Page 7 - FSUOGM Week 28 2019
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FSUOGM PERFORMANCE FSUOGM
Russian oil output hits three- year low in early July
RUSSIA
Output has been affected by another dispute between Rosneft and Transneft.
RUSSIA’S oil output fell to a three-year low of 10.79mn barrels per day (bpd) in early July, due to a row between oil pipeline monopoly Trans- ne and Rosne , the country’s biggest oil pro- ducer, Russia Business Today reports.
Russia’s output is now lower than the agreed level that was cut under the OPEC+ deal that Russian president Vladimir Putin recently renewed with OPEC on the side lines of the G20 summit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
Rosne said that Transne hurt its output by curbing oil intake from Yuganskneftegaz, the oil producer’s main upstream unit. Rosne ’s production was already depressed by the con- tamination of oil with chlorine earlier the same month.
Transneft and Rosneft have been at log- gerheads over e orts to resolve the problem of contaminated oil found in April in the Druzhba export pipeline to Europe. Supplies have only partially resumed since then, after weeks of disruption.
Transne criticized Rosne on July 9 over its handling of the tainted oil issue, saying the oil
producer had dragged its feet over setting up quality controls for its oil and had made unsub- stantiated claims from the pipeline rm.
Rosne said it had read Transne ’s remarks with “regret”.
The heads of the two firms, Rosneft’s Igor Sechin and Nikolai Tokarev at Transne , have o en rowed in the past.
Despite formally denying any strife between their CEOs, the two companies have often clashed over issues such as oil transportation fees and Rosne ’s rising oil exports to China.
Sechin, 58, has been close to President Vladimir Putin for two decades, while Tokarev, 68, is also a long-time ally. Putin, Tokarev, and Sechin all worked in the city administration for St Petersburg in the 1990s a er the collapse of the Soviet Union.
When asked to comment on the row, Krem- lin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a daily conference call that it was a “corporate matter”.
Transne transports 83% of Russian oil via its network, while Rosne accounts for over 40% of Russian output.
Moscow pipe fire shuts down major power plant
RUSSIA
Back-up power sources were quickly switched on.
OPERATIONS were halted on July 11 at one of Moscow’s main power stations a er a re broke out a nearby gas pipeline, killing one person and injuring 13 more.
According to Russian emergency services, the pipeline re began at 11:11 local time on the territory of the 1,068-MW Severnaya thermal power plant (TPP) in Mytishchi, in the north- east suburbs of the city. Flames reached heights of 50 metres and it took re ghters until 15:43 to extinguish the blaze.
e gas- red power plant itself did not sus- tain damage as a result of the re, Russia’s energy ministry said, but adding that power generation had been halted.
A criminal investigation is underway to iden- tify the cause of the incident, with preliminary reports suggesting that the pipeline exploded.
e Severnaya plant serves heat and power to more than 1mn consumers in Moscow and the surrounding region, its operator Mosenergo, a
subsidiary of state gas supplier Gazprom, says on its website. e ministry said that electricity sup- ply in the city was una ected, as back-up power sources had been brought online. But there were initial reports of outages in the Mytishchi area in the hours a er the re started.
e station resumed generation later on July 11, according to Mosenergo, relying on reserve diesel supplies instead of gas. Russia’s Systems Operator (SO) has confirmed that the plant was generating at a capacity of 125 MW on the evening of that day.
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