Centrica ups its North Sea oil field stake January 30, 2012 CENTRICA yesterday moved to ramp up its North Sea gas reserves with a $223m (£140m) deal with ConcocoPhillips. The British Gas owner is buying a 15.17 per cent stake in the Statfjord field, taking its share to 34.3 per cent. Its investment includes $103m in historic tax allowances. The Statfjord field is in the North [...]
PM is shunted off track by Branson win October 3, 2012 THE COALITION’S rail policies have been left in disarray by the collapse of the West Coast handover, after “terrible mistakes” in the bidding process were uncovered. Department for Transport officials met with erstwhile winning bidder FirstGroup and current operator Virgin Trains yesterday to make peace and ensure the intercity rail route continues to run after [...]
Centrica and SSE join gas bill price war January 12, 2012 THE ENERGY price war between the UK’s big six companies escalated yesterday as Centrica-owned British Gas cut its electricity tariff by five per cent and SSE announced a gas price reduction of 4.5 per cent. British Gas has now cut its electricity prices by five per cent with immediate effect, while Scottish and Southern Energy [...]
BEST of the BROKERS July 5, 2012 CENTRICA Goldman Sachs has bumped the utilities giant off its “conviction buy” list and downgraded the stock to neutral, citing a weaker near-term earnings per share outlook due to lower commodity prices and greater share price upside elsewhere in our coverage. Goldman has had Centrica on its buy list since 7 January 2010, in which time [...]
The party goes on for Pelham Bell Pottinger July 5, 2012 300 guests, including many of the City’s key players, enjoyed the annual party of public relations group Pelham Bell Pottinger despite the rain the other evening. Guests included one-time Vodafone chief executive Chris Gent (now chairman of GlaxoSmithKline), Centrica’s Sam Laidlaw, Paul Baker of Morgan Stanley, Andrew Osborne, formerly of Bank of America Merrill Lynch [...]
EDF to open up UK nuclear projects for partners July 31, 2012 French state-controlled utility EDF is considering looking for more partners for its nuclear projects in Britain to help it share costs and limit its debt burden, its chief financial officer said on Thursday. EDF, along with junior partner Centrica, plans to build four new 1,600-megawatt European pressurised water reactors as Britain looks to reform its [...]
Centrica eyes Qatar with new contract December 6, 2011 CENTRICA has signed a memorandum of understanding to look at joint investment opportunities with Qatar Petroleum, two weeks after announcing a £1bn exploration and supply deal with Norwegian group Statoil. The British Gas owner said investment targets will include new or existing projects in upstream oil and gas including gas storage, as well as combined-cycle [...]
Centrica completes acquisition of US energy firm Vectren Source for $39m January 3, 2012 CENTRICA’s US arm Direct Energy has completed a $39m (£25m) cash acquisition of natural gas retailer Vectren Source from Vectren Corporation, a move it said will boost its customer base in the US North East. Indiana-based Vectren Source has more than 146,000 residential and small commercial customer accounts, with the majority of customers located in [...]
Centrica completes acquisition of US energy firm Vectren Source for $39m January 3, 2012 CENTRICA’s US arm Direct Energy has completed a $39m (£25m) cash acquisition of natural gas retailer Vectren Source from Vectren Corporation, a move it said will boost its customer base in the US North East. Indiana-based Vectren Source has more than 146,000 residential and small commercial customer accounts, with the majority of customers located in [...]
Centrica pens Norway deal November 21, 2011 ENERGY giant Centrica has signed a £14bn deal with Norwegian oil major Statoil to develop oil and gas assets in the North Sea and supply gas to the UK for a decade. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, said it had acquired £1bn of energy assets in Kvitebjørn in the Norwegian North Sea from Statoil [...]