Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 48

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Ukraine's Naftogaz cleared to explore

Black Sea without tender

UKRAINE UKRAINE’S government has granted state- technical capability.
owned gas supplier Naftogaz a 30-year licence to The auction had been due to be restaged, with
The move comes after explore and develop a section of the Black Sea, investors given more time to submit their bids,
past competitions for without a tender. but this plan was put on hold in light of the coro-
offshore rights failed to The country’s Cabinet of Ministers approved navirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
attract suitable bids. a resolution clearing Naftogaz for the project on “We are determined and ready to begin seis-
November 25, with Natural Resources Minister mic research at sea as soon as possible, after
Roman Abramovsky proposing that the com- formal procedures are resolved,” Naftogaz said
pany could partner with international investors. on social media, estimating that it could invest
Naftogaz has been lobbying for access to the $40mn in its first year of work on the shelf.
Black Sea shelf to help it expand production and The Ukrainian-held area of the Black Sea
reduce Ukraine’s need for imported gas. But holds 1-2 trillion cubic metres of gas, the com-
authorities previously wanted to find offshore pany claimed, adding that this was enough to
developers through an auction. support 10bn cubic metres of annual production.
Ukraine’s subsoil service held a contest for Naftogaz will first need to drill to find out how
rights to 9,500 square km of the Black Sea, known much gas is really out there and how much can
as the Dolphin contract area, last year. A Lon- be recovered commercially, however.
don-based company called Trident Resources Ukraine lost a lot of its most promising
with no past experience of oil and gas explora- Black Sea acreage in 2014 when Russia annexed
tion was selected as the winner. But the govern- Crimea. The gas fields off the peninsula’s coast
ment cancelled the award the following month, were seized and are now controlled by Russian
saying it wanted an investor with experience and state concerns. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES

Rosneft collects rock samples

from Kara Sea

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Rosneft has drilled a series of shallow September 2014, with the Russian firm estimat-
wells in the Kara Sea, not to strike oil and gas but ing at the time it had found 900mn barrels of oil.
The company drilled to improve its general geological understanding But the project was shelved after the US imposed
eight shallow waters in of the Arctic zone. sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea,
the Arctic offshore zone. In a statement on November 26, Rosneft said leaving Exxon unable to participate, as well as
it had sunk eight stratigraphic wells in the sea’s because of the oil price crash in late 2014.
north, using the domestic Bavenit drilling vessel. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin revealed in a meet-
They were drilled to a depth of only 90 metres. ing with Russian President Vladimir Putin in
And unlike conventional wells that Rosneft has August that the producer was working on two
drilled in the area before, their purpose was to more wells near Pobeda, using two rigs. Those
collect core rock samples rather than encounter are understood to have been conventional
oil and gas reservoirs. The wells are the first of exploration wells, but Rosneft is yet to reveal any
their kind in the region and the northernmost results from drilling.
on the Russian shelf, Rosneft said. The Bavenit rig used for the stratigraphic
The company said it had recovered some wells was originally built in Finland in 1986 and
6.5 tonnes of rock from the wells. The samples is one of Russia’s most advanced vessels for shelf
will be tested in Russian labs to improve esti- drilling. It recently underwent a major upgrade,
mates of the country’s offshore Arctic oil and gas making it capable of operations in the northern-
resources, and establish a new geological model most parts of Russia’s Arctic shelf.
for the northern Kara area. However, Russia still relies on foreign rigs to
Rosneft and its US partner ExxonMobil drill wells as deep as the one that found Pobeda,
made the Pobeda oil discovery in the Kara Sea in which was over 2,000 metres. ™

Week 48 02•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15