Page 12 - AfrOil Week 01 2021

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BP announced late on December 31 that the reserves at 6bn barrels – this likely represents the
Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline network biggest foreign investment in Russia’s oil indus-
was now fully operational. SGC consists of three try in years.
pipelines that run from Azerbaijan through the Vostok Oil comprises a group of oilfields in
South Caucasus and Turkey and into Southeast Russia’s far north. Rosneft has pinned its hopes
Europe, carrying gas from the offshore BP-oper- for keeping output levels steady over the coming
ated Shah Deniz 2 (SD2) field. Construction of decades on these sites, as its older deposits fur-
the corridor’s last section, the 10bn cubic metre ther south are nearly depleted.
per year Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), was The fields are slated to yield more than 2mn bar-
completed in October. rels per day (bpd) at their peak and may also con-
Italy is contracted to receive 8 bcm per year tain natural gas as well. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin
of gas from TAP, while Bulgaria and Greece have recently speculated that Vostok Oil might even-
agreed to take 1 bcm per year each. tually be able to deliver as much as 50mn tonnes
All eyes will now be on the binding phase per year (tpy) of LNG to the world market.
of a market test for TAP’s potential expansion Meanwhile, Rosneft has also consolidated its
to 20 bcm per year, scheduled to take place in control over Vostok Oil by buying out a private
the summer of 2021. There are questions about partner. The company announced over the hol-
whether Europe will need this extra supply, given iday break that it had closed the acquisition of Southeast Europe
a projected decline in demand as a result of the 100% stakes in firms called Taimyrneftegaz and
energy transition and ample alternative sources Taimyrburservis. The former is a subsidiary of started importing
of supply. Neftegazholding, a private oil firm with rights to
One such source is the Krk LNG terminal in the Payakha fields, which will be part of Vostok natural gas from
Croatia, which received its first LNG tanker on Oil, as well as other large onshore licences. two new sources
January 1. The terminal has an import capacity The ins and outs of Rosneft’s transaction
of 2.6 bcm per year and will serve customers not with Neftegazholding are unclear. However, the at the start of
only in Croatia but in some neighbouring coun- available evidence suggests that some form of
tries as well. Some 80% of this capacity has been asset swap is underway. Russia’s company reg- this year
leased, mostly to Qatar. istry shows that Neftegazholding has become
Greece, meanwhile, plans to build a second the owner of a 9% share in RN-Severnaya Neft,
LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis that will be a Rosneft subsidiary working in the Timan-Pe-
capable of bringing ashore some 5.5 bcm per chora Basin.
year of gas. North Macedonia’s government In other news, the Austro-Romanian oil
said earlier this week that it wanted to take a firm OMV Petrom has agreed to sell its assets in
10% stake in the project. The project’s existing Kazakhstan to a local private company, drawing
shareholders are Greece’s Copelouzos energy a close to two decades of work in the country.
group, as well as DEPA Commercial, the coun- OMV Petrom will transfer 100% interests in its
try’s main gas supplier, and Monaco-based LNG Kazakh subsidiaries Kom-Munai and Tasbulat
carrier owner GasLog. Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz Oil to a private company based in Nur-Sultan
and Greece’s DESFA are also set to participate as called Magnetic Oil.
investors. Kom-Munai controls the Komsomolskoye
oilfield in Kazakhstan’s Mangistau Province
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping bordering the Caspian Sea, while Tasbulat Oil
Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for manages the nearby Tasbulat concession, which
NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor. contains the Aktas, Tasbulat and Turkmenoi
deposits.
FSU: Rosneft’s Arctic plays
Rosneft closed the sale of a 10% interest in its If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Vostok Oil venture in the Russian Arctic to the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then
commodities trader Trafigura in late December, please click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor.
thereby taking the ambitious project one step
closer to realisation. GLNG: A busy period
The price Trafigura paid for the stake has Various developments took place across the
not been disclosed. But given the resources at global LNG industry over Christmas, which is
play – Rosneft has estimated Vostok Oil’s liquid typically a quiet period.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 06•January•2021