Page 11 - AsianOil Week 08 2023

AsianOil POLICY AsianOil

Putin lauds Gazprom, stresses

Asian prospects

RUSSIA RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has lauded Putin added. "In the so-called transition period,
Gazprom, stressing that the state-owned gas the demand will be enormous. Moreover, more
The company will thrive company will thrive despite the loss of much of than half of this increase will fall on the countries
despite the loss of its gas market share in Europe. of the Asia-Pacific region; first of all, of course,
the European market, Russian pipeline gas flow by Gazprom to on the People's Republic of China, bearing in
according to Putin. Europe is fluctuating at between 10-15% of the mind the growth rates of its economy."
level it was prior to Moscow launching its inva- Russia and Gazprom are banking on the
sion of Ukraine. But the Kremlin is keen to pro- Asian market, specifically China, to replace the
mote the potential for Gazprom to capture more lost market share in Europe. This strategy will
of the Asian market to replace that. depend on accelerating the development of pipe-
Putin said on February 16 that Russia was lines to China and fast-tracking the construction
proud of Gazprom, which was formed as a stock of LNG export terminals.
company, based on an amalgamation of many The main focuses of attention are a Far East
previous Soviet gas ministry assets. route for Russian pipeline gas to China – Mos-
“Despite unfair – to put it bluntly – competi- cow and Beijing signed an intergovernmental
tion, direct attempts from the outside to hinder deal on arranging this on January 31.
and restrain its development, Gazprom is mov- The other, more ambitious, plan is to reroute
ing forward, launching new projects," Putin told gas from fields in the Russian Arctic that previ-
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller. ously served the European market to the Chi-
"Over the previous 30 years, global gas con- nese market, via Mongolia. This is the Power of
sumption has almost doubled, and in the next 20 Siberia-2 project, which could pump 50bn cubic
years, according to expert estimates, it will add metres per year of gas to China from the Yamal
at least another 20 percent, and maybe more," Peninsula. ™

Indonesia awards three oil and gas blocks

RUSSIA INDONESIA has selected several companies to a consortium of Pertamina Hulu Energi and Eni
explore three oil and gas blocks, which include Indonesia.
The latest agreement units of state energy company Pertamina and Peri Mahakam spans 7,400 square km
sets out the key Italy's Eni, the energy ministry said on February onshore and lies off the coast of the East Kali-
parameters of a supply 22. mantan province of Borneo Island. Exploration
deal agreed by the two The blocks are Peri Mahakam, Sangkar and of the Sangkar block, which has an estimated
sides in February last Bunga. Indonesia plans to offer 10 oil and gas 130mn barrels of oil and 300bn cubic feet (8.5bn
year. working areas to contractors in 2023, includ- cubic metres) of natural gas, was awarded to PT
ing an area in the South China Sea. Indonesia is Saka Eksplorasi Timur, Tutuka said.
striving to add more discoveries to its reserves The Indonesian government auctioned out
book in an effort to expand oil production to 13 oil and gas fields last year and has selected
1mn barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the contractors for six of them. Among the new
decade. areas on offer are Natuna D Alpha, comprising
As for Bunga, situated north of East Java, a several giant gas fields.
consortium of PT Pertamina Hulu Energi and Oil production averaged 612,300 bpd in
South Korea's POSCO International Corpo- 2022, while gas extraction came in at 5.347 bcf
ration has been picked, senior energy ministry per day (55.3 bcm per year), upstream regulator
official Tutuka Aridaji told a briefing, according SKK Migas said. The targets for 2023 are 660,000
to Reuters. bpd and 6.16 bcf (174mn cubic metres) per day.
The block has 1.3mn barrels of oil equiva- Two projects that had been scheduled to
lent (boe) in estimated oil and gas resources. A come on stream in 2022 are on track to start up
similar amount is assessed at Peri Mahakam, this year, according to regulator SKK Migas. One
which Aridaji said would be explored jointly by of them is BP’s Tangguh Train-3 development. ™

Week 08 24•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P11