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FSU: Rosneft’s tax breaks the 2014 award until the court reaches its ver-
The budget and tax committee of the State dict. “The Supreme Court’s decision means that
Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, has the former shareholders can continue to enforce
approved an amendment that exempts projects the arbitral awards pending its final judgment.”
on the Taymyr Peninsula from having to pay Lawyers on both sides of the dispute will pres-
duty on oil exports. ent their arguments to the court in early 2021,
The main beneficiary of this amendment is the court said. This represents Russia’s last legal
Rosneft’s Vostok Oil megaproject, consisting of avenue for reversing the award.
a cluster of oilfields on Taymyr estimated to hold
6bn tonnes (44bn barrels) in proven, probable If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
and possible oil reserves. The company has pro- the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then
jected that the fields could yield some 2mn bar- please click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor .
rels per day (bpd) at full capacity.
Rosneft is betting big on Vostok Oil, recently GLNG: Asian bunkering success
announcing it would sell a number of its mar- Two significant LNG-related developments
ginal assets in order to fund the $100bn venture. have emerged from Asia in recent days. In a
These assets are mostly located in southern Rus- world first, Korea Gas (KOGAS) successfully
sia. Analysts have praised Rosneft’s decision to carried out a ship-to-ship LNG bunkering test Long-term LNG
sell off some assets to support growth, saying in late November. KOGAS’ LNG carrier, SM Jeju supply deals
it marks a shift in the focus of its management LNG2, was connected a new LNG carrier built
from acquisition to optimisation. by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering have become
Meanwhile, Russia has suffered another set- (DSME) with a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres
back in its long-running legal dispute with share- for the test. increasingly rare
holders of the defunct Russian oil giant Yukos. “We believe this is a significant first step in
The Netherlands’ top court ruled on December 4 creating and making a very successful market amid low prices
that shareholders could continue pursuing their for LNG bunkering in the future,” KOGAS was and a growing
claims against Russia worth $50bn. quoted by South Korean media as saying.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration of The Elsewhere, Australia’s Santos announced on number of
Hague in 2014 concluded that the Kremlin had December 7 that it had signed a 10-year agree-
staged a co-ordinated attack on Yukos in the ment to supply LNG from its proposed Barossa options available
early 2000s in order to bring its assets back under project to Diamond Gas International, a unit of
state control, ordering Russia to pay $50bn in Japan’s Mitsubishi. Under the agreement, Santos to buyers
compensation to shareholders. Moscow has will supply Diamond Gas with 1.5mn tonnes per
been fighting the ruling ever since. year (tpy) of LNG.
In a fresh setback to Russia, the Dutch Santos’ CEO, Kevin Gallagher, said the deal
Supreme Court “dismissed the Russian Feder- represented the company’s first long-term LNG
ation’s application to suspend enforcement” of sale from one of its major projects. It takes San-
the 2014 award until the court reaches its ver- tos closer to a final investment decision (FID) on
dict. “The Supreme Court’s decision means that Barossa, which it deferred earlier this year owing
the former shareholders can continue to enforce to the market downturn but now hopes to reach
the arbitral awards pending its final judgment.” by the first half of 2021.
Lawyers on both sides of the dispute will pres- The two companies are also reported to have
ent their arguments to the court in early 2021, signed an agreement to jointly consider oppor-
the court said. This represents Russia’s last legal tunities for carbon-neutral LNG from Barossa.
avenue for reversing the award. The deal comes during a period where long-
In a fresh setback to Russia, the Dutch term supply deals have become increasingly rare
Supreme Court “dismissed the Russian Feder- amid low LNG prices and a growing number of
ation’s application to suspend enforcement” of options available to buyers.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 10•December•2020