Page 13 - EurOil Week 49 2022

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Neptune has made third oil,

gas find in six months

NORWAY NEPTUNE Energy has made its third oil and have shares of 30%, 20% and 20% respectively.
gas discovery in the last six months, in the Nor- “We actively explore in areas close to existing
The Calypso find is wegian Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directo- infrastructure,” Neptune’s managing director for
Neptune’s third in six rate (NPD) reported on December 9, estimating Norway and the UK, Odin Estensen, said in a
months. the size of the find at 6.3mn-22mn barrels of oil statement, noting that such near-field discoveries
equivalent (boe). enabled low-cost and low-carbon developments.
The Calypso discovery well, 14 km north- “Initial analysis of Calypso indicates com-
west of the Neptune-operated Draugen field, mercial potential. Together with our partners in
encountered an 8-metre gas column and a the Calypso licence we will now study options
30-metre oil column in the Garm formation, to effectively develop the discovery using nearby
with reservoir quality of “good to very good,” the infrastructure.”
NPD said. The water depth of the site was 271 The well was sunk to a depth of close to 3,500
metres. metres. It was drilled by the Deepsea Yantai
Neptune operates the 938 production licence semi-sub rig owned by CIMC and operated by
containing the discovery with a 30% stake, while Odfjell. The well has been permanently plugged
partners OKEA, Pandion Energy and Var Energi and abandoned. ™

The sale of Lukoil’s Italian ISAB refinery in

Italy for $1.5bn is close to completion

ITALY THE sale of Lukoil’s Italian ISAB refinery in Italy Sicily, and other sanctions effectively prohibit it
for $1.5bn may be close to completion, reports from importing crude from other countries to
The EU embago on Reuters on December 9. the plant.
Russian oil that was A potential buyer is Crossbridge Energy Part- Italy, facing the possibility of having 20% of
imposed on December ners of the US, with which Lukoil had been in its refining capacity shut down, has been look-
5 has changed matters. negotiations for such a sale earlier in the year. ing at the possibility of ‘temporarily’ nationalis-
“This would be unambiguous good news,” ing the plant to keep it running under outside
BCS GM said in a note. “The ISAB plant proved management.
itself to be extremely useful to Lukoil in 2022. As “For Lukoil a sale to Crossbridge at this
the company was able to export 150,000-200,000 moment would be ideal, with the proceeds
[barrels per day] bpd of Urals crude to the plant boosting the company’s ability to execute its
and then realise the resulting products at full planned redemption of foreign debt while affect-
European prices, Lukoil was able to avoid having ing dividend payouts less,” BCS GM said.
to take the $20-$40 per barrel discount to Brent Previously Italy approved temporary nation-
that Urals has traded at since March. For exam- alisation of the ISAB refinery on the island of Sic-
ple, an avoided $20/bbl discount on 150,000 bpd ily as part of the country’s Council of Ministers
is the equivalent of $45mn/month of higher rev- decree to protect strategic enterprises.
enues vs. selling the crude directly.” Even if Lukoil had been able to keep the plant
The EU embargo on the export of Russian oil and run it off alternative, non-Russian crude
to Europe came into force on December 5 and flows, typical European refining margins would
has changed things and prevents Lukoil from imply annual EBITDA contributions of perhaps
continuing this arrangement. $0.3bn, vs. typical annual EBITDA of around
Lukoil can no longer send Urals crude to $15bn, or only 2% of the total. ™

Week 49 12•December•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13