Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 07 2020

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Lukoil brings forward next Caspian project
RUSSIA
Grayfer, formerly known as Rakushechnoye, will start up in November or December 2022.
LUKOIL CEO Vagit Alekperov has revealed that the company plans to bring forward the launch of its next oil project in the northern Caspian Sea.
The private oil producer now expects to start production at the Grayfer eld, formerly known as Rakushechnoye, in 2022, Alekperov told reporters on February 13, instead of 2023 as originally planned.
Grayfer was discovered in 2001 in waters ve to eight metres deep and is assessed as holding 39mn tonnes (286mn barrels) of recoverable oil and 33bn cubic metres of gas.
A nal investment decision (FID) was taken in July 2023.
Alekperov was in the coastal region of Astra- khan last week to hold talks with local author- ities, and visited the shipyard where Grayfer’s living quarters platform is being built. According to the CEO, Lukoil will begin transporting the platform to the eld this April.
e second, production platform will be put in place the following year, he said, and drilling should get underway in 2022. e eld will start owing oil in November or December 2022, he predicted.
Grayfer’s output is predicted to plateau at
1.2mn tonnes per year (24,000 barrels per day) of oil and just over 100mn cubic metres of gas.
Grayfer will join Lukoil’s two other pro- ducing fields in the Caspian, Korchagin and Filanovsky, which were commissioned in 2010 and 2016 respectively. e company produced 7.37mn tonnes (148,000 bpd) of oil in the Rus- sian Caspian in 2019, according to Russian energy ministry data, up 7% year on year thanks to the start-up of the third phase of Filanovsky’s development.
e Caspian is one of Lukoil’s main focuses for development. It has several other elds in the sea’s Russian zone, mostly consisting of gas, and Alekperov recently requested permission for the company to receive exploration rights to addi- tional blocks in the vicinity of Tyleniy Island.
Lukoil’s subtractors are looking to replace Chinese suppliers involved in the Grayer project because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Astra- khan government reported on February 13.
“Due to the coronavirus epidemic, compo- nents from China have entered the risk zone. erefore we are now negotiating their replace- ment with European suppliers,” the government said in a statement. ™
Lukoil, Novatek in talks to develop oil off Sakhalin
RUSSIA
Gazprom Neft had been hoping for a partnership with Shell at Neptune and Triton.
RUSSIA’S leading private oil and gas companies Lukoil and Novatek are in talks to join state- owned Gazprom Ne at two oil elds o Sakha- lin Island, Kommersant reported on February 13, citing sources.
e elds, Neptune and Triton, were discov- ered by Gazprom Ne in the Sea of Okhotsk in 2017 and 2018 and contain a combined 115mn tonnes (843mn barrels) of oil. e company has said suggested before that the elds could start producing between 2025 and 2030, but it is yet to greenlight their development.
Gazprom Ne ’s parent Gazprom and fellow state player Rosne control most of Russia’s most promising o shore oil and gas areas. Rosne has opposed sharing these resources with private domestic rms. But Gazprom Ne appears to be much more receptive to working with them in order to gain from their expertise and share development costs.
Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov revealed in December that his rm was discussing an o - shore partnership with Gazprom Ne , without
revealing project details. And Novatek agreed last year to jointly explore the North-Vrange- levsky block in the Chukchi Sea (see FSU OGM Week 36 2019). e pair are also reported to be considering joint work in the Kara Sea.
Both private rms have relevant experience. Lukoil has a monopoly over Russian oil produc- tion in the Caspian and the Baltic seas – the only o shore areas not dominated by Gazprom and Rosne . It is also involved in Caspian projects o Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and is considering opportunities o Turkmenistan as well (see FSU OGM Week 06 2020).
Novatek, meanwhile, is exploring for gas o the coast of Montenegro with Italy’s Eni, and Lebanon with France’s Total. Joining Gazprom Ne at Neptune and Triton would be an unusual move for the gas company, however, given that both elds are primarily oil.
Gazprom Ne has also reached out to close upstream partner Royal Dutch Shell to help at Neptune and Triton, but so far the Anglo-Dutch major has not made any commitments. ™
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