Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 24 2019

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NEWS IN BRIEF
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Alexei Vashkevich, the company’s head of exploration, told reporters on June 17.
“ e region is new and logistics are very tough. If everything is okay by the end of the second quarter, we shall mobilise and drill,” Vashkevich said, noting that drilling was slated to start close to March 2020.
Gazprom Ne and its partners signed
a memorandum to form a joint venture to develop elds on the Gydan Peninsula in Russia’s far north earlier this month. e Russian rm will take a 50% stake in the venture, while its partners will each take
a 25% interest. e deal should be closed next year pending regulatory and corporate clearances.
June 18 2019
EASTERN EUROPE
EBRD urges Ukraine’s UGV
to speed up preparations
for loan
e European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has called on Ukrgazvydobuvannya (UGV), the national gas company of Ukraine, to speed up preparations for a project due to receive funding from the bank.
e EBRD said last year it would consider providing UGV with a 52mn euro ($58.4mn) loan to nance the procurement of workover rigs to boost gas production at the company’s elds, as well as various energy e ciency investments. According to the EBRD’s Senior Advisor on Foreign A airs, Anton Usov, the loan was discussed at a meeting between EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti and Ukrainian PM Volodymyr Groysman on June 12. Usov said UGV needed to fast-track the preparation of the project. e bank’s board was initially scheduled to decide on the loan on December 12 2018, but the decision has been repeatedly postponed and is now expected on September 4 2019, according to the bank’s website.
June 14 2019
Ukraine offers to transit EU gas to Moldova
Ukrainian gas pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz says it has o ered to transit EU gas to neighbouring Moldova, which currently relies on Russia for almost all of its gas supplies.
“Ukrtransgaz sent a proposal to Moldova relating to a delay in the construction of the Romania-Moldova interconnector, which
has made the Moldovan side dependent on regular talks with Gazprom,” the company
said in a statement. “Using the capabilities of the Ukrainian gas transmission system will minimise the potential risks associated with the possible interruption of the transit of natural gas from Russia and guarantee the security of gas supplies to Moldovan consumers.”
Ukrtransgaz also suggeasted that Moldova could access supplies from Ukraine’s underground gas storage (UGS) facilities during the 2019-2020 winter. An existing pipeline connecting Moldova and Ukraine can supply up to 15 mcm per day of gas, which Ukrtransgaz said was enough to fully cover the needs of Moldovan consumers.
June 11 2019
CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakhstanreadytoselloil to Belarus
Kazakhstan is prepared to deliver crude oil to Belarus, the Kazakh Ambassador to Minsk, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, has said following talks between the two sides.
According to Yertysbayev, Kazakhstan’s PM Askar Mamin and its energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev, discussed oil supplies to Belarus during a meeting with Belarusian First Deputy PM Aleksandr Turchin.
Belarus’ two re neries currently almost exclusively on Russian oil supplies. But ties between Minsk and Moscow have recently become frayed over a range of issues, however, prompting the Belarusian government to seek alternative suppliers.
Yertysbayev said that before Kazakh supplies could begin, the issue of transit would need to be coordinated with Russia.
June 14 2019
Kazakhstan backs OPEC+ deal extension
Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev has told Reuters that Kazakhstan supports
an extension until the end of this year of the so-called OPEC+ agreement – a deal struck between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in late 2017 aimed at restricting global oil supply.
Bozumbayev reiterated that Kazakhstan remained compliant with the agreement, with output this year reduced to 1.76mn barrels per
day, compared with a cap of 1.86mn bpd. “I absolutely agree with my colleagues
[from Russia and Saudi Arabia] in that the agreement needs to be extend,” he said in an emailed response to Reuters.
June 18 2019
KMG to invest $280mn in modernising GPP
Kazakhstan’s national oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) is considering investing $280mn in the modernisation of the Kazakh Gas Processing Plant (GPP) in the country’s western Mangistau region.
The modernisation of the Kazakh GPP will affect the automation of production. In total, 107.2bn tenge ($280mn) has been allocated,” the mayor of Zhanaozen, Adilbek Dauylbayev, told reporters. Of this sum, 2.7bn tenge will be spent this year, following by 35.13bn in 2020 and 34.725bn tenge per year in 2021 and 2022.
Clarifying Dauylbayev’s comments, KMG said in a statement that the proposed modernisation of the Kazakh GPP was still under discussion, suggesting a final decision had not been taken.
June 18 2019
SOUTH CAUCASUS
SOCAR urea plant starts exporting to Turkey
A urea plant launched by Azerbaijan’s national oil company SOCAR in January began exporting its production on June 5, with the bulk of supplies heading to Turkey.
“ e plant has so far produced 60,000 tonnes of products, of which, through a tender, 30,000 tonnes has been sold to Swiss trading company Integral,” the facility’s director Khayal Jafarov said. A batch of 15,000 tonnes has already been shipped.”
According to Jafarov, a tender for another batch of 30,000 tonnes of urea will be announced by the end of June. Supplies are delivered to ports in Georgia and Turkey.
SOCAR’s urea plant is located in the area of the Sumgait industrial park near Baku and is capable of producing 1,200 tonnes of ammonia and 2,000 tonnes of urea per day.
June 16 2019
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Week 24 19•June•2019