In Brief
Shipping companies eye Libyan market Greek shipping companies are seeking a share of the market in transporting Libyan liquefied natural gas (LNG), the North African state’s National Oil Corp said. The Greek ambassador to Libya conveyed the request at meetings yesterday with National Oil in Tripoli, the company said in a statement on its website. Three years ago, Libya and Royal Dutch Shell Plc signed an accord to increase LNG exports from the nation’s only gas-liquefaction plant, in Marsa al-Brega, which currently sends all its output to Spain. This year, Shell started drilling to find more gas to feed the plant’s planned expansion. LNG is gas cooled to a liquid to allow its transportation by oceangoing tankers. It is transformed back into a gas upon arrival at its destination and sent to consumers using local distribution grids. (Bloomberg) Space Hellas wins e-ticketing system deal Space Hellas, the Greek telecommunications services company founded in 1985, won a contract from the General Secretary of Athletics to develop an electronic ticketing system for 22 sports stadiums in Greece. Space Hellas will issue tickets to athletic and other events in a deal valued at 13.1 million euros ($21 million), the company said yesterday in a statement to the Greek bourse. The Athens-based services provider already operates security systems for the 22 stadiums, according to the statement. (Bloomberg) Deficit swells Greece’s current account deficit widened to 3.293 billion euros in May, reflecting mainly a widening of the trade deficit and the income account shortfall, the Bank of Greece said yesterday. The gap rose in May by 1.183 billion euros from May 2007. Figures showed that in the five-month period, the current account gap rose 13 percent to 16.178 billion euros. (Reuters) UAE pipeline Russia’s Stroytransgaz has won a $418 million contract to build a gas pipeline across the United Arab Emirates, the UAE’s Dolphin Energy said in a statement yesterday. Stroytransgaz beat Italy’s oilfield services company Saipem and Greece’s Consolidated Contractors International Company to the contract. Dolphin short-listed the three companies for the contract to build the 240-kilometer (150-mile) pipeline earlier this month. Work on the pipeline will begin this quarter, Dolphin said. Dolphin imports gas to the United Arab Emirates from Qatar. The new pipeline will allow it to pump gas from the emirate of Abu Dhabi on the Gulf coast to the east coast emirate of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. The gas will feed a new power and water desalination plant in Qidfa. Fujairah Mubadala Development Company, run by the government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, owns 51 percent of Dolphin. France’s Total and US Occidental Petroleum each have a 24.5 percent stake. (Reuters) Submarine order NATO member Turkey said yesterday it will order six new U-214 submarines from Germany’s HDW in a deal worth around 2.5 billion euros ($4 billion) as part of an upgrade of its navy. The contract was won by HDW/MFI, a joint venture between Thyssen Krupp’s HDW unit and UK-based Marine Force International LLP, but the non-nuclear vessels will be built in the Turk Golcuk Naval Shipyard. (Reuters)
