NEFTE Compass articles from April 2007

NEFTE Compass archives from April 2007

US Weighs In Over Gazprom Dominance In Europe.
April 4, 2007... Alarmed at plans by Russian state gas giant Gazprom to consolidate its position as Europe's dominant gas supplier, the US is putting its diplomatic weight behind an ambitious scheme to pipe up to 30 billion cubic meters per year of gas from...

Yukos Auction Gives Eni Russian Upstream Entry.
April 4, 2007... Italy seems to have broken ranks with the European Union and thrown its weight behind the Kremlin blueprint for international energy cooperation. Italian joint venture EniNeftegaz has purchased the "gas lot" in liquidation auctions for bankrupt...

Lukoil Targets Vysotsk Boost.
April 4, 2007... Top Russian producer Lukoil has forged an agreement with state monopoly Russian Railways to improve rail infrastructure to the oil firm's Baltic port of Vysotsk. Under the agreement, signed by Lukoil head Vagit Alekperov and Russian...

Lukoil Steps Up Overseas Expansion.
April 4, 2007... Lukoil, which has ambitious plans to expand overseas, got backing from the Kremlin for its projects abroad after signing a partnership deal this week with the Russian Foreign Ministry. The deal is the first of its kind in Russia and is valid...

Russian Crude Exports Dip.
April 4, 2007... Despite an easing of shipping conditions with the end of winter, Russian crude oil exports dipped by 61,000 b/d in March from the previous month, largely due to a brief shutdown of the top Baltic port of Primorsk. Exports to destinations...

Russian Year-on-Year Crude Oil Output Up.
April 4, 2007... Russian crude and condensate production in March was 3% higher than a year ago but almost unchanged from February, down just 2,500 b/d at 9.87 million b/d (41.76 million metric tons), according to preliminary data from the Russian Industry and...

Environmental Probe Begins At Exxon-Led Sakhalin-1.
April 4, 2007... Russia's environmental oversight committee has launched a probe into possible environmental violations at the Exxon Mobil-led Sakhalin-1 development on the Pacific shelf, resurrecting fears about the pressure that resulted in work grinding to...

Total Passes Environmental Inspection At Kharyaga.(Brief article)
April 4, 2007... The prospect of France's Total being pushed out of Kharyaga has diminished, as the environmental oversight board for the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources will not recommend the revocation of the licenses to the Total-led Kharyaga oil...

Rosneft, Sinopec Sign Sakhalin-3 Pact.
April 4, 2007... Rosneft and China's Sinopec have signed an operating agreement that will govern the Sakhalin-3 offshore oil and gas project in Russia's Far East, providing the Russian state company with a controlling stake in the project. Under the terms...

Tatneft Signs Contracts For Libyan Licenses.
April 4, 2007... Tatneft announced Apr. 3 that it has signed three exploration and development contracts with Libyan state National Oil Corp. (NOC) for oil blocks awarded in Libya's latest Epsa-4 licensing round. Tatneft did not provide any further details. ...

Stroitransgas Builds Up Overseas Portfolio.(Brief article)
April 4, 2007... Russian oil and gas contractor Stroitransgas is pushing ahead with expansion overseas, winning its first contract in Saudi Arabia and expanding its presence in Syria. The company said last week that it had won a tender to build a 217 km...

Chevron Starts Work On Russian Joint Venture.
April 4, 2007... US supermajor Chevron has begun its reentry into the Russian upstream through Severnaya Taiga Neftegas, its joint venture with gas giant Gazprom's oil subsidiary Gazprom Neft. The joint venture has started exploration work on the two...

Rebco A Bust As Rival Prepares To Launch.
April 4, 2007... Russian hopes of establishing an independent benchmark for heavy, sour crude exports appear to have sunk for now, although the government has one last plan up its sleeve to stimulate interest in the Rebco contract. It may, however, already be...

Kazakh Crude Oil And Condensate Production, March 2007.
April 4, 2007... Kazakh Crude Oil And Condensate Production, March 2007

Russian Crude Exports To Non-CIS Markets, March 2007.
April 4, 2007... Russian Crude Exports To Non-CIS Markets, March 2007

Crude Exports Bypassing The Transneft Pipeline System, March 2007.
April 4, 2007... Crude Exports Bypassing The Transneft Pipeline System, March 2007

Russian Crude Rail Shipments, March 2007.
April 4, 2007... Russian Crude Rail Shipments, March 2007

Shell, Alliance In Ukraine Joint Venture.
April 4, 2007... Royal Dutch Shell and Russian refiner Alliance have announced that they plan to conclude a joint venture this July to operate a network of more than 150 Shell-branded retail sites in Ukraine. Shell will take a 51% stake and Alliance 49% in...

