Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 39 2019

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Rosneft strikes oil off Sakhalin
RUSSIA
Rosneft’s exploration is focused mostly on Russia’s more mature basins.
RUSSIA’S Rosneft has struck oil in the shallow waters off the coast of Sakhalin Island in the Far East, the state company reported on September 30.
The small-sized discovery was made at the East-Pribrezhny block on Sakhalin’s eastern shelf, at the first of two planned appraisal wells drilled by Rosneft’s RN-Burenie drilling unit in partnership with US oilfield services giant Schlumberger. The well was drilled to a depth of 3,047 metres with a 1,450-metre horizontal deviation.
Rosneft did not disclose details of well results, but said they indicated the presence of up to 2mn tonnes (14.7mn barrels) of crude oil. Prepara- tions are underway for production tests, it said.
Rosneft’s main focus in the Far East is Sakha- lin-1, a project consisting of several large pro- ducing oilfields off Sakhalin where it is partnered with US major ExxonMobil. It also controls a number of smaller onshore and offshore depos- its on its own in the area.
Rosneft secured rights to the 56.4-square km East-Pribrezhny area at an auction in December
2013. Its D-category resources at the site were assessed back then at 12.7mn tonnes (93mn bar- rels) of oil and 7bn cubic metres of gas. Rosneft undertook a helium survey at the site in 2015 and started collecting 3D seismic data the following year.
Schlumberger was hired to help drill two wells at East-Pribrezhny in January this year, under a contract valued at RUB1.1bn ($17mn). In a tender held by Rosneft, the company outbid its domestic rival Halliburton, which offered to do the work for RUB1.2bn.
Rosneft strategy up until 2022 is aimed at replenishing 100% of its liquid hydrocar- bon reserves and ensuring a 95% success rate in exploratory drilling. The company sank 142 exploration wells last year with an 84% success rate, yielding the discovery of 23 new fields. Exploration is primarily focused on Russia’s older petroleum basins in the Timan-Pechora, Volga-Urals and Western Siberian regions. In contrast, it completed only 11 exploration wells in Eastern Siberia and the Far East last year.™
RUSSIA
Rosneft could bring Saudi
petchem firm Sabic as
investor into its Indian
downstream projects
Russia’s largest oil major Rosneft plans to bring in Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical company Sabic as an investor in Indian downstream assets, Vedomosti reported on September 25 citing unnamed sources. Sabic could invest into Nayara Energy controlled by Rosneft.
The respective memorandum on understanding should be signed during the upcoming visit of the President Vladimir Putin to Saudi Arabia.
Nayra Energy (former Essar oil) was acquired for $10.9bn by Rosneft in 2017, jointly with UCP of Ilya Sherbakov and Trafigura oil trader. The planned investment in the company $6.7bn, the sources told Vedomosti, which is comparable to 10-15mn tonnes of refining capacity.
Previous reports claimed that Rosneft and
a consortium of investors are considering
an investment of $850mn over two years in upgrading the Indian Vadinar refinery. Rosneft
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NEWS IN BRIEF
reportedly also intends to expand the presence of Nayara Energy (which controls Vadinar) in the retail sector, which already operates 5,300 petrol stations in India. Rosneft holds 49.13% in Nayara.
The announcement, together with unconfirmed reports of an additional $6.7bn investment in Nayara, is out of line with Rosneft last year pledge to investors to scale back large foreign investments.
However, Rosneft’s initiative could be part of a larger dive to improve cooperation between Russia and India in the oil sector. The Minister of Oil Dharmendra Prahdan told Reuters in a separate report that India considers increasing imports of Russian oil, while four Indian oil majors plan higher investment in Rosneft’s extraction assets Vostok Oil (based on Vankor field cluster).
bne IntelliNews, September 26 2019
Gazprom uses more gas as motor fuel
Russia’s Gazprom had expanded its gas-fuelled vehicle fleet to 11,658 units at the end of July, up from only 4,500 at the beginning of 2014, it said on September 25. This transition has helped it save RUB4.8bn
($75mn) in fuel costs over the period. More than half of its vehicle fleet is now gas- fuelled, and this should reach 55% by the end of the year.
“Natural gas is an effective tool for cutting costs in all sectors of the economy where transportation is involved, as is clearly demonstrated by the results of Gazprom’s work,” Gazprom chairman Viktor Zubkov said in a statement.
The state company also launched 86 new compressed natural gas (CNG) filling units between 2015 and 2018, and plans to construct 43 more this year.
September 26 2019
Novatek to sell excess LNG via medium-term contracts
Russia’s second-largest gas producer and global liquefied natural gas (LNG) Novatek will seek to sell LNG from its first Yamal plant through medium-term contracts, the CEO and main shareholder of the company Leonid Mikhelson told the press.
Mikhelson explained the need for a new sales channel with the fact that Yamal’s productivity was 7%-8% higher than projected in 1H19, with the excess output expected at about 1.5mn tonnes
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Week 39 02•October•2019