Page 15 - EurOil Week 26

EurOil PERFORMANCE EurOil

Ascent losses widen in 2019

SLOVENIA SLOVENIA-FOCUSED Ascent Resources PG-11A. Earlier Ascent had appealed against
reported widened losses in 2019 on July 24, Slovenian regulator ARSO’s conclusion that the
Ascent has endured after a “challenging” time at the Petisovci tight EIA was necessary.
regulatory headaches in gas field. But the London-listed producer said it Despite these difficulties, Ascent “remains
Slovenia. was optimistic in light of its recent foray into the firmly resolved to protect its Slovenian invest-
Cuban oil and gas market. ment and extract value from its interests in the
Ascent booked a pretax loss of GBP3.7mn Petisovci field.”
($4.6mn) for last year, versus GBP1.4mn in 2018. The company in April acquired Energetical,
Revenues collapsed, totalling only GBP298,000, a UK-based firm with exclusive rights to secure
versus GBP1.9mn in the previous year. a production-sharing contract (PSC) for an
“2019 was a challenging year for the com- onshore oil site in Cuba. Block 9B contains the
pany and its attempts to develop the Petisovci Majaguillar and San Anton oilfields, where three
gas field in Slovenia,” Ascent said in a stock filing. wells flow 190 barrels per day (bpd) of crude.
“Throughout the year the company experienced Ascent went on to sign a memorandum of
continued delays in permitting which have cre- understanding (MoU) last month with Cuban
ated significant headwinds for the company to National Oil & Gas Co. (CUPET) on obtaining
develop the Petisovci gas field commercially.” exclusive rights to three other onshore licences.
Ascent has spent around €50mn on devel- “The Republic of Cuba is one of the few
oping Petisovci over the past 11 years, but it is remaining world-class, yet largely unexploited
now struggling to arrest production decline after hydrocarbon systems,” Ascent said on June 26.
authorities denied it permits to re-stimulate two “Cuba has the advantage of offering an inter-
wells. It suffered a further setback at the start national investor access to good infrastructure
of this month, when Slovenia’s administrative and an educated workforce alongside significant
court ruled that it would need an environmental under-exploited hydrocarbon resource poten-
impact assessment (EIA) to stimulate PG-10 and tial.” ™

POLICY

Romania’s gas producers argue

against Gas Release Programme

ROMANIA ROMANIA’S largest natural gas producers these factual elements (lack of market instru-
OMV Petrom and Romgaz argued, several days ments) into rhetoric against any limitations that
Gas producers want before the beginning of the Gas Release Pro- would impede the principles of the free market.
greater market freedom. gramme (GRP), against the constraints intro- Rejecting GRP as a whole is a harder position
duced by the new rules promoted by the energy to defend because the principles of transparency
market regulator ANRE. introduced by GRP do not hinder, rather the
Under the GRP, the two companies will be opposite, the principle of the free market.
compelled to sell 40% of their output transpar- “The market must be left free. When you
ently on centralised markets, which in principle set certain elements in the contract, such as
can hardly be criticised. But the instruments price and quantity, the market is no longer free.
provided by the centralised markets are limited. Through such obligations: imposed price, set
The pertinent objections expressed by the quantity, set period, all three pillars of the con-
representatives of the two companies regard tract are set, so we can no longer talk about a free
the limited architecture of the centralised mar- market. We must let demand and supply work,”
kets. Investors have repeatedly argued that they Vasile Ciolpan, the commercial director of state-
need the option to sign long-term contracts, in owned gas producer Romgaz, argued.
advance, to finance investments and provide sta- The weak point of the rhetoric is that GPR
bility to their business. The limited set of instru- does not fix all the three elements: it only sets
ments currently offered by the local centralised a starting price for the auctions, linked to the
gas markets prevents that. benchmark price for the similar instrument
However, the criticism expressed by OMV traded at the Central European Gas Hub AG
Petrom and Romgaz officials went further than (CEGH). ™

Week 26 02•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15