Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 28 2019

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
New Stream head arrested for fraud
RUSSIA
Dmitry Mazurov formerly owned Russia’s largest independent oil re nery.
THE owner of Russia’s New Stream refining group, Dmitry Mazurov, was arrested in Moscow on July 14 on charges of fraud.
In a statement that day, New Stream said Mazurov had been apprehended while arriving in Russia at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Mazurov is a suspect in a criminal investigation, the company said without divulging further details.
Russia’s RIA Novosti later reported at a court hearing in Moscow on July 15 that Mazurov was suspected of committing large-scale fraud. According to sources at RBC, he stands accused of embezzling $600mn.
New Stream was the former owner of the 180,000 barrel per day Antipinsky oil re nery in Western Siberia’s Tyumen region – the larg- est independently owned oil processing plant in Russia. e re nery was taken over by state- owned Sberbank and a group of investors a er ling for bankruptcy in May. According to court
data, some RUB345.6bn ($5.5bn) of claims had been made against the plant.
Mazurov’s company also sold the 120,000bpd A psky oil re nery in May to Saf- mar, a holding group belonging to business- man Mikhail Gutseriev. New Stream’s only remaining re ning asset is the 30,000bpd Mari El plant, which has had di culty this year pay- ing for oil supplies.
Born in Kazakhstan in 1976, Mazurov started out in the oil and gas industry working at Tatar- stan-based re ner Nizhnekamskne ekhim. In 2002, he founded a company called Ne egaz- khimicheskiye Technologiy, which would later form the basis of the New Stream business.
New Stream began struggling nancially a er the 2014 oil price crash and subsequent recession in Russia. e decline in oil product prices made it di cult for the company to service debts it had previously taken on to fund the modernisation of its re neries.™
Caspian secures oil export licence
KAZAKHSTAN
Caspian can now sell its oil for double the price.
CASPIAN Sunrise has secured a licence upgrade allowing it to export the bulk of crude oil from the MJF structure at its BNG contract area in western Kazakhstan.
In previous years the London-listed company was required to sell production from the site domestically, at prices between $18-20 per bar- rel. anks to the licence upgrade, the company can now sell the oil at double the price, helping it move forward with development plans and bring deeper wells on stream, chairman Clive Carver said on July 11.
Caspian has been working at the BNG block since 2011. e area comprises two oil plays: one which is shallow and relatively easy and cheap to exploit, and another which is much deeper and more di cult to commercialise.
e company owed 1,286 barrels per day in June, almost all of which came from the shallow MJF structure, down from 1,396 bpd in May.
“The decrease in production volumes was expected and is the result of postponing much needed remedial work on the MJF wells,” Caspian said in a separate stock ling on July 12. “Now we have received the MJF licence upgrade we are in a better position to schedule the MJF well worko- vers to restore production to previous levels.”
Caspian plans to undertake a 10-well in ll drilling programme at MJF, with the aim of ramping up output to 4,000 bpd. Each bore- hole will cost $1.2mn and take two months to complete.
The company is also continuing with tests at its deep wells at BNG. At the A5 well, it reported removing a 2.6-metre “metallic obstruction” as well as lining, so that a side- track could be drilled.
At A8, Caspian said it had set casing to a depth of 4,520 metres, and was now waiting for an independent assessment of the quality of cementing before choosing its next step.
At A6 and 801, Caspian is seeking to employ new technology to overcome some di culties. e A6 well is struggling to access the reservoir because of near-wellbore damage caused by heavy drilling mud and previous perforation attempts.
“We now have a two-fold strategy to address and establish connectivity. e rst part of the strategy utilises the technology referred to, by seeking to perforate an interval of potentially oil-bearing rock using acid stimulation tech- niques, which do not require a rig,” Caspian said. “ e second part of the strategy, if required, involves the utilisation and application of more powerful, deeper penetrating perforating charges to help establish reservoir to wellbore connectivity.”
Meanwhile, the 801 well is experiencing blockages, both at the main well and its side- track, as a result of heavy density drilling mud used to contain “extreme” well pressure. Caspian wants to apply the same methods to solve this problem.™
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