Options dwindle for UK facing winter tied to tight Norway gas

* UK at risk of price spike as Norway's exports are reduced

* Continental Europe to take more gas from Russia

* UK spot prices could rise above Russian oil-linked contracts

By Nerijus Adomaitis

OSLO, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Britain faces a tight winter gas season as it relies heavily on struggling Norwegian supplies and has few alternatives to source cheap gas elsewhere.

Britain already relies heavily on Norwegian imports to meet its needs and analysts say this dependency is set to rise as Russian gas will mainly go to continental Europe, while shipments of overseas liquefied natural gas (LNG) will mostly head to Asia, where customers pay more for gas.

The new gas year starts on October 1, when European gas buyers and sellers adjust supply volumes ahead of the peak demand winter heating season.

But Norway's biggest gas field Troll, which accounts for around 35 percent of its gas production, has had its capacity reduced for much of this year, and its operator says supplies will be limited until 2014.

"We expect to see somewhat reduced capacity into the winter at the Troll field due to technical issues at Troll A," said Morten Eek of the field's operator Statoil, adding that its remaining capacity would still allow the company to "more or less" meet production quotas.

Norway's gas system operator Gassco said production capacity would be reduced by 34 million cubic metres per day until September 2014, compared with a capacity of up to 120 mcm of gas per day before the outage.

Norway exported 103.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of pipeline gas in the 2012/2013 gas year, which ended on September 30, including 29.8 bcm to the UK, up from 25 bcm during the previous gas year of 2011/2012.

For the first eight months of 2013, Norwegian exports to Europe fell four percent to 68.6 bcm from 71.3 bcm during the same period in 2012.

"Norway normally produces gas at full capacity during the coldest months, and Troll's outage leaves no flexibility to ramp-up production to meet peak demand in case both the UK and continental Europe freeze," said Anette Einarsen, an Oslo-based gas analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon.

News about Norway's gas outage extending throughout the winter has forced British gas traders to buy more forward contracts in order to hedge against any further supply disruptions from Britain's key gas supplier.

LOW FLEXIBILITY

Should Norwegian supplies not meet demand in case of a cold British winter, UK customers could begin importing gas from continental Europe, which receives most of its gas from Russia.

But analysts say such a switch would come at a high cost, forcing British customers to pay above Russian oil-indexed gas prices to attract flows from continental Europe.

Point Carbon estimates Russian oil-indexed price at 74-78 pence per therm, compared with current UK spot prices of under 65 pence and average winter prices of below 70 pence per therm.

Russia sells most of its gas under long-term contracts linked to the price of oil, while Norway has switched increasingly to a pricing model based on gas spot markets such as Britain's National Balancing Point (NBP).

Oil prices have been relatively high as a result of booming demand outside Europe and as a result of political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, while European spot gas prices have been low because of Europe's sluggish economy.

This means that Russian oil-linked gas prices have been more expensive than Norwegian spot supplies.

To regain competitiveness, Russia's gas export monopolist Gazprom has handed out price rebates worth billions of euros over the past year, bringing its contracts closer to the spot market, and analysts say this will increase Russia's gas market share.

"We expect the continent to take more Russian gas and less Norwegian gas, if we have a normal winter, during the next gas year," said Einarsen.

Russian preliminary gas exports to Europe rose by 14 percent to 105.2 bcm during January-August, and its gas monopoly Gazprom plans to restore supplies to Europe to 152 bcm this year after they fell 8 percent to 139 bcm in 2012.

Alternatively Britain could get gas through shipped supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from suppliers such as Qatar.

But LNG prices are high as its biggest buyers, Japan and South Korea, pay far more for cargoes than European buyers.

Asian spot prices for LNG cargoes are around $15.5 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), equivalent to 155 pence per therm, and analysts say British spot gas prices would have to rise closer to this level in order to convince LNG exporters to sell cargoes to Europe instead of Asia.

