Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 26

FSUOGM PERFORMANCE FSUOGM
Gazprom denies plan to acquire contractors
RUSSIA
GAZPROM CEO Alexei Miller has dismissed reports that the state-run gas giant is looking to buy two of its main contractors in a perceived e ort to improve its cost discipline.
Russia’s RBC news agency reported in March that Gazprom had entered into talks to acquire Stroytransne egaz (STNG) and Stroygazmon- tazh (SGM), controlled respectively by Krem- lin allies Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenburg. e move, which followed the gas company’s previous purchase of its other major contractor Stroygazconsulting (SGC), was seen as an attempt to create a single in-house contractor that could operate more e ciently. Last summer Gazprom and its a liates report- edly established a new company known as Gazstroyprom to manage the assets.
Rejecting the claims, Miller said at a press conference on June 28 that the construction sec- tor was not a core business for Gazprom.
“Even the interest that we currently have in [construction] will be reduced soon,” he said. “Gazprom is not creating a mega-contractor.”
Over the years STNG, SGM and SGC have
worked on some of Gazprom’s biggest construc- tion projects, including the 38bn cubic metre per year Power of Siberia pipeline due to start pump- ing to China later this year. e trio received con- tracts worth RUB1.2tn ($19bn) from Gazprom between 2015 and 2018.
Reports of Gazprom staging a bid for the companies come as Moscow looks to improve oversight over the investment programmes of its largest state companies. Gazprom’s cap- ital expenditure is expected to soar to a record height of RUB2.09tn ($33bn) this year, up from RUB1.8tn ($29bn) in 2018, as the company aims to nish work on Power of Siberia and several other costly pipeline projects.
ere have also been sweeping changes to Gazprom’s management this year, prompt- ing speculation that Miller may soon depart the company, which he has led since the early 2000s. The firm also more than doubled its dividend payouts in late May and early June, causing a spike in its share price that added tens of billions of dollars to the company’s market capitalisation.™
POLICY
Kazakh oilfield brawl leaves Indian workers stranded
KAZAKHSTAN
UP to 150 Indians have reportedly been stranded at one of several developments following a brawl between local and foreign workers.
More than 40 people were wounded when employees at a project to expand the Tengiz oil- eld’s production from 28.7mn tonnes per year (tpy) (576,000 barrels per day (bpd)) in 2017 to 39mn tpy (780,000 bpd) in the mid-2020s clashed amid mounting tensions among the multinational work force.
On June 29, field operator Tengizchevroil (TCO) said an “interpersonal conflict” had taken place at the 3GP construction site that day. It added that construction work had been temporarily suspended and that local authorities including the police were on site.
TCO is a consortium of US super-majors Chevron (50%) and ExxonMobil (25%), along with Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunaiGas (KMG) (20%) and LukArco, a subsidiary of Rus- sia’s Lukoil (5%).
Kerala State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has directed the Department of Non-Resident Keralites A airs (NORKA Roots) to liaise with the Indian Embassy to ascertain worker details
and take “immediate action”. It remains unclear what form this action would take.
Indian Minister of State for External A airs Vellamvelly Muraleedharan, however, said on June 30 that no serious injuries had been reported to the Indian embassy. Hundreds of Jordanian and Lebanese workers are understood to have been evacuated from the site.
RFE/RL quoted one unnamed worker as saying that the ght had been caused by foreign workers sharing a photograph that the Kazakh employees had found to be o ensive. Jordanian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Giskard el-Khoury later confirmed that a Lebanese worker had shared a photo of a female Kazakh colleague.
Consolidated Contractors Co. (CCC), which won the contract for 3GP, has since released a statement condemning the Lebanese worker’s actions and has said the employee in question has been red.
e 3GP contract, which is estimated to be worth more than $2bn, forms part of the $36.8bn Tengiz Future Growth Project-Wellhead Pres- sure Management Project (FGP-WPMP) development.™
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