Serbia, Romania to sign roadmap on gas link soon - Antic
Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic has said the government expects to sign a roadmap with Romania on the construction of the Mokrin-Arad natural gas interconnection project in the short term.
The roadmap will serve to define the steps that need to be made for the construction of the interconnection, Antic said after a meeting with his Romanian counterpart Toma - Florin Petcu, according to a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug on Tuesday.
Serbia has already built the necessary infrastructure in Mokrin which will be a perfect interconnection point, Antic said and added that Romania is a key player in the natural gas sector with its exploration activities and future production in the Black Sea.
The interconnector is expected to have a length of 76 km and a daily capacity of 4 million cubic metres of gas, according to data of Serbian natural gas distributor Srbijagas.
Under the investment plan of Romanian gas transmission company Transgaz by 2025,
The estimated investment in the interconnector will total 43 million euro ($51.4 million), according to the investment plan of Romanian gas transmission company Transgaz for the period to 2025.
Landlocked Serbia imports 82% of the gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing Hungary and Ukraine. The rest comes from domestic sources.
Bulgaria to start building radioactive waste disposal facility
Bulgaria's energy ministry said on Monday that the construction of a national facility for disposal of radioactive waste will be launched on Tuesday near the country's sole nuclear power plant (NPP) Kozloduy.
The National Disposal Facility project, financed from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF) through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will be implemented by State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW), the ministry said in a statement.
The commissioning of the National Disposal Facility will complete the cycle of radioactive waste management in Bulgaria, providing the safe and permanent insulation of waste from the environment and people.
The National Disposal Facility is also a key factor in the successful completion of the decommissioning activities at the closed four nuclear reactors in Kozloduy.
The nuclear power plant in Kozloduy, on the Danube river, remained with two operational reactors of 1,000 MW each after the country closed down four older units of 440 MW each to address nuclear safety concerns of the European Union prior to its accession to the bloc. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.
AMOC Mulls $500M Fuel Oil Refining Complex
Alexandria Mineral Oils Company (AMOC) is considering an investment of $500 million in a mazut refining project to turn mazut into a high-value product, AMOC’s Chairman, Amr Mostafa, told Al Mal News.
The project is still in the initial study phase, but the board of directors will make a final decision on it by the end of 2017, Mostafa said.
The project is in accordance with the government’s plans to make Egypt free of mazut by turning it into other products by 2021.
AMOC plans to launch a tender by the end of September 2017, Mostafa said, adding that international companies will have the opportunity to submit offers for the development of a $50 million diesel unit.
The company is aiming to complete the diesel unit by the end of 2019 in order to boost its capacity, produce diesel that meets global standards, and reduce costs.
Botswana government awards CBM gas-to-power tender
Tlou Energy Ltd., Brisbane, will move ahead on coalbed methane development on the 900-sq-km prospecting license 002/2004 in western Botswana, South Africa. The Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology, and Energy Security granted the company a 25-year mining license to terminate in August 2042.
The ministry requires an annual $9,000 license fee with an additional royalty of 3% of gross market value, opting not to take up a sharehold in the project. No minimum spend is stipulated in the license and project development can commence at any time.
Tlou has operated in the region since 2007, flaring its first gas in 2014 at its Lesedi CBM project, which holds an estimated 3.2 tcf of gas. The company holds a mining license and nine prospecting licenses covering 8,300 sq km in Botswana. Tlou is pursuing a scalable gas-to-power project in the region capable of generating 100 Mw.
Tlou was shortlisted with Sekaname Pvt Ltd. for the ministry’s CBM tender. Botswana’s government developed the initiative to facilitate CBM supplies to its own 90-Mw Orapa power plant, which is 150 km north of Tlou’s Lesedi CBM project.