Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 31 2019

FSUOGM
NEWS IN BRIEF
FSUOGM
RUSSIA
No place for Mitsubishi in Novatek’s Arctic LNG-2
Japanese energy and industrial major Mitsubishi will not participate in the Arctic LNG-2 project of Russian gas company Novatek as part of the consortium with other Japanese peers Mitsui and JOGMEC, Bloomberg and Tass reported on August 1.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the Russian company rst o ered the deal to sell a 10% stake in Arctic LNG-2 to its French strategic partner, energy major Total. en in April Novatek cashed in by selling 20%
in Arctic LNG-2 to Chinese CNOOC and CNODC, with a 10% stake sold to each. Last month another 10% was pledged to Mitsui and JOGMEC for about $3.4bn.
Reportedly, Mitsubishi does not want to participate in the project, as Novatek is not ready to put up an additional 10% for sale. Previously, the head of Novatek and Russia’s richest man, Leonid Mikhelson, con rmed the company’s intention to maintain a 60% stake in Arctic LNG-2, which also means that Saudi Aramco’s interest in the project will be le unsatis ed.
Japanese partners in Arctic LNG-2 are important, as Japan is the largest consumer of LNG in the Asian-Paci c region. In June Novatek announced the rst delivery of LNG from its rst LNG plant Yamal to Japan’s Tobata LNG Terminal.
Novatek posted RUB451bn ($7bn) net IFRS pro t in 1H19, soaring six-fold year on year. Net pro t jumped thanks to booking the RUB309bn sale of 10% of the company’s second LNG project Arctic LNG-2, as well as non-cash currency gains.
Novatek’s Ebitda gained 32% y/y in the reporting period to RUB234bn, with revenues of RUB452bn growing by 21%. e gain
in revenues and earnings is linked by the company to its launch of the second and the third stage of its rst LNG plant Yamal.
“Despite a drop in gas sales and weak LNG pricing environment, Ebitda grew 8% quarter on quarter and FCF reached a record high thanks to dividends from Arcticgas and interest received from Yamal LNG,” BCS Global Markets commented on July 25.
August 1 2019
Tatneft raises output by 3.6% in 7M-2019
Tatarstan-based oil producer Tatne produced
17.43mn tonnes of oil in the rst seven months of 2019, up 3.6% y/y, the company said on August 2. Output for July came to 2.6mn tonnes.
Tatne produces oil almost exclusively in Tatarstan, where it also operates a re ning complex. It also manages a nationwide chain of lling stations.
August 2 2019
Moscow court overrules
regulator in Lukoil-Rosneft
tariff dispute
e Moscow arbitration court has overruled
a verdict by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) that Lukoil overcharged Rosne for oil transit at the Varandei oil terminal in the Arctic.
Earlier, FAS said Lukoil had violated competition law by setting too high a tari for the transit of oil from the Trebs and Titov elds, operated jointly by Lukoil and Rosne .
August 5 2019
Russian oil major Rosneft
output declines for third
month in a row
Russia’s largest oil company state-controlled Rosne saw its output decline by 2.7% to 16m tonnes in July 2019, while other large companies accelerated crude extraction, Kommersant daily reported on August 2 citing the date by CDU TEK. As a result, total Russian oil output declined by 0.6% to 47.15mn tonnes in July.
For Rosne this makes the third consecutive month of output decline a er 0.6% and 0.2% contraction seen in June and May, respectively. In January-July the
company still maintained 1.6% output growth to 112.8mn tonnes.
Rosne attributed the dip in output to limited throughput in the Transne pipelines, which it estimated caused a 1.7mn tonnes decline in extraction.
Previous reports suggested that Rosne ’s in uential head Igor “Oil Tsar” Sechin is pressing the Kremlin hard for compensation related to the Opec+ output cuts deal, Druzhba pipeline troubles, and Arctic development, despite already bene ting from tax breaks on major extraction assets.
Kommersant said on July 25 that Rosne has requested RUB460bn ($7.3bn) worth
of tax exemptions for its Priobsky eld, as
a form of compensation for a 22mn tonne decline in output since 2017 due to the Opec+ agreement.
bne Intellinews, August 5 2019
EASTERN EUROPE
Ukraine provides UGS update
Ukraine now has more than 16bn cubic metres of gas in underground gas storage (UGS) as of August 3, Na ogaz CEO Andry Kobolev wrote on his Facebook page on August 3.
“We’ve crossed the mark of 16 billion cubic metres; some 73 days are le before the start of the heating season,” he wrote.
Ukraine plans to have 20bcm of gas in storage by the start of the heating season, which typically begins in either late October or earlier November. In a separate Facebook comment on August 5, Kobolev said Ukraine was storing an additional 1.5bcm of gas in its system on behalf of European companies.
August 5 2019
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