Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 22 2021

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Wintershall sheds stake in

30-year-old Russian JV

RUSSIA GERMAN oil and gas firm Wintershall Dea has and technological know-how,” Wintershall
sold its interest in one of the oldest international chairman Mario Mehren said in a statement. “A
joint ventures in Russia’s oil and gas industry. pioneering partnership that has developed into
Wolgodeminoil was set up in 1992, the year a close and trusting co-operation. We want to
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, to develop build on this and are delighted that we will con-
hydrocarbons in south Russia. The company lifts tinue our successful co-operation with Lukoil in
oil and gas from some 12 fields in the Volgograd our international projects.”
and Saratov regions, and extracted its 11 mil- Wintershall and Lukoil are both partners at
lionth tonne of crude in March. the Ghasha concession in the UAE, consisting
Wintershall said it was transferring its 50% of nine shallow fields in the Arabian Gulf west
stake in the mostly oil-focused enterprise to of Abu Dhabi. Lukoil bought a 5% stake in the
partner Ritek, a subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil, project in October 2019, while Wintershall has
as it looks to increase its focus on natural gas in 10%, Eni has 25% and OMV has 5%. Ghasha is
Russia. The German company is developing the yet to enter production but is expected to flow
Achimov layer of the giant Urengoi field in West- at a peak rate of 14.6bn cubic metres of gas and
ern Siberia with state-owned Gazprom, and also 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of liquids at full
produces gas from the Yuzhno-Russkoye field. capacity.
Wintershall did not say how much it had Wintershall Dea produced 321,000 barrels
received for its interest. But it said the transfer of oil equivalent per day of mostly gas in Rus-
had been confirmed by Russia’s Federal Antimo- sia in the first quarter, up from 300,000 boepd a
nopoly Service (FAS). year earlier. The growth came on the back of the
Wolgodeminoil has brought together “exper- January launch of Achimov Block 5A. The pair
tise in the oil and gas business at the highest level kicked off production at Block 4A in April. ™

Gazprom targets Libyan

production increase

RUSSIA RUSSIAN state gas firm Gazprom announced Meanwhile, he said that the partners had
this week that it had resumed oil production in “transferred the duties of the field development
Ports, terminals and Libya following a nine-month hiatus. In an inter- operator in units 91 and 107 in the Sirte Basin”
production facilities are view in Gazprom’s in-house magazine, Sergey to the Sarir Oil Operations (SOO) JV established
gradually restarting in Tumanov, managing director of Gazprom EP with Libya’s National Petroleum Co. (NOC).
the north African state. International, said that production had been This was signed in October and followed around
suspended last year because of force majeure. 30 months of discussions to bring the JV in line
However, with ports, terminals and pro- with Libya’s EPSA-IV framework. The fields cov-
duction facilities having gradually restarted ered by this arrangement are understood to be
operations, “our oil production has successfully capable of producing around 30,000 bpd.
resumed in our field in Libya”, he said. Elsewhere in North Africa, Tumanov added
Tumanov added that Gazprom and its major- that Gazprom plans begin the development of
ity partner in the Wintershall Aktiengesellschaft projects at Algeria’s El Assel field and will carry
(WIAG) joint venture (JV), Wintershall Dea, out feasibility studies for the development of the
aim to increase production from 43,000 barrels Rourd Saya and North Rourd Saya fields in the
per day to 62,000 bpd this year. Gazprom EP same country. ™
International holds a 49% share in the JV that
has been the operator of Libyan Blocks 91 and
107 since 1966.
Tumanov said that the partners’ activities
within these blocks had resulted in the discovery
of nine oilfields, which were brought to produc-
tion. He added that the largest of these is the As
Sarah field, which is located in Block 91.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 22 02•June•2021