Page 100 - RusRPTDec20

months – any advancement of Nord Stream-2 is positive for GAZP sentiment. It is unclear why the project is limiting itself just to this small section in German waters (we presume it is a bit simpler legally, given the country’s strong support of the project), but if construction goes well then we would expect activity to shift to Danish waters in due course. We would also expect continued attempts by the US, Polish, and other interested governments to halt construction again, but eventually we expect the project will indeed be completed.
Gazprom, CNPC talk adding gas flow. ​Gazprom and China’s CNPC discussed adding 6bcmpa of gas flows to the Power of Siberia contract’s plateau level of 38bcm from 2025, per Interfax. New contracts for deliveries via Gazprom’s Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline and a proposed Power of Siberia-2 line through Mongolia were also discussed by Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller and Chairmen of CNPC’s BoD, Dai Khoulyan. Finally, deliveries via the Power of Siberia pipeline, which only started last December, have been running above contracted levels since October.
The extension of Russia’s TurkStream natural gas pipeline into Serbia will not be ready before the spring of 2021​, S&P Global Platts reported on November 25citing industrial sources familiar with the situation. “The Serbian section of the TurkStream gas pipeline extension is not expected to be ready until at least spring 2021, missing a previous target for first gas to flow by the end of 2020,” the agency said. The sources confirmed comments by Vojislav Vuletic, president of Serbia's natural gas association, who had said that the Bulgarian and Serbian sections of TurkStream extension had been connected, but that the compressor station in Serbia was only due to be finished in May 2021, it added.
The price of Russian oil for Belarus will rise to 88–90% of the global level in 2021 ​from the current 85%, Deputy CEO of state petrochemical company Belneftekhim Svetlana Gurina said on November 26, as cited by newswire Belta. "The deputy chairwoman of Belneftekhim stated that Belarusian refineries buy oil at a price, which is 85% of the global price, and it will amount to 88–90% of the global price in 2021," the newswire reported as cited by Prime. Russia is undergoing oil taxation changes moving the price for Belarus towards the global level. Minsk estimated losses at up to US $11bn in six years, the reform period, and at $400mn in both 2019 and 2020.
Gazprom​ suggests MinFin pull state support from private LNG projects. Gazprom made the suggestion, citing the loss of tax revenues when LNG is delivered to Europe instead of piped gas, given that LNG does not pay export duties or extraction taxes. Request to fall on deaf ears. This is not the first time Gazprom has complained about Novatek’s LNG effectively competing with Gazprom for market share on the key European gas market. However, given the strategic nature of Novatek’s ambitious gas plans – in addition to
100 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ December 2020 www.intellinews.com