Page 19 - FSUOGM Week 44

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Rosneft launches three

fields in Orenburg

RUSSIA ROSNEFT has brought on stream three oilfields to sink another 60 more production wells at the
in Russia’s Orenburg region bordering Kazakh- four fields.
The three fields hold stan, it announced on October 30. Orenburgneft operates some 30 licence areas,
some 55.7mn barrels The Mamalaevskoye, Kornilovskoye and mostly in Orenburg but also in the Samara,
of oil. Novosibirskoye deposits hold some 7.6mn Saratov and Bashkortostan regions. Its 170 or so
tonnes (55.7mn barrels) of recoverable oil, fields form part of the Volga-Urals oil and gas
according to Rosneft. They now host 13 produc- basin and are mostly mature. Its oldest have been
tion wells flowing at a rate of 719 tonnes (5,270 in production since the 1960s and 1970s.
barrels) per day. Orenburgneft’s production has been falling
The fields are operated by Rosneft’s sub- for several years, averaging roughly 290,000 bpd
sidiary Orenburgneft subsidiary. Orenburg in 2018. The company has sought to arrest this
plans to commission four more wells at the decline using side-tracking and enhanced oil
Mamalaevskoye and Novosibirskoye fields by recovery (EOR) techniques. It has also contin-
the end of the year, and also launch production ued exploration, but the fields it has launched in
at the nearby Zapadno-Dolgovskoye deposit. It recent years have generally been small in size.
also aims to sink two more exploration wells at Mamalaevskoye, Kornilovskoye and Novo-
Zapadno-Dolgovskoye in 2022-2023. sibirskoye were developed quickly, having only
Between 2021 and 2025, the company intends been discovered in late 2018 and 2019. ™

Tatneft could surprise on dividends

RUSSIA TATNEFT, the Russian oil firm based in to RAS net income," Sberbank CIB analysts
Tatarstan, reported a Russian Accounting remind.
Tatneft is the most Standards (RAS) Ebitda increase of 91% quar- The company's board recommended a
exposed of Russia's ter on quarter to $658mn in Q3 2020, with RUB9.9 per share dividend for 1H20 based on a
leading oil companies net income jumping to $396mn from $40mn 100% payout ratio on RAS net income for 1H20
to proposed changes in in Q2 2020. (RUB23bn).
oil taxation. Tatneft was the first Russian oil major to Sberbank CIB calculates that reported RAS
cancel its dividends for Q4 2019 due to the coro- net income of RUB29bn ($360mn) implies a
navirus (COVID-19) crisis, prompting fears of RUB12.6 per share dividend for 3Q20 (3.1%
across-the-board lower payouts in the Russian quarterly yield), which could be announced later
oil and gas equity sector. But the company has this year. Such a dividend would be RUB2.6 per
since confirmed its dividends and reiterated its share higher than the analysts expected (RUB10
long-term strategy. per share).
"Given its relatively simple corporate struc- In a less welcome development, Tatneft is
ture, Tatneft's RAS financial performance is the most exposed of Russia's leading oil com-
usually a good rough proxy for the IFRS results, panies to proposed changes in Russian oil
which will be released only in a month," Sber- taxation. It stands to lose breaks it receives on
bank CIB commented on November 2. mineral extraction tax (MET) at highly-viscu-
"More importantly, Tatneft stressed previ- ous oilfields. Its management estimated losses of
ously that interim dividend payments are limited RUB80bn ($1bn) from the changes. ™

Week 44 04•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P19