Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 21

FSUOGM PERFORMANCE FSUOGM
Lukoil output slides in Q1 on weaker Uzbek gas sales
RUSSIA
The decline was partly offset by the gain from Lukol’s acquisition of a project off the Republic of Congo.
RUSSIA’S Lukoil reported a 2.1% slide in oil and gas production in the first quarter, following a cut in gas supplies to Uzbekistan.
The company’s hydrocarbon output, exclud- ing contributions from the West Qurna-2 project in Iraq, averaged 2.33mn barrels of oil equivalent per day in the three-month period, down from 2.38mn boepd a year earlier.
“The decline in production was driven by lower gas supply to China from projects in Uzbekistan due to lower demand because of the coronavirus [COVID-19],” Lukoil explained.
Lukoil is the largest foreign producer of gas in Uzbekistan, where it operates the Kandym and South-West Gissar projects. But it was forced to curtail gas supplies to China earlier in the year after the country imposed a nationwide lock- down, weakening gas demand.
This dragged Lukoil’s international gas out- put down by 18% year on year to 3.75bn cubic metres. Its overall production in turn fell 6.3% to 8.41 bcm. However, its output in Russia grew by 5.9% to 4.67 bcm, thanks to increased com- pressor booster capacity at the Nakhodkinskoye field.
Lukoil’s oil production, excluding West Qurna-2, was up 0.7% y/y at 21.4mn tonnes (1.72mn barrels per day (bpd)) in Janu- ary-March. This was thanks to the company’s acquisition of a stake in the Marine XII oil
project off the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) in September last year.
Lukoil also pointed to growth at its Yareg- skoye and Usinskoye high-viscosity oil projects in Russia, and higher output at the Vinogradov, Imilorskoye, Sredne-Nazymskoye and Pyak- yakhinskoye fields in Western Siberia.
Caspian progress
Lukoil pumped 1.8mn tonnes (145,000 bpd) of oil in the three-month period from its two active fields in the Russian zone of the Caspian Sea, Filanovsky and Korchagin.
In a statement on May 25, the company announced that it had completed installing the jacket of an accommodation platform topside at its third Caspian project, Grayfer.
The jacket was transported to the site via the Volga-Caspian shipping canal. Its substructures have been fixed in position with ten 56-metre long piles with a total weight of 1,700 tonnes. The facility will be inspected by divers once fully installed.
Lukoil aims to install a jacket for Grayfer’s fixed production platform later this year. It will then mount the topsides of both platforms in 2021.
Grayfer, formerly known as Rakushechnoye, is slated for launch in 2022, a year earlier than first planned. It is projected to flow a plateau rate of 1.2mn tonnes per year (24,000 bpd).™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 20 20•May•2020