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Damietta LNG should start back up in the Lastly, Poland’s PKN Orlen has unveiled
first quarter of 2021, Eni has said. Egypt now has plans to invest some PLN140bn over the next
excess gas supply, thanks to the launch of the off- decade, shifting its focus from its core oil refining
shore Zohr field in 2017. business to petrochemicals and clean energies.
The state-owned company followed in the
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping footsteps of a number of others in the Euro-
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, pean oil industry with a pledge in September to
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. become emissions-neutral by 2050. Its commit-
ment contrasts with that of Poland, the only EU
EurOil: Denmark’s upstream deadline state which has not promised to bring its emis-
Denmark will end all new oil and gas exploration sions to zero by 2050.
in North Sea under an agreement between par-
liament and the government, as part of a broader If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
plan to phase out fossil fuel production by 2050. Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
The country’s existing oil and gas platforms, NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor .
stationed at 20 fields, will be allowed to continue
extracting fossil fuels. But no new licensing FSU: Rosneft’s tax breaks
rounds will be held under the agreement. This The budget and tax committee of the State
includes a round that was kicked off last year and Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, has
attracted bids from France’s Total, Sweden’s Lun- approved an amendment that exempts projects
din Petroleum, Hungary’s MOL and the UK’s on the Taymyr peninsula from having to pay
Ardent Oil. duty on oil exports. The main beneficiary of this
Many in Danish politics have argued that amendment is Rosneft’s Vostok Oil megapro-
continued oil and gas exploration is incompat- ject, consisting of a cluster of oilfields on Taymyr
ible with the country’s climate goals, which are estimated to hold 6bn tonnes (44bn barrels) in
among the most ambitious in the world. How- proven, probable and possible oil reserves. The
ever, Denmark may also find itself increasingly company has projected that the fields could yield
dependent on oil and gas imports as a result of some 2mn barrels per day (bpd) at full capacity.
dwindling domestic supply. Rosneft is betting big on Vostok Oil, recently
Further north, Norway’s Equinor reported a announcing it would sell a number of its mar-
second fire at one of its facility in December 2 in ginal assets in order to fund the $100bn venture.
a little more than two months. These assets are mostly located in southern
The fire broke out during the afternoon of Russia.
December 2 at Equinor’s coastal methanol plant Analysts have praised Rosneft’s decision to
in Tjeldbergodden, with no injuries sustained. sell off some assets to support growth, saying
The state oil firm said it was investigating the it marks a shift in the focus of its management
causes and consequences of the incident, as is from acquisition to optimisation.
Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA). Meanwhile, Russia has suffered another set-
The Tjeldbergodden plant is the largest facil- back in its long-running legal dispute with share-
ity of its kind in Europe, accounting for a quar- holders of the defunct Russian oil giant Yukos.
ter of the continent’s methanol production. The The Netherlands’ top court ruled on December 4
incident comes as another investigation contin- that shareholders could continue pursuing their
ues relating to a fire that broke out at Equinor’s claims against Russia worth $50bn.
Hammerfest LNG terminal in late September. The Permanent Court of Arbitration of The
The PSA has said it founded “serious breaches” Hague in 2014 concluded that the Kremlin had
of regulations at the facility. staged a co-ordinated attack on Yukos in the

Week 49 10•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9