Page 108 - RusRPTJul20

9.2 ​Major corporate news 9.2.1​ Oil & gas corporate news
The heirs of deceased Russian billionaire Dmitry Bosov are negotiating the sale of the Pechora LNG export project in northern Russia to a company founded by German kickboxer Chalid Arrab​, RBC reported on June 25 citing sources. Bosov, who committed suicide in early May, owned Alltech group, which in turn controls 100% of Pechora LNG. But Bosov’s heirs want to divest the project to Arrab’s Lloyds Energy, RBC claims. Alltech has been searching for a buyer for Pechora LNG for some time. The project consists of the Korovinskoye and Kumzhinskoye gas fields in Russia’s far northern Nenets region. They are estimated to contain 160bn cubic metres of gas and 3.9mn tonnes of condensate in ABC1+C2 reserves. Alltech had wanted to use these resources to underpin the construction of a liquefaction terminal. It teamed up with Rosneft in 2015 to implement the project, transferring a 50.1% stake to the state oil company.
● Gazprom
Russian gas giant​ ​Gazprom​ posted a net loss of RUB306.23bn in January–March ​against a net profit of RUB199.47bn in the same period of 2019, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), the company said in a report on Monday. Revenue decreased 22% to RUB1.126 trillion, while cost of sales fell 7% to RUB676.35bn. Gross profit went down 38% to RUB450.18bn, while sales profit dropped to RUB60.047bn. Commercial expenditures fell 3.7% to RUB371.3bn, while management costs rose 12% to RUB18.831bn. Long-term liabilities increased 17% in January–March to RUB2.9 trillion as of March 31, while short-term liabilities fell 2.5% to RUB2.025 trillion.
Gazprom​’s revenues from gas exports in January-April 2020 decreased by 52.3% year-on-year to $8.3bn​, according to the Federal Customs Service of Russia. Physical exports of gas in the reporting period fell by 24% to 59.6bn cubic meters. In April, gas export amounted to 12.1bn cubic meters (a decrease of 15%) for a total of $1.32bn (26% less than in March). In 2019, Gazprom delivered 199.2bn cubic meters of gas to non-CIS countries (including China), which is 1.3% lower than in the record year 2018. Exports to neighboring countries in 2019 increased by 2.2% to 37.7bn cubic meters.
Gazprom​’s share in Turkey’s gas imports fell in March to <10% from 33% a year ago​. Russia as a gas supplier to Turkey slipped to 5th place behind Azerbaijan (pipeline), Qatar (LNG), Iran (pipeline) and Algeria (LNG). US almost caught up with Russia in terms of gas imports thanks to boosted LNG imports.
Turkey owes Gazprom c$2bn under take-or-pay contract. ​Seven private Turkish companies chose less than 15% of total contracted volume (10bcm of gas) as of end-2019 and, as a result, now owe Gazprom about $2bn, wrote Kommersant, citing The Wall Street Journal. Under the buyers’ obligations, Turkish state-owned banks issued guarantees worth $600mn. Analysts see 3% upside risk to Gazprom’s market cap if the monopoly succeeds in receiving the $2bn payment from Turkish importers, as this revenue was not recognized in 2019.
108​ RUSSIA Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com