Page 9 - FSUOGM Week 01 2021

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Russia doubles imports of

Turkmen natural gas in 2021

TURKMENISTAN RUSSIA doubled its imports of Turkmen natu- gas imports from Turkmenistan over pricing dis-
ral gas in 2021 from its level of imports in 2020, putes. The move in 2016 placed significant pres-
Moscow’s ambassador in Ashgabat, Aleksandr sure on Turkmenistan’s economy, which remains
Blokhin, told reporters on December 24. highly dependent on hydrocarbons for receiving
Russia, he said, has brought its natural gas hard currency.
imports from Turkmenistan up to 10bn cubic Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom
metres (cm). The country relies on relatively resumed Turkmen gas purchases in 2019 after
cheap imports of gas from Turkmenistan and signing a five-year contract for annual deliveries
other Central Asian nations to boost its own of 5.5bn cm.
exports of gas to Europe. Russia once stood as the leading importer of
The volumes imported from Turkmenistan in Turkmen gas until China displaced it in 2010.
2021 stood on a par with the imports seen in the Turkmenistan annually exports up to 40bn cm
period before 2016, when Russia entirely halted of natural gas to China. ™

INVESTMENT

Repsol reportedly set to exit Russia

RUSSIA REPSOL, one of the key foreign investors in production licences for the Karabashsky-1 and
Russia’s oil industry, plans to withdraw from the Karabashsky-2 blocks, where the 200mn-barrel
Western oil majors have country as part of a shift in its strategy towards undeveloped Ourinskoye field is situated. ASB
scaled back in Russia in lower-carbon energy, Kommersant reported on Geo, meanwhile, is undertaking exploration
recent years. December 20. research at the neighbouring Karabashsky-10
Repsol was the first major oil and gas pro- block.
ducer to announce plans in December 2019 to News of the planned sales comes after Span-
reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050, and ish media reported in May that Repsol had
since then it has committed to sharply increasing agreed to sell its 49% interest in AR Oil & Gas
investments in renewables and other low-carbon to Alliance Oil, a subsidiary of Neftegazholding,
technologies while scaling back some of its oil which in turn is controlled by Russian business-
and gas operations. Its management has sig- man Eduard Khudainatov. AR Oil & Gas holds
nalled that this transformation of its business licences for 20 small oil and gas blocks in the
will involve some divestments. regions of Tatarstan and Samara.
According to Kommersant, Repsol plans to If the latest divestments materialise, they will
sell its interests in the Evro-Yugra and ASB Geo mark the first time that a Western oil major has
joint ventures to its Russian partner Gazprom departed Russia as part of a decarbonisation
Neft. The deal is most likely to be closed by the strategy. Western IOCs have scaled back their
end of the year, and it carries only a “symbolic” presence in Russia in recent years, but because
price tag, the newspaper reported. of low oil prices as well as EU and US sanctions.
Repsol currently has a 68% interest in ConocoPhillips was the last major to depart alto-
Evrotek-Yugra and a 50.01% position in ASB gether, in late 2015.
Geo. The decision to divest these stakes has Repsol’s transition plans include a target to
already been made, Kommersant said, and will have 20 GW of wind, solar and hydroelectric
result in Gazprom Neft consolidating 100% con- generation capacity up and running by 2030,
trol of both businesses. and it also aims to deliver a 55% cut in its Scope 1
Since entering Russia in 2010, Repsol has and 2 emissions by that year. Other majors with
built up a portfolio of licences in the Volga-Urals similar aspirations such as BP and TotalEner-
and Western Siberian basins that span more than gies remain entrenched in Russia and have not
3,000 square km and contain some 26mn bar- indicated any desire to depart. Nor has Norway’s
rels of oil in the Sverdlovsky, Kileisky, Karabash- Equinor, which is involved in several joint pro-
sky-3 and Karabashsky-9 blocks, as well as two jects with Russia’s Rosneft. ™

Week 01 05•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9