Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 45 2021

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Gazprom expands gas transit via Ukraine,

but Yamal-Europe resumes reverse flow

EUROPE RUSSIA’S Gazprom has expanded gas transit Europe? So far we have not received additional
volumes via Ukraine by 54% to 88mn cubic applications for transit,” Makogon wrote on his
Gazprom has not metres per day, said the head of Ukrainian Facebook page. “Moreover, transit is still less
booked additional transmission system operator GTSOU, Sergiy than booked and paid for by Gazprom.”
transit capacity via Makogon, as reported on November 8. But sup- Gazprom has also been limiting gas flow via
Ukraine for months. plies still fall short of the 109 mcm per day of the Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs through
transit contract that Gazprom pays for under its Belarus and Poland, diverting as much supply
ship-or-pay contract with GTSOU. as possible to its Nord Stream and TurkStream
Makogon warned on November 1 that Gaz- pipelines.
prom had reduced gas flows via Ukraine to as Supplies via Yamal-Europe were halted com-
low as 57 mcm per day. While the Russian sup- pletely on October 30 and the pipeline began
plier is meeting supply obligations in its con- flowing gas in reverse to Belarus and Poland
tracts with customers, it has faced criticism from Germany. The pipeline did not resume
for withholding extra volumes to put pressure westbound deliveries until November 4, only to
on the EU to allow Nord Stream 2’s launch by restart eastbound deliveries again on November
driving up prices. 6, according to data published by German trans-
Gazprom has not booked any additional mission company Gascade.
transit capacity via Ukraine for months, beyond Wholesale gas prices in Europe soared on
that stated in its contract. Some observers have November 8 amid continuing uncertainty about
pointed to GTSOU offering unfavourable transit the outlook for Russian supplies. There were
terms, however, and it is also unclear how much hopes that Gazprom might boost flow to Europe
spare production capacity Gazprom has, espe- this week, after finishing stockpiling gas domes-
cially in light of a fire that broke out at a key gas tically. The December gas delivery contract at
processing plant in Siberia in August. the Dutch TTF hub was up almost 10% in early
“Will there be an increase in gas supplies to morning trade on November 8. ™

INVESTMENT

Neftegazholding picks up Rosneft

stake in Tomskneft

RUSSIA RUSSIAN state oil company Rosneft has sold the Igolsko-Talovoye, Krapivinskoye, Luginet-
its 50% stake in the Tomskneft joint venture it skoye, Pervomaiskoye, Sovetskoye and Vakh-
Tomskneft has rights had with Gazprom Neft to a close partner, Neft- skoye deposits. The bulk of its output, which
to 34, mostly mature egazholding, Interfax reported on November 2 came to around 100,000 bpd last year, is deliv-
fields in the Tomsk citing company documents. ered to a Rosneft oil refinery in Achinsk.
region. Russia’s RBC newspaper broke the news of The company is a former property of Yukos,
the sale in early September, but at the time the which was Russia’s biggest oil producer until its
identity of the buyer was unknown. Rosneft is demise in the early 2000s after being hit with
pruning its upstream portfolio of lower-margin $27bn in back-tax claims. Yukos’ assets were sold
mature assets in order to raise funds for Vostok off in bankruptcy auctions, and Tomskneft and
Oil, a megaproject it is developing in the Russian many others fell into the hands of Rosneft. Ros-
Arctic that could one day yield over 2mn bar- neft sold a 50% share to Gazprom Neft in 2007.
rels per day (bpd) of crude. Analysts have largely Many of the assets that Rosneft has sold dur-
welcomed the divestment strategy as a long over- ing its divestment drive have ended up in the
due shift towards rationalisation at the company, hands of Neftegazholding, a private business
which has faced criticism in the past for favour- headed by a former Rosneft president, Eduard
ing volume over value. Khudainatov. Some of those assets were trans-
Tomskneft has rights to 34, mostly mature, ferred as part of a swap deal in exchange for Neft-
fields in the Tomsk region of Western Siberia, egazholding’s ownership of some of the fields
with around 60% of its production coming from that now comprise the Vostok Oil project. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 10•November•2021