Itera

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See also ITERA: International Telecommunications Education and Research Association

Itera Group Ltd. is a Cyprus holding company with major investments in Russian natural gas. It has headquarters in Moscow, Russia, and offices in Limassol, Cyprus, and Jacksonville, Florida. The chairman of subsidiary Itera Oil and Gas is Igor Makarov.

Originally a commodities trading company, Itera was created in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the previous economic ties between former Soviet Republics were broken and the new countries, with a total population of over 250 million people, faced enormous difficulties providing the basic human needs such as food and medicine. Multi-national corporations did not rush to do business with these countries because of their insolvency and the inherent political risks. In this dire situation, Itera created a unique network of barter transactions not only with the governments of the new nations, but also with plants, factories and other commercial entities.

In 1994 Itera provided a large shipment of sugar to Turkmenistan. The government “paid” for sugar deliveries by giving Itera rights to natural gas located in Turkmenistan. Itera succeeded in selling the gas to the Ukraine, by reaching agreements with some of the former Soviet republics to permit natural gas pipeline access through those countries. Based on these initial successes, Itera reached an agreement with Turkmenistan for trading its gas to Ukraine, which was handled by Itera Group , with headquarters in Moscow.

In the next few years, Itera Group succeeded in expanding its natural gas trading activities to other republics of the Former Soviet Union including Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia and the Baltic States. In 1996, Itera became a gas producer by purchasing a number of large gas fields in North Russia, and within a few years became one of the world’s largest private natural gas producers and traders.

The Russian state-controlled company Gazprom conducted dubious transactions with Itera and a Gazprom/Itera joint-venture, Purgaz, in the late 1990s. Billions of dollars of Russian natural gas resources were transferred from Gazprom to Itera for artificially low prices and then sold to the markets by Itera, allegedly profiting Gazprom managers who were also beneficiaries of Itera.^[1]. Today almost all of those gas resources are returned to Gazprom.

Georgia with its new government leading by Saakashvili is constantly refusing to pay to Itera its debts for gas supply, which was provided to Georgia from 1996. The total summary of debt exceeds 100 millions of US dollars. The reason for such outrages behaviour is refuse of the new authorities to recognize the agreements signed by the previous Georgian government(Shevarnadze). Georgian government cynically use the situation of bad relationship between Russia and Georgia to ignore its own debts. http://eng.primenewsonline.com/?c=122&a=7283

[edit] ITERA USA

Founded in 1992, Itera USA is an American company.

Itera USA provides innovative solutions in energy, bioenergy, timber and real estate with high standards for quality and social responsibility. Itera USA, directly or indirectly, employs hundreds of people in projects in Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and other states, with its corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. Itera USA is at work on a project that would use new, patented technology to produce bioethanol and other specialty chemicals to reduce American dependence on crude oil and foreign produced petroleum products.