Algerian oil company Sonatrach could take up to 10% of Spanish gas group ‘Gas Natural Fenosa’ to resolve the financial dispute between them on the price of gas delivered to Spain, said Tuesday the newspaper Cinco Dias. Gas Natural has responded by issuing a statement assuring that “at that date no agreement has been concluded.”
“We repeat that Gas Natural Fenosa and Sonatrach continue to have negotiations that we hope for a beneficial outcome for both parties, which shall finally determine the controversy,” he said. According to Cinco Dias, citing industry sources, Gas Natural, currently 68% controlled by the oil company Repsol and La Caixa savings bank, is about to realize a capital increase to allow the entry of Sonatrach, in the settlement of money it owes to the latter. The rest of the money owed would be paid in cash and through price revisions in the future. In this case, Gas Natural is challenging the rate increases in natural gas applied from 2007 by Sonatrach, which supplies about a quarter of gas consumed in Spain through the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline. Algeria is the largest supplier of natural gas for Spain, ahead of Nigeria and Qatar. Gas Natural said in November it would have to retroactively pay $ 1.97 billion (1.43 billion euros) to Sonatrach after the arbitration award in August 2010 in favour of the latter.
Sonatrach could become a shareholder of Gas Natural to settle their dispute
Advertisement
