Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 02 2022

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Gazprom to add third skyscraper

at St Petersburg HQ

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Gazprom is considering the construc- Petersburg.
tion of a third skyscraper at its Lakhta head- The unveiling of a third tower follows a
Lakhta Centre-3 would quarters in St Petersburg, the company recently bumper year for Gazprom financially, on
be 555 metres in revealed on its website. the back of the surge in gas demand in Rus-
height. The proposed tower would have a height sia, Europe and Asia. Company CEO Alexei
of 555 metres, joining the 462-metre Lakhta Miller began the new year by proclaiming
Centre-1 tower commissioned in 2018 and the that Gazprom would post its highest annual
planned 703-metre Lakhta Centre-3 tower, revenues in 2021 in the company’s history. He
which is yet to be built. Lakhta Centre-1 is the also noted that the company had achieved its
tallest tower in Europe, while Lakha Centre-2 highest gas output in 13 years – some 515bn
is expected to be the second-tallest tower in the cubic metres.
world after the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, Gazprom plans to reinvest much of these
which has a height of 830 metres. windfall earnings in major new infrastructure
Lakhta Centre-3 would take up an area of projects, including the Ust-Luga LNG and gas
179,000 square metres, according to Gazprom. processing plant near St Petersburg, where the
Its projected cost has not been disclosed, and company said in October it would consider add-
neither has that of Lakhta Centre-2. But the ing a third liquefaction train to the plan, and the
company confirmed in 2018 that Lakhta Cen- development of new gas fields in remote areas of
tre-1 had required RUB121bn ($1.6bn) to build. northern Russia.
Gazprom has been gradually relocating its Further ahead, Gazprom is advancing plans
headquarters to St Petersburg from Moscow for a second pipeline to send Russian gas via
over the last decade. But the decision to have its China that would run through Mongolia. Stud-
annual shareholders meeting in the Baltic city ies are currently underway, although it could be
was only taken in June last year. Two months some time before the company clinches a gas
later the company re-registered itself in St deal with China to underpin the project. ™

NEWS IN BRIEF

1.6mn barrels per day (bpd) in recent months. a joint lift of SOCAR, and departed for Trieste
Kazakhstan joint venture The country’s oil production has only very (Italy).
rarely seen disruption caused by unrest or
The BTC shareholders are: bp (30.1%);
Tengizchevroil gradually a natural disaster. TCO produces around AzBTC (25%); MOL (8.9%); Equinor
700,000 bpd.
(8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); Eni (5%); Total (5%),
returns to normal oil ITOCHU (3.4%); INPEX (2.5%), ExxonMobil
(2.5%) and ONGC (BTC) Limited (2.36%).
production rates Azerbaijani oil exports from

Kazakhstan’s largest oil venture Ceyhan poised to fall to Ukraine may have to siphon
Tengizchevroil (TCO) is gradually boosting
production to reach normal rates at the 14.72mn barrels in February off Russian gas from transit
Tengiz field after protests limited output
there in recent days, operator Chevron said Exports of Azerbaijani crude through the pipelines – former Naftogaz
on January 9. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from the
Production at Kazakhstan’s biggest Turkish port of Ceyhan were set at 14.72mn chief
oilfield Tengiz was cut last week amid the barrels in February 2022 from 17.27mn
countrywide protests that led to some barrels in January 2022, according to Reuters. Ukraine’s energy crisis continues and Kyiv
workers disrupting train lines in support of The daily loading of the variety is reported to could be staring at severe gas import issues
demonstrators. Chevron stands as the largest be down 5.6% in February compared to the during this heating season and might have
foreign oil producer in the Central Asian January loading plan. to siphon off Russian gas from pipelines
nation with a 50% stake in the TCO joint The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export that transit Ukraine, the former head of the
venture. pipeline, operated by bp, reached an Naftogaz company, Andrey Kobolev, stated.
“TCO is safely and gradually increasing important milestone on December 12, 2021, “Ukraine is unable to do without
production to reach normal rates,” Chevron when the 500 millionth tonne of Caspian oil considerable amounts of imported gas in the
said in a statement. passed through the pipeline, and was loaded first quarter of 2022 to cope with the peak
Kazakhstan’s oil output stood at around onto the 4,922nd tanker Nordorse, which was pressures on its energy system during the low

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 12•January•2022