But not all the steps o ED in the gas are success ul

I GD Suez does not hide his ambitions in the nuclear rance, ED is to install it in the gas landscape. The Group yesterday announced the acquisition o se eral natural gas ields located in the UK North Sea with the American oil company ATP Oil & Gas. The amount is modest, 335 million euros, but the operation illustrates the ambitions o the electrician: this is the irst time directly acquires gas assets. So ar, it unctioned on the basis o medium- or long-term supply contracts.

Speci ically, the group chaired by Pierre Gadonneix to reco er 80 o the shareholdings o ATP Oil & Gas in three ields gas (Tors and Wenlock), knowing that the remaining 20 can be acquired by its Italian subsidiary Edison, next year. With this in estment, ED may dispose o 3 billion cubic metres o gas reser es, either a production o 0.3 billion metres cubic in 2008. It is little relation to the olumes treated by the Group last year 27 billion cubic metres, which 60 or end customers and 40 to eed its plants heat but it's a start...

"Little by little, ED creates greater competition with GD Suez", according to an analyst who belie es the price paid to the a erage o recent transactions in the sector. On the orm, the electrician takes care to a oid o ending local GD Suez, which is one o its main suppliers o gas and has big ambitions in the exploration-production. "We will not launch in gas upstream", insists on at Headquarters. In act, ED wants abo e all secure its supplies and the ATP Oil & Gas crews to operate the ields.

But the message o the electrician may be blurred by the ambitions o Edison, which it owns 49. To secure its gas supplies, the Italian company wants to in est more than 2 billion euros in the exploration-production by 2013.

Steps all

Pierre Gadonneix, who presided o er gas o rance be ore taking the reins o ED , multiplies, also, initiati es. Nothing in 2008, he signed a contract with the Spanish Gas Natural, a cooperation agreement with the Qatar and con irmed its LNG terminal project in Dunkirk.

But not all the steps o ED in the gas are success ul. In the spring, he saw the main Belgian gas distributor, Distrigaz, him spinning the hands despite an o er o around EUR 4 billion. The seller, who was another that GD Suez, summoned by the European Commission to di est assets to succeed its own merger, had pre erred the Italian ENI. Upstream, the Belgian Go ernment was expressed against the creation o a " rench duopoly" in Belgium with GD Suez in electricity and ED in the gas.

In addition, the Habs electrician retains its ambitions in the gas, but it has become more cautious on its objecti es. Historically, he intended to treat 48 billion cubic metres per the horizon o 2012, 80 more than in 2007. He then re erred to a goal o 45 billion m3 in 2015 and now pre ers to speak in terms o market share: by 2015, he wished to pick up about 15 o the sales olume to end customers in all o the rance, the United Kingdom, the Germany and the Italy.