Page 19 - AsianOil Week 49

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EurOil: Denmark’s upstream deadline The state-owned company followed in the
Denmark will end all new oil and gas exploration footsteps of a number of others in the Euro-
in North Sea under an agreement between Par- pean oil industry with a pledge in September to
liament and the government, as part of a broader become emissions-neutral by 2050. Its commit-
plan to phase out fossil fuel production by 2050. ment contrasts with that of Poland, the only EU
The country’s existing oil and gas platforms, state which has not promised to bring its emis-
stationed at 20 fields, will be allowed to continue sions to zero by 2050.
extracting fossil fuels. But no new licensing
rounds will be held under the agreement. This If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
includes a round that was kicked off last year and Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
attracted bids from France’s Total, Sweden’s Lun- NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.
din Petroleum, Hungary’s MOL and the UK’s
Ardent Oil. FSU: Rosneft’s tax breaks
Many in Danish politics have argued that The budget and tax committee of the State
continued oil and gas exploration is incompat- Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament,
ible with the country’s climate goals, which are has approved an amendment that exempts
among the most ambitious in the world. How- projects on the Taymyr Peninsula from having
ever, Denmark may also find itself increasingly to pay duty on oil exports. The main benefi-
dependent on oil and gas imports as a result of ciary of this amendment is Rosneft’s Vostok
dwindling domestic supply. Oil megaproject, consisting of a cluster of oil-
Further north, Norway’s Equinor reported a fields on Taymyr estimated to hold 6bn tonnes
second fire at one of its facilities in December 2 (44bn barrels) in proven, probable and pos-
in little more than two months. sible oil reserves. The company has projected
The fire broke out during the afternoon of that the fields could yield some 2mn barrels
December 2 at Equinor’s coastal methanol plant per day (bpd) at full capacity.
in Tjeldbergodden, with no injuries sustained. Rosneft is betting big on Vostok Oil, recently
The state oil firm said it was investigating the announcing it would sell a number of its mar-
causes and consequences of the incident, as is ginal assets in order to fund the $100bn venture.
Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA). These assets are mostly located in southern
The Tjeldbergodden plant is the largest Russia.
facility of its kind in Europe, accounting for a Analysts have praised Rosneft’s decision to
quarter of the continent’s methanol production. sell off some assets to support growth, saying
The incident comes as another investigation is it marks a shift in the focus of its management
proceeding relating to a fire that broke out at from acquisition to optimisation.
Equinor’s Hammerfest LNG terminal in late Meanwhile, Russia has suffered another set-
September. The PSA has said it founded “serious back in its long-running legal dispute with share-
breaches” of regulations at the facility. holders of the defunct Russian oil giant Yukos.
Lastly, Poland’s PKN Orlen has unveiled The Netherlands’ top court ruled on December 4
plans to invest some PLN140bn (€31.4bn) over that shareholders could continue pursuing their
the next decade, shifting its focus from its core claims against Russia worth $50bn.
oil refining business to petrochemicals and clean The Permanent Court of Arbitration of The
energies. Hague in 2014 concluded that the Kremlin had

Week 49 10•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P19