to complete the third and fourth reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, prime minister Ludovic Orban announced on July 23 as he visited the plant. Romania will invest EUR 8-9 billion to build the two new reactors, which should be ready by 2030, and to reshuffle the first reactor. "As soon ...
Power outages in Romania last twice as long as in Europe
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Every Romanian power consumer was left in the dark, on average, 350 minutes last year. The duration of power outages in Romania is thus double compared to “advanced European countries,” according to a report on the performance indicators of energy distribution operators in 2019, published by the National Energy Regulatory Authority ...
Hidroelectrica: We cannot have low energy price and, at the same time, make investments
Thursday, July 23, 2020
The price of energy paid by final consumers cannot at the same time be low and also cover the necessary investments in the energy sector, and the difference is at the level of a pack of cigarettes, Bogdan Badea, general manager of Hidroelectrica declared on Tuesday."The free market is the only one that can give a fair price to the consumer and the price that we need to make investments. Do not think that we can have a very low price for energy and we can make ...
Tullip Energy takes over Romanian natural gas perimeter
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Dutch company Tullip Energy Exploration and Development (also known as Lalea Energy) took over the operating license for the Romanian natural gas field Bobocu from Canadian company Claren ...
ANRE: Gas producers, compelled to sell 40% of total on stock exchange
Thursday, July 23, 2020
The regulatory committee of the National Energy Regulatory Authority A(NRE) approved on Friday the orders by which the gas producers are compelled to sell 40% of the total on the stock exchange, according to an authority's release.The measure was taken in the context of the liberalization of the natural gas market for domestic consumers starting with July 1, 2020, in order to ensure continuous equal access for all participants to sources, especially small ...
Vodafone’s European network to go 100% green, including in Romania
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Vodafone has announced that its European network will be powered by 100% renewable electricity no later than July 2021, creating a Green Gigabit Net for customers across 11 markets that will grow sustainably using only power from wind, solar or hydro sources. Vodafone also committed to helping business customers who use its services (like IoT solutions, but also cloud hosting, home working and others) reduce their own carbon emissions by a cumulative ...
R. Oberth, OCNI: A fast decision on Nuclearelectrica’s U3-U4 might reduce costs
Thursday, July 23, 2020
“I think that the discussions and the planning should start now and looking for various investment models”, said Ron Oberth, president and CEO of the Organization for Canadian Nuclear Industries – OCNI, in a conversation about the Romanian-Canadian collaboration in the nuclear field, ...
ROPECA's S. Birrell: We need free markets, digitization, less bureaucracy
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Romania is one of the four biggest hydrocarbon-producing countries in Europe, said Stephen Birrell, President of ROPEPCA, at the Energy Strategy Summit 2020. ROPEPCA members invested over 5.5 billion euros in Romania between 2014 and 2019 and generated a budget contribution of 11.8 billion euros, said Birrell, stressing that these companies are responsible for 14,000 jobs in the industry. “The International Energy Agency ...
Michal Osladil, IBM: Energy companies in the CEE region increasingly use artificial intelligence
Thursday, July 23, 2020
There are currently a number of disruptive changes in the energy sector, considers Michal Osladil, Energy & Utilities Leader, IBM CEE, referring mainly to the decarbonization process. “Decarbonization is changing the structure of electricity generation, even dramatically, for many companies in the EEC region,” said Michal Osladil at the 2020 Energy Strategy Summit. “Countries in this region, such as Poland or ...
Has the coronavirus killed the oil sands industry?
Thursday, July 23, 2020
The spectacular collapse in oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic has brought the costliest – and most polluting – oil projects such as tar sands to a standstill, a development some analysts say could be definitive, euractiv.com reads. Even though oil prices have partly recovered from the April market crash, they have not returned to pre-crisis levels yet and market analysts wonder if they ever ...
Elena Popescu ( Energy Strategy Summit): PNIESC will be subject to strategic environmental assessment before having a final form
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Currently, the Ministry of Economy and Energy (MEEMA) is working to coordinate the National Energy Strategy with the National Energy Climate Plan (NECP), explained at the Energy Strategy Summit Elena Popescu, Director, Transition and Renewable Energy Policy Directorate, MEEMA. “The text of the Energy Strategy had to be revised accordingly. It will be sent to the Ministry of Environment and will be available on the ...
Ringhel raised over 500,000 euros from investors using the SeedBlink platform
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Ringhel, one of the main local partners in the field of energy digitization, raised over 500,000 euros from investors in two days, using the SeedBlink platform. Initially, Ringhel had set out to attract 400,000 euros worth funding during a 30-day campaign, but given the large interest proven by the investors, the company decided to move to over-subscription so that as many investors as possible can join this investment project. The campaign will most ...
Transgaz opens a 300 mln. lei credit line at Banca Transilvania
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Transgaz signed a new credit agreement with bank guarantees with Banca Transilvania on Thursday. The 300 million lei credit line will be used to ensure “the necessary working capital for the current activity of the company”, says Ion Sterian, general manager of Transgaz. “As you know, Transgaz has started a competitive selection procedure of a financial institution for contracting a credit facility worth up to 300 million lei, without ...
Gas grid operators unveil plan for European hydrogen infrastructure ‘backbone’
Thursday, July 23, 2020
A group of eleven European gas infrastructure companies from nine EU member states presented on Friday (17 July) a plan to create a dedicated hydrogen pipeline network of almost 23,000 km by 2040, to be used in parallel to the natural gas grid, euractiv.com informs. The “European hydrogen backbone” was presented in ...
CEZ will stop the process of share selling in Romania if the bids are not attractive enough
Thursday, July 16, 2020
The Czech utilities group CEZ is not pressed by time in the process of withdrawing from the market in Romania and could stop the sale of local shares if they do not get the price they want, stated on last Friday Ondrej Safar, country manager CEZ Romania, in a meeting with the press.‘I want to assure everybody again that we behave as a long-term investor and at this point of the process of withdrawal from Romania, we continue to behave as a long term ...
EU unveils blueprint for a more efficient energy system
Thursday, July 16, 2020
The European Commission on Wednesday (8 July) unveiled its “energy system integration strategy” which aims to link different energy carriers, infrastructure and consumption sectors together in order to boost renewables and reduce carbon emissions, euractiv.com reads. The strategy aims to achieve deep decarbonisation at the “lowest possible costs” by minimising waste and using the relative strengths of different energy carriers ...