Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 48 2019

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Wintershall-Lukoil JV bags new licence
RUSSIA
Wolgodeminoil is one of the oldest Western investments in Russia’s oil sector.
WOLGODEMINOIL, a joint venture between Germany’s Wintershall Dea and Russia’s Lukoil, has won the right to develop the Severo-Be- lokammenoye oil and gas area, spanning 217.4 square km of Russia’s Saratov region.
Wintershall announced last week the 25-year E&P licence had been awarded at a state auction, without diclosing its purchase price. Wolgodem- inoil will be required to shoot a seismic survey and carry out exploration drilling within the first five years. Based on results, it will then decide whether to proceed with further development or give up the licence.
The Severo-Belokammenoye block covers part of the Volgograd reservoir, and so Wolgo- deminoil will have to deploy a floating seismic fleet. Drilling will take place onshore and involve the construction of long-slanted or s-shape wells that can target potential underwater reservoirs.
Wolgodeminoil has been working in Rus- sia’s largely mature Volga-Urals oil and gas area for 25 years, making it one of the oldest
Russian-Western partnerships in the country’s oil industry. It produced around 88,400 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from 14 fields in the region last year.
“I’m confident that the success in this auc- tion will be beneficial for the future of Wolgo- deminoil as it expands the resource base of the company in the region and provides a further opportunity for hydrocarbon production for years to come,” Wintershall’s board member for Russia, Thilo Wieland, commented.
Wintershall’s other main focus in Russia’s upstream is Achimgaz, its joint venture with Gazprom that is developing deep Achimov reserves at the super-giant Urengoy gas field. Achimgaz cleared a milestone in October when it reached its target output plateau of 10bn cubic metres per year of gas, following an extensive drilling campaign. Wintershall and Gazprom are also preparing to launch gas production from separate Achimov zones at Urengoy under a sep- arate partnership, Achimov Development. ™
RUSSIA
UN sees few specifics on Russia’s emission cuts
The latest Emissions Gap Report 2019 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) generally sees few concrete steps in Russia towards emission cutting despite the recent ratification of the Paris Agreement.
The report presents the latest data on the expected gap in 2030 for the 1.5°C and 2°C temperature targets of the Paris Agreement or the Paris Climate Accord.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, Russia said it would ratify the Paris Climate Accord on September 23, committing itself to reducing CO2 emissions to 70% of the 1990 levels.
However, that appeared to be an easy goal as Russia’s CO2 emissions peaked in the last year of the Soviet Union and the following year emissions collapsed along with the Soviet economy. Russia’s commitment means it can actually increase its emissions from the current 1.8Gt of CO2 a year and still meet its commitments to the accord.
The UNEP report suggests that the target is weak, but also notes that the climate
NEWS IN BRIEF
accord has not yet been ratified.
“While the ratification date is uncertain,
a draft decree of the president on a new 2030 emission reduction target is to be prepared by December 2019, with a draft implementation plan to achieve the 2030 target expected in the first half of 2020,” the report reads.
The Russian Action Plan mandates the drafting of a “low-carbon strategy until 2050” by the end of 2019. However, no mention of the preparation of this draft has yet been made.
“The fact that only draft documents are expected provides a weak basis for tracking and assessing progress, as they may just contain principles and approaches without concrete mitigation measures and GHG (greenhouse gas) targets,” the UNEP warns.
bne IntelliNews, November 27 2019
Sberbank buys into Afipsky refinery
Russia’s largest bank Sberbank bought 8% in the Krasnodar-region based refinery Afipsky NPZ, with the remaining 92% owned by Oil Technologies of Safmar group
of billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev. As reported by bne IntelliNews,
previously Sberbank has acted as financial investor on Russia’s largest Antipinsky refinery, until the troubled downstream asset was sold to Azerbaijan’s national oil company Socar.
Afipsky has an annual capacity of 6mn tonnes of oil products, made revenues
of RUB8.8bn in 2018, but posted a loss. Safmar acquired the asset from New Stream of Dimitry Mazurov, the same former shareholder of Antipinsky and currently sued by Sberbank.
Sberbank granted Safmar $1bn for
the modernisation of the asset, while also restructuring RUB170bn loan for the company.
Analysts surveyed by Vedomosti
believe that Sberbank did not make the most successful investment with Afipsky, but perhaps the bank is counting on the change of oil taxation and legislation and more favourable operational conditions for refineries.
Afipsky could be valued at RUB80bn- 100bn, with 8% in the refinery valued at RUB6.5bn-8bn, they estimated, noting that Safmar Group was a large client of Sberbank’s.
bne IntelliNews, November 28 2019
Week 48 04•December•2019
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