Page 18 - EurOil Week 37

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Ascent sues Slovenia over

stalled fracking project

SLOVENIA LONDON-LISTED oil and gas company government not to bow to pressure.
Ascent Resources filed a lawsuit against Slo- In 2007, Ascent entered a joint venture with
Ascent was denied an venia after being required to conduct an envi- a state-owned Slovenian company Geonergo to
environmental permit ronmental impact assessment before fracking extract gas from Petisovci field in northeastern
to conduct hydraulic near a water source, claiming that the request Slovenia.
fracturing. is unreasonable. In August 2019, Ascent Resources said it was
The legal action was taken based on the preparing to sue Slovenia for €50mn in damages
UK-Slovenia bilateral investment treaty and the caused by the authorities’ refusal to grant a per-
multilateral Energy Charter Treaty. mit for the use of hydraulic fracturing, needed to
In a letter to Slovenian government sent in boost production at the Petisovci gas field.
July the company’s lawyers said that the decision In April this year, the British company
of the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) announced that it ended talks with a potential
has not been based on the recommendations funder of its litigation process against Slovenia
of Slovenian experts but that is “arbitrary and related to its Petisovci gas field project
unreasonable” news site Climate Home News Ascent said at the time that significant pro-
reported. duction growth at the Petisovci field in Slovenia
Friends of the Earth Slovenia accused Ascent can only be achieved when the partners have
Resources of endangering the country’s drink- successfully obtained the required permits to
ing water supply and urged the new Slovenian re-stimulate the existing producing wells. ™

NEWS IN BRIEF

Turkey expects gas going to renew [or] whether we are going Equinor gets greenlight for
“We started to discuss whether we are
suppliers to offer more to find alternative supply,” the official was Askeladd phase 1 facilities
quoted as saying at an anonymous briefing,
competitive pricing and adding that the decision would depend on Norway’s safety watchdog, the Petroleum
Safety Authority (PSA), has given Equinor
whether suppliers “approach with same old
flexibility if they want deal habits—no flexibility, not very competitive consent to use Askeladd Phase 1 facilities on
price offers”.
the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea offshore
renewals on imports to meet its oil and gas needs. Norway.
Turkey is nearly entirely dependent
The PSA said on September 16 that
Turkey reportedly expects gas suppliers to In the first half of the year, it reduced its the consent comprised subsea facilities,
offer more competitive pricing and flexibility intake of Russian and Iranian gas supplies, pipelines, control cables, and associated
if they want to renew long-term contracts but considerably upped its purchase of modifications at Hammerfest LNG.
totalling 16bn cubic metres (bcm) per year. Azerbaijani and US gas. “The US suddenly The Askeladd development is an
Next year will see more than a quarter of became the second largest [LNG] supplier extension of the Snøhvit field. The Askeladd
Turkey’s long-term gas contracts expire. They to the Turkish market in the first half of development is divided into two phases, of
cover supplies such as piped imports from 2020. The main reason was that they were which phase 1 consists of one well template
Russia’s Gazprom and Azerbaijan’s Socar, as competitive,” the official added. in the northern section of Snohvit and one
well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped Iranian supplies of gas to Turkey were in the southern section with a total of three
from Nigeria. Reuters cited a senior Turkish disrupted for many weeks after an explosion production wells.
energy official as saying new competition hit a pipeline. Tehran said Turkey was slow Askeladd is a gas field and is considered
from US LNG and Turkey’s potential to repair the pipeline and exerted pressure on as the second stage of the multi-phased
to exploit a new gas find in the Black Ankara to restore it to operation at a faster Snøhvit development. The project partners
Sea—although the discovery announced pace. Observers suspected Ankara used the include operator Equinor and partners Total,
last month has only shown preliminary long unavailability of the infrastructure as Petoro, Neptune Energy, and DEA. The
promise—have changed market dynamics. leverage in its attempt to secure better gas project was sanctioned for development with
“Old-fashioned” gas contracts, often indexed prices from Iran. an investment of $641.5mn in March 2018.
to oil prices and tying buyers to contractual Turkey imports gas from Iran under an Askeladd is expected to start production by
penalties if they do not buy their full quota, agreement signed in 1996 for up to 10 bcm/ the end of 2020.
are no longer in tune with market realities year until July 2026. It commenced in 2001 Snohvit was discovered in 1984 and the
and prices should be set against those at and was later reduced to 9.6 bcm/year. plan for development and operation (PDO),
major gas hubs, he was reported as saying. including the multi-phased development,

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 17•September•2020