Page 15 - EurOil Week 24

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Gazprom to settle $1.5bn arbitration

award to PGNiG by July 1

POLAND RUSSIAN state gas exporter Gazprom has Jacek Sasin said the contract revision “shows that
agreed to pay its Polish customer PGNiG $1.5bn effective government policy and a hard fight for
PGNiG claimed it was by July 1 for overcharging for past gas supplies, Polish interests can bring good results.”
being overcharged for the latter said on June 15. The official added that Poland would con-
gas since Novemebr An arbitration court in Stockholm ruled in tinue working to diversify its gas supply.
2014. late March that Gazprom had been charging PGNiG is already benefiting from cheaper
PGNiG too much for gas under their long-term gas since Gazprom adjusted its invoices. The new
gas supply contract. The Russian supplier was formula is largely based on gas prices in West-
ordered to adjust the pricing formula in the con- ern Europe, which are currently much lower
tract to reflect market rates in Europe, and pro- than those in Gazprom’s long-term contracts
vide the $1.5bn refund for overpayments. with European customers. To varying degrees,
PGNiG initially complained that Gazprom these contracts price gas supplies according to oil
was not complying with the award, but the Rus- prices, but with a six- to nine-month delay. This
sian firm later revised its invoices to take into means that the slump in oil and gas prices trig-
account the new pricing formula. gered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
The pair have now signed an annex to their will only feed into Gazprom’s gas contracts in late
long-term contract, reforming its pricing struc- 2020.
ture, PGNiG said. The Polish firm added that PGNiG’s long contract with Gazprom expires
“the parties also agreed that by July 1 this year, at the end of 2022, and Poland has declared it
Gazprom will pay approximately $1.5bn in over- will no longer use Russian gas after this point. To
payments for gas supplies in 2014-2020.” achieve this, it is developing a pipeline from Nor-
In a statement, Polish Deputy Prime Minister way and expanding its LNG import capacity. ™

Aker BP, Equinor team

up in North Sea

UK NORWEGIAN oil and gas producers Aker The discovery of 65mn boe of mostly gas but
BP and Equinor have agreed to co-ordinate also oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) was made
Operators will the development of Krafla, Fulla and North of at Fulla in 2009. Two years later, Equinor made a
increasingly need to Alvheim (NOA) licence on Norway’s Continen- find at Krafla, estimated by Norwegian authori-
cooperate to develop tal Shelf (NCS). ties to be 3.77mn boe of oil and gas in size. Aker
ever-smaller oil and gas The pair have begun preparations to file BP found up to 200mn boe of oil at NOA last
finds off Norway. plans for development and operation (PDO) of year.
the sites in 2022. Equinor serves as operator of In addition to Aker BP and Equinor,
Krafla, while Aker BP operates Fulla and NOA. Poland’s Lotos is also a shareholder in the three
The areas lie between Oseberg and Alvheim projects.
in the North Sea and comprise complex reser- The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate
voirs that contain several oil and gas discoveries (NPD) estimated in a report in September that
with total recoverable resources of over 500mn there were as many as 85 discoveries off Norway
barrels of oil equivalent (boe), Equinor said that operators were yet to file development plans
on June 11. Further exploration and appraisal for, which is around the same number as two
potential has been identified. decades ago. Their average size is much smaller,
The plan is to exploit the sites with a process- however, meaning that operators will increas-
ing platform in the south operated by Aker BP ingly have to combine efforts to make develop-
and an unmanned processing platform in the ment of multiple targets feasible. The sharing of
north operated by Equinor. Satellite platforms platforms, pipelines and other infrastructure will
and tiebacks could also be added. be key in this effort. ™

Week 24 18•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15