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UPDATE 2-Rosneft offers lowball $1.5 bln for TNK-BP minorities

* Offer follows months of bickering

* TNK-BP shares up around 5 percent

* Concern over implications for minority shareholders (Recasts with comparative price, expected outcome)

By Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Oil group Rosneft is to buy the remaining shares in TNK-BP Holding for a fraction of the price it paid BP and a group of oligarchs for their stakes, in a worrying development for minority shareholders in Russian companies.

Rosneft bought the holding company and its parent TNK-BP last year in a $55 billion takeover that created the world's largest publicly traded oil company by output. Minority shareholders own about 5 percent of the unit, now renamed RN Holding.

The deal to buy them out for about $1.5 billion was announced by Rosneft on Monday, after months of tough talk and refusal to acquire the shares had sent jitters through the investor community and raised questions over corporate governance in Russia.

"It will leave a bad impression and raises concerns," said Chris Weafer, senior partner with consultancy Macro-Advisory.

"The next time a big state company is looking at an acquisition of a company, the investors will be immediately very wary of that situation. Minority investors will run ... rather than wait and see what will happen."

Rosneft said it planned to buy out holders of ordinary shares at 67 roubles ($2.07) per share and preferred shares at 55 roubles, the company said. In response, TNK-BP ordinary shares rose by almost 5 percent on Monday to 63.3 roubles, while Rosneft was down 1.27 percent.

But the offer disappointed some investors hoping to get closer to the $3.70 a share analysts calculated that oligarchs including Mikhail Fridman received at the time of the TNK-BP buyout. The other tycoons were German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik.

"The offer is not that generous compared to the $3.70," said one shareholder who spoke on condition of anonymity, but did not comment on whether further steps would be taken.

"This is a bad offer," said Weafer. "The price they are offering to the minorities is almost half what Rosneft paid to BP and the oligarchs... and it sends a negative message."

'NOT A CHARITY'

Rosneft and its powerful president, Igor Sechin, had repeatedly said that the company had no obligation to buy the remaining shares. Sechin has said that Rosneft is not a "charity fund".

He changed his tone on Friday, however, saying that the company would consider buying the shares with a 20 to 30 percent premium to the market price.

Sources close to the minority shareholders have told Reuters that they think Rosneft should buy them out for $2.8 billion, based on what it paid for its majority stake in TNK-BP.

Sberbank CIB analysts said in a note: "The only shareholders who will benefit from this are speculators who bought the shares on the cheap during the long period of uncertainty - precisely the people whom Sechin said he wanted to punish."

Russian stocks trade at a near 50-percent discount to those of other emerging nations, reflecting foreign investors' worries over corruption, corporate governance and stalled efforts to modernise the economy.

Concerns about the treatment of minority shareholders have added to that sentiment.

Veteran investor Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Franklin Templeton's emerging markets group, said earlier in the year that the TNK-BP buyout "is the kind of issue that gives pause for thought on the behalf of investors coming to Russia".

Mobius, whose emerging markets fund has invested in TNK-BP, has around $1.2 billion invested in Russia. He was not available for immediate comment about Monday's offer.

($1 = 32.3337 Russian roubles) (Additional reporting and writing by Megan Davies; editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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China to offer tax breaks to solar power manufacturers

SHANGHAI, Sept 29 | Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:29pm EDT

SHANGHAI, Sept 29 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance announced it will offer tax breaks to manufacturers of solar power products on Sunday, as China moves to support an industry still struggling to deal with massive overcapacity and weak demand.

The ministry said in a short statement on its website that producers of solar power products will receive immediate refunds of 50 percent of value-added taxes.

The National Development and Reform Commission provided subsidies for solar power stations in late August.

"China's bloated photovoltaic industry still faces a grim outlook as many companies are deeply mired in debts," said a report on the official Xinhua news service discussing the announcement.

It cited data from the China Renewable Energy Society saying that the country's top 10 solar panel makers are up to 100 billion yuan ($16.34 billion) in debt, with a debt to asset ratio above 70 percent on average.

