Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 34 2019

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM
Russia mulls letting private players access Arctic shelf
RUSSIA
It marks a depature from Moscow’s traditional position.
THE Russian government has suggested it will let private oil and gas operators work on the Arc- tic Shelf, marking a key shi in Moscow’s policy.
Current legislation prevents non-state com- panies from operating offshore oil and gas licences in the Arctic, giving Gazprom and Rosneft a monopoly over the region’s exten- sive untapped resources. e government now intends to dra a bill providing private rms with access, however.
e decision was made at a meeting between Dmitry Kozak and Arctic commission head Yuri Trutnev, Russia’s RIA Novosti reported on August 26.
Russia’s leading private oil and gas producers Lukoil and Novatek have been trying to convince the authorities to liberalise development of the shelf for years, so far without success.
“It is di cult for state-owned companies to cope with shelf development alone,” Lukoil head Vagit Alekperov argued back in 2012. “ ey call for the help of foreign partners. Unfortunately, we are not invited. However, we could carry out
geological exploration; discover deposits.” Spending on o shore Arctic development fell considerably a er the 2014 oil price crash and the subsequent imposition of Western sanctions on Russia’s oil industry. Since then, Gazprom and Rosne have struggled to meet work obligations at their licences, prompting the government to impose a moratorium on the issue of new
licences until market conditions improve. Lukoil and Novatek have both built up skills applicable to offshore Arctic explora- tion. Novatek has been developing gas elds in equally harsh conditions on the nearby Yamal and Gydan peninsulas, while Lukoil has proved
its o shore capability in the Caspian Sea.
While most drilling plans were shelved when the oil market entered a downturn, Gazprom continued exploration at several sites in the Kara Sea, yielding a pair of gas discoveries earlier this year. But Rosne ’s work ground to a halt a er US major ExxonMobil was forced out of its joint venture to explore in the Kara Sea in 2014 by US
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 34 28•August•2019