03.08.2009
Three desalination plants in Israel: in Ashkelon (2005), Palmahim (2007 ) and Hadera (2010) – were built by private companies through a public tender. The companies won the tenders by offering the government the lowest prices for water, and the government agreed to buy desalinated seawater from the plants for a fixed price over a fixed number of years. All the tenders were competitive processes.
The Ashkelon plant is owned 50% by IDE and 50% by the French company Veolia; the Palmahim plant is controlled 72% by Granite Hacarmel and 28% by the Tahal Group; and the Hadera plant is controlled 50% by IDE and 50% by Shari Arison’s Shikun & Binui.
Chavez, a self-described revolutionary socialist, has forced all of the country’s private oil companies into minority positions in joint ventures
The largest ever oil spill, which occurred on March 24, 1989 at 4 minutes past midnight. The oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Alaska’s Prince William releasing a total of 11,000,000 gallons of Alaska North Slope crude oil that leaked from the ruptured hull of the ship, impaled by the jagged rocks of Bligh Reef. Within two months, the oil had been driven along a path stretching 470 miles to the southwest. The initial cleanup of the spill took three years, and the cost was over $2.1 billion
Some of the fundamentals of the US natural gas sector include a downward pressure on prices due to excess supply inventories (natural gas and coal reached near record high inventory levels in mid 2009), temporary increase in nuclear power generation and growth in shale gas production. When all of these items come hand in hand with lower than expected power demand (weakened economy, warmer winter) this led to an inevitable softer market, in which gas sellers have an incentive to attempt incremental coal-to-gas substitution or coal-to-gas switching in order to rebalance the market and sell excess supply. In addition, the US market is a highly competitive, deregulated liquid market. The US has many options and sources of supply (including LNG, large storage capacity, coal and nuclear). The ensuing competition in the US has placed downward pressure on natural gas prices. This, however, cannot be translated to the Eastern Med or the Israeli market, which is in fact antipodal in that there is no nuclear power, no natural gas storage facilities and little room for expansion of much more coal power stations. A number of analysts expect a prolonged downturn in the North American natural gas market.The US has about 40% of global regasification capacity and is capable of importing 35% of the world’s LNG supply
In accordance with section 10 of the Natural Gas Sector Law, a supplier’s transportation license was given (1) In December 2003 to Yam Tethys. The license is for the transmission of gas from their offshore field, including land handling facilities up to the point of connection to the onshore national transportation system. (2) To EMG in December 2006 for its installations within the territory of Israel, up to the point of connection to the transportation system
Such as the Matzpen program to increase the efficiency of Israel Electric corporation and rationalize the monopoly’s workings
World’s largest natural gas field. The Iranian South Pars field is the northern extension of Qatar’s giant North Field. It covers an area of 500 square miles and is located 3,000m below the seabed at a water depth of 65m. The Iranian side accounts for 10% of the world’s and 60% of Iran’s total gas reserves. Iran’s portion of the field contains an estimated 436 trillion cubic feet. The field is planned to be developed in around 30 phases, each of which will require an initial investment of around $1bn. Total investment will range between $30-50 billion.
Closing down of LNG facilities due to downward pressure on prices which would mean that it would not be economic to continue to run the facility. Although LNG prices have fallen from a high of $24 mmbtu in the summer of 2008 to a low of $4 mmbtu in the winter of 2009, shut-in of LNG liquefaction capacity is unlikely. It is estimated that U.S. prices would have to fall to around $2.50 per mmbtu before margins were thin enough — around 70 cents per mmbtu — to force any shut-ins from suppliers to that market. However, the cost of producing LNG in some plants, including those in top producer Qatar, is considered quite low because the fuel is produced alongside other higher-profit liquids. The LNG business is very capital intensive and the operating costs are quite low relative to the sales price of LNG. A plant could operate at a loss to ensure condensate can continue to be produced. Large new LNG trains are likely to continue producing, given the technical complications of shutting down a whole train and the need to pay for the investment. Smaller trains with no pressing payments might consider shutting down, but this is unlikely to tighten the market. There has not been a shut-in of an LNG production plant since the early 1980s when the U.S. stopped imports from Algeria over a price dispute, forcing the North African state to cut production
Issuing rights to a company’s existing shareholders to buy a proportional number of additional securities at a given price (usually at a discount) within a fixed period.
A rights issue offers existing shareholders the opportunity to buy new securities at a price lower than their stock exchange price and thereby preserve their relative holding in a company. This is the opposite of the disbursement of a dividend: Instead of the shareholders benefiting from a company’s financial performance, they are digging deeper into their own pockets to help the company.