Cyprus Mail www.cyprus-mail.com
Thursday, December 20, 2012
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Talks on Block 9 must start over Negotiations at an end with French and Russian consortium as state chooses another gas bidder By Stefanos Evripidou
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HE GOVERNMENT yesterday announced its decision to end talks with the FrenchRussian energy consortium over licencing rights for the preferred Block 9 in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), choosing instead to start negotiations with the previously overlooked Italian-Korean consortium. Speaking after a cabinet meeting, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou announced the termination of negotiations with the consortium comprising French energy giant Total, Russian company Novatec and GPB Global Resources BV (a Gazprombank subsidiary) for an offshore gas exploration licence in Cyprus’ block 9, citing lack of progress in the talks. Instead, the state will begin negotiations with the Italian-South Korean joint venture ENI-KOGAS for block 9, while negotiations will also be launched with Total for block 10. Until now, no negotiations had begun with any interested party for block 10, despite bids being made in the second licencing round for the remaining 12 blocks in Cyprus’ EEZ. In late October, the government announced the decision to launch negotiations to award licences for blocks 2 and 3 with ENI-KOGAS, block 9 with Total-NovatekGPB, and block 11 with Total alone. The four offshore prospects are contiguous,
lying north and north-east of block 12, where US firm Noble Energy has a concession to drill and has reported significant gas finds. Block 9 is considered to be the ‘prime cut’ of the four prospects, having received eight bids in total. The government-appointed negotiating team met with the companies and consortia short-listed for blocks 2, 3, 9 and 11 in midNovember, asking them to return to the table in two weeks with improved proposals, regarding both the financial and technical aspects of their bids. By the end of November, negotiations began in earnest with Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis saying he expected contracts to be signed in early 2013, for which the government would earn a ‘signature bonus’ from the companies awarded licences that would go some way to filling nearempty state coffers. However, the government’s choice of companies and consortia raised a number of questions, particularly over block 9 – considered the ‘prime cut’ of the four prospects, having received eight bids in total. A number of press reports suggested the government had altered the order of ranking of the bids for block 9, eventually picking the Total-Novatec consortium despite its bid being graded fourth and fifth by the state’s own evaluation committee and French
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Vineyard vandal’s arrest solves wine mystery By Philip Pullella
A Mexican man wearing a pre-hispanic costume performs at a tourist area of Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo state, Mexico, yesterday, during preparations for the celebration of the end of the Maya Long Count Calendar – Baktun 13 – on Friday, and the beginning of a new era (AFP)
THE great mystery of what may go down in wine annals as the crime of the century – the destruction of the equivalent of 80,000 bottles of choice Brunello di Montalcino – may have been solved. Italian police have named a disgruntled former employee of the exclusive Soldera label at the Case Basse vineyard and estate in Tuscany as the suspected cantina culprit who dumped tens of thousands of litres of fine wine down the drain. Police in the small Tuscan town, which lends its name to the wine, said 39-year old Andrea di Gisi broke into the Soldera family estate in the night between December 2 and 3. He is accused of opening the taps of ten huge barrels containing the produce of the last six years and literally letting the wine pour down the drain. The total amount lost, according to a Soldera family statement, was 62,600 litres, or the equivalent of some 80,000 bottles. Since a bottle of Soldera starts at about 110 euros and the bottles are numbered as if they were gold bars, the act of vandalism travelled around the world wine community like news of an untimely frost or an unknown pestilence. The damage done to the 56acre estate that uses Sangiovese Grosso vines to produce the famous wine, was estimated to be more than six million euros. Until di Gisi’s arrest, it was a vintage whodunnit worthy of the new genre of food mystery novels such as Murder Uncorked and The Merlot Murders.