Page 10 - EurOil Week 02 2022

EurOil POLICY EurOil

Rising gas prices put Moldovan

authorities under pressure again

MOLDOVA THE natural gas import price paid by Moldo- opposed to expectations for lower prices — will
vagaz to Gazprom as of January, reportedly $647 put more pressure on Moldovagaz starting from
Moldova is paying per 1,000 cubic metres, will be revealed by the January, when half of the gas bill for the first
$647 per 1,000 cubic government of Moldova on January 10, after the month of the year should be paid by January 20,
metres for gas this Security Council already discussed the situation and particularly in February.
month. on the first day of the year. Gazprom is expected to issue warnings in the
The price is calculated based on a formula coming days, ahead of the January 20 deadline
agreed by the parties in November, under the for the December gas bill.
five-year contract signed between Moldovagaz The government says that it “is analysing the
and Gazprom. situation regarding the gas crisis at European
At that time, the government of Moldova level and its effects on the Republic of Moldova,
disbursed $70mn from the state budget indi- and more details will be provided next [this]
rectly to help Moldovagaz pay the bill quickly. week at a press conference. An announcement in
The money was disbursed in the form of pay- this regard was made by the Deputy Prime Min-
ing arrears owed by state-owned Termoelec- ister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional
trica to Moldovagaz — which is not likely to Development, Andrei Spinu.”
be repeated in January. This provided some “Yesterday [January 5] he had a meeting of
time to the authorities, which in principle the working group on energy. We analyse the sit-
should adjust the consumer prices in line uation and this price increase on European mar-
with the import price, or cover the difference kets. Already, at the latest on Tuesday [January
from their own resources as subsidies under a 11] we will come up with a statement or a press
transparent mechanism. conference to answer all the questions,” Spinu
But the rising gas prices in January — as told Radio Moldova. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES

Equinor books $1.8bn impairment

charge at Mariner

UK NORWAY’S Equinor has downgraded its “We are committed to working with our
reserves estimate for the Mariner oilfield off Mariner joint venture partners to iden-
The company has the shore of the UK, resulting in a $1.8bn tify opportunities to improve recovery and
downgraded the field’s impairment. production,” Equinor’s vice president for
reserves. The field, commissioned in 2019, was previ- exploration and production international,
ously thought to hold 275mn barrels of oil but Al Cook, commented. “We plan to continue
Equinor has now revised this to 180mn. The drilling on the field to prolong cash flow into
resulting impairment charge will be reflected in the future.”
the company’s results for the fourth quarter of Mariner lies in the north North Sea some
2021, it said. 150 km east of the Shetland Islands and was first
Equinor explained that there was a lot of discovered in 1981, but was left untouched for
uncertainty about Mariner’s reserves because decades because of its geological complexity.
of the field’s subsurface complexity, and the fact Equinor acquired the field from US major Chev-
that it is still only at its early production phase. ron in 2007 and took a final investment decision
The downgrade is based on updated seismic in 2013.
interpretation and production performance, The field was initially due to start up in 2017,
supported by results from a well that targeted the but its launch was delayed by two years in part
field’s Heimdal reservoir late last year. because of the 2014 oil price slump. At the time
Equinor operates Mariner with a 65.1% inter- of its start-up, its capital cost was estimated by
est, while partners JX Nippon, Siccar Point and Equinor at $7.7bn. The company said it was tar-
ONE-Dyas have shares of 20%, 8.9% and 6% geting a production plateau of 55,000-70,000
respectively. barrels per day. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 13•January•2022