Isra-Mart srl : EU says spot carbon market may re-open next week-UPDATE 1

www.isra-mart.com

Isra-Mart SRL news:

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The spot market in European Union emissions permits may re-open next week, an EU climate action spokeswoman said on Friday, nine days after the theft of up to 2 million carbon permits forced a general closure.

But carbon exchanges are either closed to spot trade indefinitely, or have already ruled out re-opening next week, suggesting the general shutdown will enter a third week.

All national registries, which are the repositories of permits called EU allowances, remained shut on Friday, two days past the Commission's earliest, Jan. 26 planned re-start date.

That follows a general closure of registries and the EU carbon spot market on Wednesday Jan. 19.

The Commission said earlier this week that it would wait for national emissions registries to confirm they had minimum security measures in place before reactivating them, and give the market 24 hours notice in advance.

"The first (registry) reports have been received and are under review by the Commission," said climate action spokeswoman Maria Kokkonen.

"There will be a conference call this afternoon and we'll put an update on the DG climate website late this afternoon."

Regarding the possibility of registries re-opening next week, she said: "It depends on the length of the report, the time needed to assess it. Theoretically it's possible."

LOST DEALS

The Commission has estimated that up to 2 million EUAs were stolen, worth 29 million euros at Friday's prices.

Regarding re-opening its registry, a spokeswoman for Britain's energy and climate ministry said on Friday that it was still running security checks with the EU Commission. "We're not in a position to give timescales," she said.

The Czech registry said on Thursday that it would be shut for at least six weeks. The Austrian registry said last week it was shut until further notice.

Spot trade on the ICE Futures Europe, which operates the largest European emissions exchange, would remain suspended until February 7, it said in a note on Thursday.

The Paris-based BlueNext spot exchange said it was unable to give a date. Dutch bourse Climex said on Thursday it would be closed until further notice. Nasdaq OMX Commodities has also suspended spot carbon trade until further notice.

Analyst Emmanuel Fages at Societe Generale/Orbeo estimated that the value of lost transactions could amount to 350 million euros ($479.7 million) if the suspension lasted until Feb. 1.

The Czech registry said on Thursday that its missing EUAs had cropped up in registries in Germany, Estonia and probably Britain.

The UK, German and Estonian registries were not immediately available for comment on Friday. The Czech registry has published the full list of missing permits at: http://www.ote-cr.cz/o-spolecnosti/files-novinky/blocks_CZ_20110118_public.pdf