Page 15 - AsianOil Week 02 2021

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to offset declining production rates at some of its In other news, Trafigura has revealed it
older assets. tapped a Russian bank for a $7bn loan to fund its
As of press time, BP has not commented on investment in Rosneft’s Vostok Oil megaproject
the matter. Having already parted with billions in the Russian Arctic.
of dollars of assets, the UK major is aiming to Rosneft announced on December 29 it had
offload a further $25bn by 2025, as part of its completed a 10% stake sale to Trafigura, first
plan to move away from oil and gas and towards agreed in November. But neither company dis-
renewables. It has just disposed of its petrochem- closed the deal’s value, although Trafigura said it
icals business in a $5bn deal with the UK’s Ineos. was funded through long-term debt financing.
In corporate filings in Singapore, however,
Trafigura has If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Trafigura reported obtaining a €5.775bn ($7bn)
revealed it Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for loan facility with the Credit Bank of Moscow
on December 23, shedding light on the scale of
NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.
tapped a Russian FSU: Germany mulls Nord Stream 2 sanc- Vostok Oil’s deal. The implication is that Trafig-
ura paid the same amount for Vostok Oil as its
bank for a $7bn tions protection book value. It also puts Vostok Oil’s overall value
loan to fund its Germany’s northern state of Mecklenburg-Vor- at $70bn, exceeding Rosneft’s entire market cap-
pommern aims to establish a foundation to sup-
italisation of $62bn.
investment in port the completion of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
gas pipeline, amid the looming threat of further
Rosneft’s Vostok US sanctions against the project. the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please
The state’s parliament gave the green light on
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor.
Oil megaproject January 7 to the initiative, which would set up a
in the Russian foundation that could buy needed materials for GLNG: Ups and downs in Australia
pipeline construction, thereby circumventing LNG-related news from Australia has been
Arctic. Washington’s sanctions. Lawmakers approved mixed in recent days. Chevron said last week
€200,000 ($245,000) of public money for the that an inspection of Train 1 at its Gorgon LNG
fund, while the Gazprom-owned Nord Stream project in Western Australia had resulted in weld
2 operating company has pledged a further quality issues being identified. These are similar
€20mn. to the weld quality issues that kept Train 2 at
Washington’s current sanctions only target Gorgon offline for months in 2020, and are likely
those companies providing pipelaying vessels to take at least several weeks to repair.
for Nord Stream 2. But a proposed second round The discovery has raised expectations that
will extend penalties to those providing technical Train 3 will also have similar issues that will need
certification and insurance for the work, as well to be dealt with once Train 1 is returned to ser-
as additional pipelaying activities such as survey- vice. Chevron has not said how long it expects to
ing, trenching and rock placement. take to carry out repairs on Train 1.
The legislation was part of a broader defence The faulty welds affect propane heat exchang-
bill that cleared US Congress but was vetoed by ers – also known as kettles – that are used in the
US President Donald Trump. The House of Rep- liquefaction process. The Australian Financial
resentatives then voted to override that veto and Review reported that all of the kettles across
the Senate followed suit on January 1, meaning Gorgon’s three trains were manufactured by the
the sanctions could come into law in the next few same company in South Korea.
weeks. The prolonged outage at Train 1 comes as

Week 02 14•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15