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Russia to build nuclear Gazprom for world market
 MOSCOW - Russia will merge its civilian nuclear companies into one state company -- along the lines of gas giant Gazprom -- to help it compete on the world nuclear market, the countrys nuclear chief said on Wednesday.
President Vladimir Putin this month approved a revamp of the nuclear industry which nuclear officials say is aimed at boosting nuclear energy production and increasing the global clout of Russias major nuclear companies. Under the plan, a single state company called Atomprom will be created on the base of the many smaller, sometimes overlapping, state-controlled companies in the sector.
| Because we all know how efficient giant, state-controlled Russian enterprises are. |
It is not by chance that the preliminary name of this single Russian company evokes the name Gazprom, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russias atomic energy agency Rosatom, said in a speech according to a Rosatom statement.
State-controlled gas giant Gazprom GAZP.MM, the worlds biggest natural gas company by reserves, has made major acquisitions inside Russia, helping Putin the Kremlin boost control over the energy sector. Gazprom also plans further expansion abroad, aiming to boost its share of the European market, for example, to about 30 percent from about 25 percent by buying into gas storage projects, gas marketing and power firms.
Russias Atomprom would compete on the world market not with national, but with transnational companies such as Germanys Siemens SIEGn.DE and Japans Toshiba Corp. 6501.T, RIA quoted Kiriyenko as saying. We need to create a single structure, which would be comparable with them and which could surpass them, he said.
| The Russian collosus is unmatched in so many ways on world markets as we all know ... |
A source in the nuclear industry with knowledge of the plan told Reuters on Tuesday Atomprom would unite all nuclear power generation, uranium production and enrichment as well as the building and export of nuclear products. If the plan is implemented, Atomprom would include nuclear power company Rosenergoatom -- which controls Russias nuclear power stations -- and the civilian units of Rosatom: Tekhsnabexport (Tenex), the state owned uranium trader, TVEL, the state owned-nuclear fuel producer and trader, and Atomstroiexport, the state controlled builder of nuclear reactors abroad.
| And one ring to rule them all ... |
Posted by: Steve White 2006-06-29 |