Beijing has said it wants to consolidate the industry, but the sector continues to enjoy protection at the central and local level; the latter is particularly strong because solar power companies are frequently major employers.

China's LDK Solar Co Ltd partly defaulted on a bond payment in April, then failed to meet another payment on time in August.

China's Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd said Chief Executive David King had resigned from the company in mid September, weeks after three directors left amid the solar panel maker's efforts to restructure its debt.

Suntech's Chinese lenders dragged its unit Wuxi Suntech into insolvency proceedings after it defaulted on $541 million in bonds after the business was hit by a glut in solar panels.

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Epic: Tamar Braxton Flies Flag For R&B Live At iTunes Festival (Full Performance)

‘What’s up iTunes, who’s ready to get slayed?‘.

With sales that make her one of the last decade’s fastest selling R&B entertainers, and a credibility factor that’s seen her win fans from all walks of life, Tamar Braxton‘s run at the top is truly a sight to behold.

Now, as her new single ‘The One’ gears up to dominate British radio in the coming week, the Grammy hopeful made her way to London’s ‘Roundhouse’ to perform at the iTunes Festival, serving a showing that stands as nothing short of phenomenal…proving that when it comes to live skills, very few do it better than her.

LQ footage courtesy of YouTuber Ashley Williams below!

Keep it locked on TGJ for HQ footage in the coming hour!

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Russian court remands last of Greenpeace Arctic oil protesters

* Russian court extends detention of 8 activists

* 30 people accused of piracy, could face years in jail

* Greenpeace sees no signs of Kremlin shifting position

By Alexei Anishchuk

MOSCOW, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A Russian court has ordered eight remaining Greenpeace activists be held in custody for two months over a protest against Arctic offshore drilling, the environment advocacy group said on Sunday, dashing any hope some might be released quickly.

Authorities detained all 30 members of the pressure group who were aboard icebreaker the Arctic Sunrise when they broke up attempts to scale state-run Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform on Sept. 18.

Of those, 22 people, including a freelance photographer and crew members had already been remanded until Nov. 24 while officials investigate charges of piracy which Greenpeace denies.

Piracy is punishable with up to 15 years of jail in Russia, although President Vladimir Putin said last week that the activists were clearly not pirates but had broken international law, suggesting they might end up facing less severe charges.

Greenpeace, which has described court proceedings as reminiscent of Soviet-era scare tactics, sees little sign of a shift from the Kremlin.

"From what we are seeing today in court in Murmansk, where eight more people were ordered to be held in custody for two months, nothing has altered the position of the authorities," head of the group's energy unit Vladimir Chuprov said in emailed comments.

"There was no assault, it was a peaceful protest of which (we) had warned the authorities," one of the activists, Dmitry Litvinov, told the court from an iron cage in a Murmansk courtroom.

Finnish activist Sini Saarela, one of the two people attempting to climb the platform, denied the charges of piracy.

"I am not a pirate," she said in the courtroom according to a Greenpeace Twitter account, @gp_sunrise. "Drilling for oil in ice is a tremendous threat to the environment all over the world."

Greenpeace says scientific evidence shows any oil spill from Prirazlomnaya would affect more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of Russia's coastline.

Russia sees the Arctic as its vital area of economic interest and Putin has promised to increase Russia's military presence in the region. (Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; editing by Patrick Graham)

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Must Hear: Katy Perry – ‘Walking On Air’

Just when we thought we couldn’t love Katy Perry anymore than we already did…she goes and does this.

This, being the release of her ‘Prism’ pulled single ‘Walking On Air‘, which we’re going to be bold enough to call this one of the best singles (from any genre) to drop this year.

At this point, we’d usually explain why this is- but since we’re too busy pre-ordering ‘Prism’ on iTunes, we simply don’t have the time to.

Find out why everyone here at TGJ HQ is enamoured with this jam below!!

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