Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 33 2019

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Rosneft emerges as sole bidder for Arctic oil block
RUSSIA
Rosneft reportedly requested the auction.
RUSSIAN state oil giant Rosne stands unop- posed in a contest for rights to a major oil and gas block in the Arctic, Russia’s natural resources ministry told TASS on August 19.
Rosne is so far the only company to have filed an application in a tender for a 27-year licence to the West-Irkinsky contract area on the Taymyr Peninsula, the ministry said. e dead- line for applications is September 20.
e competition itself is scheduled for Octo- ber 15. It will be a blind auction, with compa- nies only submitting one bid that will either be accepted or rejected. e starting price for o ers is xed at RUB402.7mn ($6mn).
West-Irkinsky is located within Russia’s Arctic Circle in an area where infrastructure is sparse, and is thought to hold 3.67bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in probable hydrocarbon reserves.
Rosneft requested a contest for the block earlier this year, according to Vedomosti. e area lies adjacent to the Baikalovskoye oil eld,
operated by a joint venture between Rosne and BP, and the Paiyakhskoye deposit, managed by a private operator called Ne egazholding (NGH). NGH is headed by a former Rosne president, Eduard Khudainatov.
Rosneft head Igor Sechin suggested in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in April that these and other Arctic oilfields could be developed to form a 2mn barrel per day (bpd) production hub, and has reportedly asked for $41bn in tax breaks to help realise this vision.
Given their remote location, a pipeline and connecting oil terminal could be built to ship oil from the elds to market. is, Sechin argues, would dovetail with Russia’s strategic goal of developing the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
Two other blocks on the Taymyr Peninsula spanning 890 square km were acquired earlier this month by state-owned Gazprom Ne , while privately run Novatek looks set to win rights to a Soviet-era gas discovery further west on the Gydan Peninsula. ™
Gazprom could buy out largest drilling asset of Rotenbergs
RUSSIA
Rotenburg is a dominate player in construction.
RUSSIA’S natural gas giant and pipeline exports monopolist Gazprom could buy out its Gaz- prom Burenie (Gazprom Drilling) subsidiary from Igor Rotenberg, the son of oligarch Arkady Rotenberg and one of the largest bene ciaries of state construction and infrastructure contracts, RBC business portal reported citing unnamed sources.
e deal could be executed in autumn 2019, with the sides having reportedly agreed on the price, although the initial asking price was too high. Gazprom was previously reported to be seeking to buy out other major subcontractors such as StroyGazMonthazh of Rotenberg and StroyNe eGaz of Gennady Timchenko.
Notably, the participation of Rotenberg and other large Kremlin insider contractors could be in the process of reshu ing.
is month Rotenberg reportedly became one of the largest minority shareholders of Gaz- prom by buying out half of the surprise SPO of the quasi-treasury share of the gas giant.
However, representatives of Rotenberg denied the reports to Vedomosti daily.
In the meantime Russia’s development bank VEB.RF (Vneshekonombank) and StroyProyek- tHolding of Arkady Rotenberg said they would set up a joint venture and become a major player in infrastructure and construction.
StroyProyektHolding is likely to get a major boost from teaming up with VEB. In 2018 the bank was entrusted to Igor Shuvalov, a ex-deputy prime minister and trusted Krem- lin bureaucrat who revamped the bank into the main hub of state investment spending in the economy.
In May 2018 Sberbank oil analyst Alex Fak was fired after he published his second con- troversial report highlighting the fact that two top stoligarchs, businessmen close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, were pro ting from $93.4bn worth of gas pipeline construction con- tracts to the detriment of state-owned gas behe- moth Gazprom’s pro tability.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 21•August•2019