Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 15 2021

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Russia drafting "green" financing criteria

RUSSIA RUSSIA'S Ministry for Economic Development lower than 0.283tCO2/tonne of production,
and the state development bank VEB.RF (the along with the water circulation system, etc.
The rules will decide former VneshEkononBank) have drafted crite- -for aluminium production – the emissions
what emissions ria for determining projects with green financing have to be lower than 1.5tCO2/tonne and elec-
credentials projects will instruments, RBC business portal reported. tricity consumption during electrolysis needs to
need to have to obtain As reported by bne IntelliNews, Russian be below 16.1MWh;
green financing. state energy policy is focusing increasingly on -nuclear, wind, solar energy and small hydro
ESG, as Russia belatedly prepares to tackle the projects (with capacity below 25MW) are con-
EU carbon tax introduction and other "green" sidered green without any additional criteria.
challenges. VTBC analysts believe that, along with the
Recent reports suggest several initiatives are climate risks attached to different aspects of
being developed at the same time, such as green companies' operations (which could affect their
certificates, a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission access to foreign sales markets, ability to attract
reduction strategy, an energy efficiency policy, as international financing, the valuation of their
well as a law on reducing CO2 emissions. business and the sustainability of profits in the
Reportedly, the draft legislation is currently long term), the demand for green financing is
being discussed by the respective ministries and only likely to increase.
could be submitted to the government as early Thus the analysts see "a distinct and defined
as May 2021. taxonomy, that is generally in line with similar
The guidelines propose a methodology for documents from the world’s largest economies,"
labelling a project ‘green’ as well as the descrip- as an important step in setting up such a type of
tion of the verification mechanism, with pub- financing.
lic and private companies able to raise "green However, the question remains unresolved
financing" for projects satisfies the green criteria. over what kind of subsidies exactly the green
The criteria reportedly include, as listed by financing will get on the Russian capital mar-
VTB Capital (VTBC) analysts on April 7: ket. The options include a reduction in the risk
-for gas generation – emissions below 30g of weight for green financing instruments, or addi-
CO2/kWh; tional tax credits, among other measures, VTBC
-for steel production – emissions have to be analysts remind. ™

Rosneft wins rights to Arctic gas fields

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Rosneft has secured exploration rights had asked authorities not to auction off Ushak-
to the Turkovsky and Deryabinsky gas blocks on ovskoye, to ensure its gas is used locally. Instead,
Rosneft is accumulating the country’s Arctic Taymyr Peninsula after win- Norilsk reached a compromise deal last July
resources for a 30- ning a state auction. The company plans to use with Rosneft, under which the Russian producer
50mn tpy LNG project their resources to underpin the construction of pledged it would provide some of the field’s gas to
in the Arctic. an LNG export terminal. the miner while exporting the rest.
Rosneft was widely expected to obtain the Offers for rights to the Deryabinsky
licences when the auction was first announced in block began at RUB1.42bn and Rosneft paid
February, as the terms of contest only permitted RUB1.57bn. Some 15 exploration and appraisal
companies that already have active oil and gas wells have been drilled to date at the 404.8-square
projects in the north of the Krasnoyarsk region km Deryabinsky block. The area contains the
to take part. Russian Natural Resources Minis- 1982 Deryabinskoye gas and condensate find.
ter Dmitry Kobylkin confirmed last October that Its C1+C2 reserves are estimated at nearly 55
this effectively singled out Rosneft. bcm of gas and 3.43mn tonnes (30.9mn barrels)
The starting price for bids for the Turkovsky of condensate.
licence was RUB759mn ($10.2mn) and Rosneft Rosneft requested that the government hold
paid RUB835mn. The block is 975 square km in auctions for Ushakovskoye and Deryabinskoye,
size and contains almost 54bn cubic metres of and a third field Kazantsevskoye, last summer.
gas in C1+C2 reserves, along with an additional It was awarded a licence for Kazantsevskoye in
5 bcm in Dl-category resources. Nine explora- October last year.
tion wells have been drilled in the area in the Both fields are situated near the Payakhskoye
past, with one in 1988 discovering the Ushak- field and other deposits that collectively form
ovskoye field. Rosneft’s Vostok Oil project. Vostok Oil is pro-
Ushakovskoye is situated less than 10 km jected eventually to flow over 2mn barrels per
from the producing Pelyatinskoye field, which day (bpd), and Rosneft hopes to also produce up
is used to supply gas to facilities controlled by to 50mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG. Devel-
Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel. Norilsk opment plans are yet to be finalised, however. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 14•April•2021