Page 19 - FSUOGM Week 47

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Lukoil seeks exit from Romanian

offshore block

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Lukoil is looking to exit the EX-3-Tri- investment.
dent exploration block in the Romanian Black Exxon and its Austro-Romanian part-
Romgaz's CEO did not Sea, local reports claim. The revelation comes as ner OMV Petrom at Neptun Deep originally
rule out his company ExxonMobil continues its search for a buyer for planned to reach a final investment decision
acquiring Lukoil's its share of another offshore Romanian scheme, (FID) on the 85 bcm discovery in 2018, but are
position. Neptun Deep. yet to take the step, citing poor government
Lukoil has an 87.8% stake in EX-3-Trident, policies.
with state-owned partner Romgaz controlling Exxon has been searching for a buyer for its
the remaining interest. Initial exploratory work 50% share of the project since last year, as part
in 2015 had indicated potential recoverable gas of its staged withdrawal from the European
deposits of around 30bn cubic metres. upstream sector. Romgaz is prepared to buy a
“We received this letter from Lukoil. We will 20% stake from Exxon, reports in the Romanian
hold a discussion with them, we don’t know their media claim.
reasons yet,” Romgaz CEO Adrian Volintiru told In related news, KMG International (KMGI),
local news agency G4Media. the overseas arm of Kazakhstan’s national oil
The CEO did not rule out Romgaz acquiring company (NOC) KazMunayGas (KMG), is also
Lukoil’s position. Accoding to G4Media, the considering the sale of non-core assets in Roma-
Russian firm has informed various market play- nia, it said in a stock filing on November 16.
ers about its intention to leave the project. KMGI’s main business is refining and fuel dis-
Romania introduced a controversial offshore tribution in Romania and the region, although
law in late 2018 requiring operators to sell at it said it would maintain and expand these core
least 50% of their future Black Sea gas output on activities. However, it is looking to offload non-
Romanian commodity platforms. It also charged core assets including pipes and fittings manufac-
Black Sea gas producers a windfall tax on addi- turer Palplast, industrial fittings manufacturer
tional revenues. Rominserv Valves IAIFO, security services pro-
The law has been criticised heavily by pro- vider Global Security Sistem and oil well services
ducers, which say its introduction has stifled provider Rompetrol Well Services. ™

Russia to auction off three Far

Eastern gas blocks in January

RUSSIA RUSSIAN state subsoil licensing agency Rosne- fields currently in production are used for local
dra plans to auction off rights to three gas blocks gas supply, as a lack of infrastructure means they
Yakutia, over 3mn in the Far East in January, it said on November cannot deliver their gas further afield.
square km in size, is 24. The exception is Gazprom's Chayandin-
scarcely explored. The Maisky, Severny (North) and Yuzhny skoye field, which has been pumping its gas to
(South) blocks are situated in Yakutia and are China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline since
estimated to hold 100bn cubic metres of gas December last year. Only Gazprom is allowed
and over 55mn tonnes (403mn barrels) of oil to use Power of Siberia's capacity under Russian
in D2-category reserves. The block with the law, although other Eastern Siberian producers
most resource potential is Severny, thought to such as Rosneft have lobbied for this monopoly
contain 47.8 bcm of gas and 8.6mn tonnes of to be abolished.
crude. Gas production in Yakutia grew to 4.37
The starting prices for bids are RUB45mn bcm in the first nine months of 2020, from 1.37
($591,000) for Maisky, RUB91.9mn for Severny bcm a year earlier, on the back of Chayandin-
and RUB94.7mn for Yuzhny. skoye’s launch in December. Some 11.85mn
Yakutia is over 3mn square km in size and tonnes (317,000 bpd) was also extracted in the
is scarcely explored, although a number of gas region, up 12.9%, as flows via the Eastern Sibe-
fields have been discovered in its east, near the ria – Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline reached full
border with the Irkutsk region. Many of the capacity. ™

Week 47 25•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P19