BP and Total Sell Their 12% Interests in the Planned Gasline to Spain to Their Partners in Medgaz

摘要

BP and Total,which each had a 12% interest in Medgaz,the joint venture set up to promote the construction of a gasline linking Algeria to Spain,have sold their stakes to the other shareholders in the project.As a result of this operation,Sonatrach and the Spanish company Cepsa,which launched the Medgaz project with the signing of a memorandum of understanding in September 2000,have reportedly increased their holdings from 20% to 26%,while the interests of the other three shareholders,Gaz de France,Endesa and Iberdrola,are said to have risen from 12% to 16%.Medgaz could be operational by 2009 with an initial capacity of around 8 billion cu m/year of natural gas.