Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 38 2019

FSUOGM
FSUOGM
Moscow to look into
Rosneft and Transneft oil
quality conflict
Russian government will review the dispute between Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft and Transneft pipeline monopoly over the quality of domestic oil blends following the contamination of Druzhba pipeline and Ust-Luga port, Vedomosti daily and Interfax reported on September 20 citing the Minister of Energy Alexander Novak.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, this month Rosneft argued that Transneft has not yet resolved the issues with paying compensations and diluting the contaminated oil from Druzhba that has been pumped back to Russia.
Vedomosti reminds that the chair of Rosneft’s board ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder addressed the Russian government in August suggesting to toughen control over the quality of oil transported by Transneft, as well as to involve independent contractors.
Exports and output of Rosneft and Tatneft oil companies suffered the most when this spring oil supplies through Druzhba pipeline and Ust-Luga port were botched by chlorine- contaminated crude.
Transneft has sharply rejected Rosneft’s proposals, reiterating that it complies will all state requirements for oil quality. The head
of the pipeline operator Nikolay Tokarev told Kommersant daily that Rosneft was “bluffing” as it itself would be unable to comply with oil quality parameters it suggests to impose.
Rosneft, in turn, claimed that Transneft
is single-handedly deciding how to mix the contaminated oil that has been pumped back to Russia with clean crude, without letting the sellers control the quality of oil.
bne IntelliNews, September 22 2019
Russia to ratify Paris
Climate Accords, seen as
populist move
Russia will ratify the Paris Climate Accords, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the government on September 23, according to RIA Novosti. Medvedev attached the ratification of the accords to ecological risks, and risks to certain industries such as agriculture.
The sudden reversal of Russia’s position on global climate change has come as a surprise
and is largely viewed by commentators as a populist move, possibly caused by pressure from EU trade partners such as Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries.
Unnamed sources flagged the possible ratification of the Paris Accords one
day before the official announcement to Bloomberg, which also cited President Vladimir Putin’s long track record of climate change denial.
Russia’s compliance with the Paris Accords would be carried out under the umbrella
of Ecology National Project, according to Medvedev, who noted that cutting carbon emissions and introducing green technologies would require considerable investment.
The accords were signed by Russia back
in 2016, but not ratified, with presidential spokesmen previously openly arguing
that the country was not going to give up hydrocarbons in order to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Russia has the fourth-largest carbon footprint in the world. If all countries were to have the same level of emissions, the average global temperature would rise by 4 degrees Celsius annually, The Bell reported citing the estimates of Climate Action Tracker.
But even after the overdue ratification announcement, the press secretary of Putin, Dmitry Peskov, told the press that the president still did not share the same point of view on the causes of global warming.
Other reasons behind the late ratification could be a chain of natural disasters that have hit Russia recently, such as floods and forest fires in Siberia. On the other hand, Russia is benefitting from thinning Arctic ice for the extraction and transportation of untapped natural resources.
Climate activists surveyed by The Bell believe that any conclusions from the ratification of accords are immature, as no specific compliance roadmap has been drawn, and further development of hydrocarbon fields is at the top of the agenda.
bne IntelliNews, September 23 2019
EASTERN EUROPE
Poland and Lithuania say
Nord Stream 2 is energy
security threat in CEE region
Poland and Lithuania perceive the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to link Russia with Germany as a threat to the energy security of countries in the CEE region,
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on September 17.
Warsaw and Vilnius oppose Nord Stream 2, which the two former Russia satellites say Moscow is likely to use as a geopolitical tool against the region, Ukraine in particular. The bulk of Russian gas exports to Western Europe currently pass through Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 will allow the pumping of gas directly from Russia to Germany.
“Poland and Lithuania have a very similar stance saying that the construction of Nord Stream 2 is s threat to energy security in this part of Europe,” Morawiecki told a press conference while on a visit to neighbouring Lithuania.
Poland recently scored a victory in its quest against Nord Stream 2, after the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) undermined a 2016 decision by the European Commission granting Russia’s Gazprom expanded use of the German Opal pipeline .
The politically charged ruling could restrict Gazprom’s sales in Europe, which have already seen a slump this year, and also weaken the economics of Nord Stream 2.
bne IntelliNews, September 18 2019
Ukraine sees halt to
Russian gas transit in early
January as base-case
scenario
Ukraine’s state-owned natural gas monopoly Naftogaz sees a halt by Russia’s Gazprom
to gas transit shipments via Ukraine from January 1, as a base-case scenario, Naftogaz’s executive director of Yuriy Vitrenko wrote on his Facebook page September 19.
The statement followed the same days meeting in Brussels failed to start talks on a new contract for gas transit through the Ukrainian gas transmission system.
Kyiv believes that Russia will suspend deliveries of gas, including the transit gas to Russia’s European customers via Ukraine, on January 1, 2020, when the current contract for gas transit to Europe between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine expires. More than a third of Europe’s gas comes from Russia, and most of that goes through Ukraine’s pipelines.
“The contract is expiring, and the talks
[in a new contract] haven’t started yet. Therefore, unfortunately, we need to continue preparations for the end of transit from January 1,” Vitrenko wrote.
Meanwhile, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters following
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