MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline under threat/ Gazprom to manage Sakhalin oil supplies/ Government trying to shield Russian automakers from Chinese rivals/ Sheremetyevo's management wants to build terminal in Istanbul/ Local news more interesting to Russian audiences than foreign TV channels
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline under threat
The authorities of the Greek province Evros claim they could ban the laying of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline across their territory, unless Russia complies with their request. They want guarantees that the construction and use of the pipeline will not damage the tourist industry and agriculture.
Nikolaos Zabounidis, the governor of the northeastern Greek province, said many residents of Alexandroupolis were against the pipeline, fearing that the project could provoke a major environmental catastrophe.
"An oil spill would destroy our tourist business, and no one would buy our agricultural products. Alexandroupolis would become bankrupt," the governor said.
Russia has done nothing to convince local people that the project is environmentally safe, Zabounidis said. The Russian oil companies have not provided any proof that the projected pipeline is safe.
The Evros authorities insist that staff at the oil companies spend their holidays in Alexandroupolis "to demonstrate by their example that their project is perfectly safe for tourists," the governor said. He proposed opening regular flights between Moscow and Alexandroupolis.
The people of the Evros province also want to grow and sell their agricultural products to Russia.
"In itself, the pipeline will not benefit us," Zabounidis said. "Russia will receive the lion's share of profits from its use, whereas the Greek treasury will receive only 35 million euros. This is a ridiculous sum, which is not decisive for us."
The local authorities fear public unrest. "Thousands may take to the streets to prevent the laying of the pipeline, and nobody, not us or the Russian oil companies, will be able to stop them," the governor said.
Ten years ago, the authorities of Alexandroupolis refused to honor an agreement on gold production in Evros, signed between the Greek government and a major Australian company. Evros prohibited the development of the deposit because of protests by local people against it.
Gazeta
Gazprom to manage Sakhalin oil supplies
Russian energy monopoly Gazprom has received governmental support for its participation in all oil and gas projects in Sakhalin. While in Japan yesterday (on July 2), Sergei Naryshkin, deputy prime minister and the newly elected deputy chairman of the board of state-controlled oil company Rosneft, supported Gazprom's plan to buy gas from the Sakhalin-I project and then sell it on the domestic market.
Gazprom's deputy CEO Alexander Ananenkov put forward this proposal in mid-June while discussing the issue with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
Initially, it was planned that gas produced on the Sakhalin-I fields would go to China via a pipeline. China hoped to receive up to 10 billion cu m of gas a year. However, in Gazprom's opinion, the priority is Russia's Far East, whose annual gas requirements exceed 15 billion cu m.
"We have no other sources [to meet these requirements] today," Ananenkov explained to Fradkov.
Alexander Medvedev, head of Gazpromexport, said Gazprom was not yet planning to control production and acquire a stake in the Sakhalin-I project, most probably, because Gazprom's entry into the project would not benefit Rosneft, which holds a 20% stake in the project.
Another explanation is that any operator of the Sakhalin-I project will have to accept Gazprom's terms anyway.
At the end of last year, the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry officially announced that gas sales from the project would be directed via the government and Gazprom.
Gazprom's role in Sakhalin projects in partnership with foreign companies has proved fatal for investors. In 2003, the government ousted the U.S. company Exxon from the Sakhalin-III project, and its fields were listed as non-licensed areas.
Last year, the gas monopoly used the "ecological truncheon" in order to acquire a controlling stake in the Sakhalin-II project which belonged only to foreign investors.
With the government's consent, the gas monopoly may soon obtain a license to implement the Sakhalin-III project bypassing a tender, the traditional method for distributing such deposits (Ananenkov also asked Fradkov's support for the plan). The government has not yet given a reply to Gazprom's proposal, but it is unlikely that a reason will be found to prevent them obtaining a license, especially considering that the only two candidates for the purchase are Rosneft and Gazprom.
Kommersant
Government trying to shield Russian automakers from Chinese rivals
On June 29, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Industry and Energy Ministry decided not to sign car assembly agreements with Chinese automakers in competition with the Russian car industry.
Chinese companies want to assemble 230,000 vehicles investing $385 million in Russian automotive plants.
A market player said officials of both ministries had agreed that the Economic Development and Trade Ministry would not go ahead with the car assembly investment contracts starting September 15.
