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ENERGY

Antitrust worries as RWE and Gazprom mull partnership

A tie-up between German energy giant RWE and Russian gas company Gazprom could face serious antitrust obstacles, according to the Federal Cartel Office, which regulates business competition in Germany.

Antitrust worries as RWE and Gazprom mull partnership
Photo: DPA

The office’s president Andreas Mundt said on Monday that a linkage between the two would have to be looked at “very carefully” and could have implications for competition.

He emphasized that his agency is not yet looking into the situation since nothing has been officially announced.

“So far, we only know speculation from the press,” Mundt said.

Mundt’s comments come as reports increase that the two companies want to create a close partnership that could include an exchange of ownership stakes.

Der Spiegel magazine has reported that RWE head Jürge Großmann met Alexey Miller, the head of Gazprom, in Paris on Friday to discuss potential investment opportunities that could see the Russian gas producer take a stake in RWE, Germany’s second-largest power supplier.

Gazprom has been expressing its interest in the German energy market for several months, especially as Germany announced its pullout from nuclear energy.

But Germany is not the only target country for Miller and his company. In recent days, company officials have met with the French energy company GDF Suez and the Düsseldorf-based E.ON energy concern.

The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology said it was exploring whether cooperation between the two companies could violate foreign trade laws – although in principle, Germany is open to foreign investors.

DAPD/The Local/mdm

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BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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