Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/181770
11 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2013 s for Labour's promise business for Siemens AG and all of its consolidated subsidiaries and affiliates. As part of the settlement, Siemens also agreed to cooperate to change industry practices, clean up procurement practices and engage in collective action with the World Bank Group to fight fraud and corruption. SOCAR – the State-owned Energy Company of Azerbaijan – produces oil and natural gas and operates the country's two oil refineries and the running of oil and gas pipelines throughout the country. The company is also becoming a major international player. In Romania, SOCAR is planning a petrochemical refinery complex to supply European countries with oil products. Greece is set to agree to the sale of its natural gas grid operator DESFA to SOCAR. The State-owned Azerbaijani En- terminals due to shorter construction periods and a lower capital cost of implementation. In 2012, Gasol plc signed a strategic alliance agreement with SOCAR in relation to Gasol's proposed LNG import project in Benin. Under the terms of the agreement, SOCAR will supply all LNG required for the project and assist Gasol with the provision of a floating gas storage and regasification vessel in the harbor at Cotonou, Benin. The project involves the regasification of LNG and the supply of that gas to power and industrial customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana. The regasified LNG will be routed to the West African Gas Pipeline, a 678 km pipeline built to transport gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana. Yildirim Tecnicas Consortium m Yildirim Consortium includes ncludes Turkish owned Yildirim Holding AS and the Spanish Tecnicas. The s. Turkish company already owns 50 wns per cent of Malta Freeport. The diverse industrial company, mpany, founded in 1963 by the Yildirim famm ily as a construction materials trading firm, now has assets and operations erations in ports, mining and ferroalloys, feroys, tilisers, coal and coke, shipbuilding building and construction. The company has embarked on a ed global shopping spree buying a $1 ng billion portfolio consisting of energy, metals and ports in the past year. ear. Yildirim bought the shares from s CMA CGM for €200 million in 2012. n ergy Company was embroiled in controversy after its involvement in the demolition of houses on the outskirts of Baku just before the 2012 Eurovision contest. Company employees were accused of beating a journalist reporting protests against the evictions. In 2012 investigative journalist Shavalad Chobanoghlu challenged Azerbaijan's Supreme Court refusal to order the state oil company to disclose funding for its new multimilliondollar headquarters: the $250 million SOCAR towers, which dominate the Baku skyline. Gasol Plc is a UK-based gas company, whose website states that it "intends to purchase stranded gas assets in Nigeria and other countries along the Gulf of Guinea". Gasol's primary geographic focus is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), together with Mauritania. The company website states that the Company aims to sign gas sales agreements for regasified LNG. "Gasol will procure the supply and delivery of LNG from its own resources or the global energy market to a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) permanently moored at the nearest port to the power plant". This is one of the options being considered by the Maltese government. Gasol claims that floating regasification compares favourably to traditional onshore LNG receiving The Maltese government and Malta d Freeport Corporation approved the ved transfer in November 2011. In 2004, n CMA CGM received a 30-year conar cession from the government to opt erate Malta Freeport, extended in nded 2008 to 65 years. Yildirim Energy Investments was nts established by Yildirim Group in oup 2010 to enact power plant investments in Turkey, the Balkan ex-Sovix-Soviet republics, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and ast China, covering a wide portfolio of folio renewable energy, thermal and nund clear power plants. It provides power s supplies to industry, business centers and residences as well. The company website states that es its focal projects are plants for theror mal power, wind power, hydroelecdroelectric power, biomass thermal power, solar power and nuclear power. er. Yildirim Energy performs fuel ms transportation and fuel handling inling house. Técnicas Reunidas is a Spanishpanishbased general contractor which proch vides engineering, procurement and ent construction of industrial and power d generation plants, particularly in the y oil and gas sector. Since 1959, the TRSA group of oup companies has designed and built d over 1,000 industrial plants worldwide. International projects account for 70% of the company's annual turnover, mainly in Latin America America i and China. Endeavor Energy, Exodus Crossing, BB Energy Consortium The consortium is made up of two Texan based companies namely Endevour Energy and Exodus Crossing and the oil trading company; BB Energy. BB Energy was founded in Lebanon in 1937. The company website states that B.B. Energy follows 'well-respected Eastern traditions and places emphasis on fostering strong and personal relationships with our trading partners'. The company traded 11.2 million tons of crude oil and petroleum products in 2012, generating revenue of $10.5 billion. In 2012 B.B. Energy Holdings, increased its first unsecured credit line to $125 million, taking advantage of banks' willingness to commit funds to the sector. The company's office in Beirut is the management center for the group's worldwide activities, and particularly the relations with the governmental and national oil companies in the Middle East. In 2008 BB Energy was named the preferred bidder in the proposed privatisation of the petroleum division of Enemalta Corporation but the deal failed to materialize. The Houston-based Exodus Crossing website states that the company 'is committed to providing valueadded transaction advisory, capital arrangement and project development services to its clients'. Exodus Crossing's founders have been involved in over $10 billion of energy and infrastructure-related transactions including Enfield a 300MW gas-fired power project near London, UK $200,000,000. Endeavor Energy Holdings, LLC, an independent power project company, focuses on developing and investing in power generation facilities in Africa. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Houston, Texas. The new company intends to invest in natural gas-fired and hydroelectric power projects in Africa. Its primary focus will be to identify and develop independent power projects in midto-late stage development within capacity-short markets where the projects can help reduce the cost of power. The company has the financial backing of global private equity investor Denham Capital.