The decision was motivated by the fact that foreign carmakers assembling motor vehicles in Russia were allowed to import components free of charge and in circumvention of WTO requirements.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry could refuse to allow China's Great Wall concern to assemble cars in Tatarstan. Production of Geely and ZhingXing models could be banned at the Automobiles and Motors of the Urals (AMUR) automotive plant in the Sverdlovsk Region.
Moreover, the ministry could ban production of Lifan vehicles at a Derways plant in Cherkessk, the capital of the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic in the North Caucasus, and that of BAIC light trucks in the Ulyanovsk Region.
The source said officials would delay the coordination of Chinese projects until the last possible moment, and that both ministries did not think Chinese carmakers could benefit the Russian automotive industry.
According to officials, Chinese companies will not want to relocate production to Russia and will assemble relatively few cars here.
Ministerial officials declined to comment on the future of Chinese projects. However, Industry and Energy Ministry sources said off the record that the car assembly program had accomplished most objectives in the last two years, and that most global automotive giants, i.e. General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Suzuki, were now operating in Russia.
Deutsche UFG analyst Yelena Sakhnova said the decision by Russian authorities to halt Chinese projects was aimed at shielding national carmakers from foreign competition, and that a BYD Flyer car cost just $6,000 on the local market.
Vedomosti
Sheremetyevo's management wants to build terminal in Istanbul
Sheremetyevo Airport is setting its sights on international expansion. It wants to bid for the right to build a new terminal at Istanbul's second largest airport Sabiha. Experts are advising Sheremetyevo to first complete its projects in Russia.
Sheremetyevo International Airport (SIA), 100% state-owned, together with Turkey's company Celebi Ground Handling, is preparing a bid for a tender to build a new building at Istanbul's Sabiha international terminal, Irina Kolesnikova, spokeswoman for Sheremetyevo, said. She did not disclose any further details.
The joint bid will be made in the middle of next week, the tender itself is scheduled tentatively for July 9, the spokeswoman added. Under the tender conditions the winner will build the terminal and have the right to run it for 20 years, a source in the Sheremetyevo press service said.
The initiative for joint participation came from the Turkish side, one of the SIA top managers said. According to him, if the Sheremetyevo-Celebi alliance wins, they will set up a joint venture. No sharing of stakes has yet been discussed, the source said. Sheremetyevo will not require a great deal as this is the company's first foray into such agreements he said.
Sabiha and Celebi declined to comment.
The airport's board of directors know nothing about the SIA managers' plans for international expansion, two board members said. The matter would be raised if the company won the tender, a member of the press service said.
But before taking the plunge, Ak Bars Finance analyst Oleg Sudakov said, Sheremetyevo would be better served if it completed its current projects in Russia - the third terminal and a railroad station. Construction in Turkey will call for investment, and that will slow down its domestic projects. Besides, Sheremetyevo is not likely to have a large stake in the Turkish terminal, although it is unlikely to accept less than 25%, he said.
Gazeta.ru
Local news more interesting to Russian audiences than foreign TV channels
Those Russians that have round-the-clock access to international information channels still prefer watching Russian-made news, according to a study by Magram Market Research which surveyed audiences of the NTV Plus satellite channel.
The top three Russian-language channels, Vesti 24 (64% of Moscow viewers watch the news), Euronews in Russian (53% of the group surveyed), and RBC-TV (48%).
The share of English-language channels watched in Russia has also grown lately, with BBC World (18%), Russia Today (a Russian English-language channel, 16%) and well-known international channel CNN (15%) topping the list.
The Mir channel chalked up 37% of the audience, while the Bloomberg business channel, 14%. The Chinese English-language channels, CCTV9 and CCTV4 came last with 8% and 7%, respectively.
"Western channels are of better quality than Russian ones, but the audience still prefers the latter because they focus on local news" according to Vladislav Kochetkov, an analyst with the investment firm Finam. "True, international channels cover events in a more objective manner, but Russian viewers have learned to filter out judgment and single out facts," he said.
TV sector analysts say that "high-quality" and "intellectual" viewers are gradually shifting to cable channels from central ones. Anastasia Kazakova, head of the NTV Plus press office, also said that given the choice of various channels, Russian TV audiences often prefer Russian-made news channels because they cover more local news. Analysts are convinced that Russia Today, a Russian channel broadcasting in English but covering Russian news, has higher viewer ratings than CNN here for the same reason.
"There is a strong trend today that viewers prefer local content to global," said Marina Malykhina, president of Magram Market Research. "That, and the novelty of Russian news channels, are the two factors which have enabled them to dispute the leadership of Euronews and CNN," she added.
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