Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 19 2021

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

BP opts out of Rosneft

projects in Yakutia

RUSSIA BP has withdrawn from plans to develop two any major discoveries yet. Most of its assets have
blocks in Yakutia with its close Russian partner now been handed back to Rosneft.
Rosneft, the Moscow-based Kommersant news- Yermak-Neftegaz secured exploration rights
paper reported on May 5. in 2016 to the West-Yarudeisky, Kheiginsky
The UK major has a 49% interest in Yer- and Anomalny blocks in the Yamalo-Nen-
mak-Neftegaz, a joint venture it set up with ets region, and the Baikalovsky, Posoisky and
Rosneft in 2016 to find and develop fields in rel- Verkhnekubinsky blocks in the north of the
atively unexplored areas of Russia. Yermak-Neft- Krasnoyarsk region. It went on to obtain the
egaz’s subsidiary Srednelenskoye, the owner of Srednelensky and Olekminsky licences later.
the Srednelensky and Olekminsky blocks in However, the JV transferred the Kheiginsky
Yakutia, revealed in a report last week it had and Anomalny blocks back to Rosneft in 2019.
received a letter from BP announcing the UK After some exploration and appraisal work, it
major’s withdrawal from the projects. transferred its ownership of the Posoisky and
Srednelensky is 9,800 square km in size and Baikalovsky blocks to Rosneft’s Vostok Oil unit
contains 5.8mn tonnes (42.5mn barrels) of last year as well. They will complement Vostok
oil and 14.1bn cubic metres of gas in D1+D2 Oil’s other assets, which Rosneft hopes to
resources, whereas Olekminsky is 6,000 square develop into one of Russia’s largest ever oil pro-
km in size and holds 12.3mn tonnes (90.2mn duction projects.
barrels) of oil and 39.7 bcm of gas. Following the latest transfer, Yermak-Neft-
The reason for BP’s exit was not stated. The egaz’s only remaining assets are the West-Yarude-
licences for the two blocks will be transferred isky and Verkhnekubinsky blocks.
back to Rosneft. BP is the biggest foreign investor in Rosneft,
Yermak-Neftegaz acquired a number of with a 19.75% equity interest, and has several
licences in several areas of Russia following its upstream partnerships with the Russian com-
creation five years ago, but the JV has not made pany. ™

NEWS IN BRIEF

RUSSIA is adopted in the Neptun Deep project reported on April 28.
is made, OMV will consider giving up Under the terms of a new transit deal
OMV to give up Siberia the option to acquire a 24.9% stake in signed in December 2019 Gazprom has to
the Gazprom project intended for the
pay for a volume of 40bn cubic metres of
project if production goes development of blocks 4 and 5 of the transit gas in 2021, or 109mn cubic metres
Achimov formation, part of the Uregoy gas
per day.
ahead at Neptun Deep in field in Siberia, Seele said. mcm at an auction on April 19, giving a
The company booked an additional 15
Following the acquisition of
Romania petrochemical company Borealis just before total of 124 mcm per day for this year.
At the end of last month the Gas
the outbreak of the pandemic, OMV has
The Austrian company OMV is preparing struggled to finance planned projects, Transmission System Operator of Ukraine
to adopt a final investment decision on the particularly one such as Achimov 4/5 that (GTSO) offered Gazprom an additional 63.7
Neptun Deep offshore project in Romania’s would cost $1bn. mcm per day at the monthly auction on
Black Sea next year, said OMV CEO, Rainer April 28 but received no bids. Gazprom was
Seele quoted by Profit.ro. pumping the full allotment of 124 mcm per
He pointed to “encouraging” day on average through Ukraine in April.
developments in Romania, where the EASTERN EUROPE If Gazprom had accepted the GTSO offer
government seems determined to start the then transit volumes would have returned
parliamentary procedure to amend the Gazprom has refused a to 2019 levels.
Offshore Law, and Romgaz has submitted Europe is currently dramatically
a binding offer to acquire a subsidiary of GTSO offer to expand its increasing gas consumption due a spell of
ExxonMobil that owns 50% of the project. cold weather. Global supplies of liquefied
OMV has repeatedly deferred the transit volumes of gas via natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas from
investment decision in the project, amid Russia are at their highest levels in a year,
regulatory issues generated by the Offshore Ukraine to Europe which has prevented the pumping of gas
Law that all the oil companies involved in into Ukraine’s storage for winter. The price
Romania’s Black Sea project expect to be Gazprom has refused a GTSO offer to of gas has risen from last year’s low of $100
amended. expand its transit volumes of gas via per thousand cubic metres to hit $300 in
If a favourable investment decision Ukraine to Europe, Interfax Ukraine April.

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