Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 46 2019

FSUOGM
NEWS IN BRIEF
FSUOGM
R U S S I A
OPEC maintains forecast for
Russian oil output in 2019 at
11.41 mln bpd
OPEC has maintained its forecast for liquid production in Russia at 11.41mn barrels per day in 2019 and 11.5mn bpd 2020, the oil organisation said in a monthly report on November 14.
These projections represents a growth of 0.07mn bpd in 2019 and at 0.09mn bpd in 2020.
In November 2016, OPEC and non- OPEC states including Russia agreed to reduce their oil output to rebalance the market. In December 2018, the states decided to cut production by an additional 800,000 bpd for OPEC and 400,000 bpd for non-OPEC states, including 228,000 bpd for Russia, from a basline level set in October 2018. In July this year, they prolonged the deal until April 2020.
November 14 2019
Venezuela said to secretly
export oil to Russia’s
Rosneft
Venezuela is secretly exporting millions
of barrels of oil to Russia’s state oil major Rosneft, Bloomberg reported on November
14 based on unnamed sources, data, and shipping reports. The oil is being transported by tankers with 2mn barrels capacity with transponders turned off to avoid tracking.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, It
is estimated that since 2006 Russia and Rosneft have granted Venezuela $17bn of loans, which is being repaid by PDVSA state oil company.
Reportedly, Venezuela loaded 10.86mn barrels of crude oil in the first 11 days of November, more than double the volume in the same period last month. About half of those barrels were loaded onto ships that had turned off their transponders, which later delivered cargoes to China and India, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The supplies of crude to Rosneft would worsen the sanction risks for the company, as recently the US targeted Chinese oil- importers and shippers Zhuhai Zhenrong and COSCO Shipping Corp. for allegedly handling sanctioned Iranian oil.
bne IntelliNews, November 15 2019
EASTERN EUROPE
TAP now 95% complete, operator says
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, which will transport Azeri gas to Europe, is 90.5% complete as of late October 2019, according to its operating consortium.
“TAP is currently moving further into the project construction phase. Every day hundreds of meters of TAP’s Right of Way (ROW) are cleared, strung, welded, lowered into the trenches and backfilled, in line with the project construction steps and schedule. At the end of October 2019, the TAP project was 90.5 percent completed,” the consortium said.
The project, valued at EUR4.5bn, will ship gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz Stage 2 field and is considered a priority energy project by the EU. It runs from the Greek- Turkish border, where it connects with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), across Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, and then terminates in southern Italy.
Its shareholders include BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagas (16%) and Axpo (5%).
November 15 2019
Poland claims it pays
$250mn too much for
Russian gas annually
Poland overpays around $250mn for Russian gas each year, the head of its main gas company PGNiG, Piotr Wozniak said local television on November 19.
“We are waiting for an arbitration decision in the Gazprom case. It means cheaper gas for the next three years when the contract with Gazprom is still be in force,” the official said. “We used to overpay
P16
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
Week 46 20•November•2019