Ukraine Political Crisis Casts Energy Shadow.
April 4, 2007... Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has ordered the dissolution of the country's parliament, or Rada, in a strike against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, whose close ties with Moscow have been credited for the improvement in Ukraine's...

Ukraine Readies Vanco PSA Terms.(production sharing agreement)(US Vanco International )(Brief article)
April 4, 2007... Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Boiko has told reporters that the government would soon present a production sharing agreement (PSA) to US Vanco International for the development of the deepwater offshore Kerch Block (NC Sep.14,p10)....

Kazakhstan Looks For Increased Pipeline Volumes.
April 4, 2007... With plans for the expansion of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) oil pipeline on hold, Kazakhstan has begun talks with Russia on increasing deliveries along the pipeline running from Atyrau and connecting to Russian state-run Transneft's...

CNPC Producer Ups Spending To Maintain Output.
April 4, 2007... CNPC-Aktobemunaigas, the fourth largest crude oil producer in Kazakhstan, is stepping up its investment program by nearly 30% this year but production is expected to remain largely flat, according to press reports from Almaty. Spending is...

Turkish Downstream And Midstream Heats Up.
April 4, 2007... Competition in the Turkish downstream sector has heated up, with Azeri state oil company Socar announcing plans to take part in an auction for a controlling stake in Turkish petrochemicals giant Petkim. Socar and Turkish Partner Turcas Petrol...

Lukoil May Bid In Yukos Auctions After All.
April 4, 2007... Russia's No. 1 producer Lukoil is close to throwing its hat into the ring and bidding in the auction for bankrupt Yukos' "Kuban Lot" of assets to be offered in early May. The lot includes Caspian Oil, Lukoil's disputed offshore Caspian joint...

Surgut Board Recommends Reduced Dividend.
April 4, 2007... Kremlin-friendly Surgutneftegas' board of directors has recommended a significantly smaller dividend pay out this year because the company reported a sharp drop in 2006 net profits under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), according to newswire...

Equities and Currencies.
April 4, 2007... Share Prices Closing On Apr. 3, 2007

Fear Premium Persists.(Statistical data)
April 4, 2007... The high Mideast rumor-fueled prices of last week persisted for most of the reporting period, but started to ease back as growing hopes of a diplomatic solution to the UK-Iranian hostage crisis over 15 Royal Navy sailors and marines grew into a...

Political Tension Supports Gas Oil.
April 4, 2007... European middle distillate product prices again rose on the week, mostly moving on political tensions in the Middle East, although on Wednesday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would free the 15 British sailors and marines held...

Total Chief Pins Hopes On Shtokman Field.
April 11, 2007... Russia's giant Shtokman field in the Barents Sea is still a development in which French company Total is very interested, despite Gazprom's decision to take charge of the project itself and use the gas first for pipeline export rather than LNG....

East Siberian Exploration Shortfall Could Delay Pacific Pipe.
April 11, 2007... Russia's Natural Resources Ministry is seriously concerned that there has been insufficient investment in geological exploration in East Siberia, which could result in delays in the construction of the second phase of the oil pipeline to the...

Russia Takes The Lead In Gas Producers' Group.
April 11, 2007... Russia, the world's largest gas exporter, has agreed with other leading gas-producing nations to head a new high-level committee to study how they can enhance cooperation. But the producers are playing down fears among gas consumers that...

Events.
April 11, 2007... OGU -- Uzbekistan International Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference, Tashkent, May 15-17, ITE, tel: +44 (0) 207 596 5233, www.ite-exhibitions.com/og The CIS Oil and Gas Summit, Paris, May 30-Jun. 1, The Energy Exchange, tel: +44 (0) 207...

Surgut Gives Green Light To Refinery Upgrade.
April 11, 2007... Russia's Surgutneftegas is reviving a long-standing project to upgrade its Kirishi refinery near St. Petersburg. The oil major plans to invest 34 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) in 2008-10 on modernizing the plant's existing facilities and...

Gazprom's Sakhalin-2 Deal Slips To April Close.
April 11, 2007... Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko has expressed confidence that Gazprom's entry into the Sakhalin-2 LNG project on the Russian Pacific shelf would be finalized by the end of this month. Speaking at a press conference in Moscow at...

Gazprom And Rosneft Share Out Yukos Booty.
April 11, 2007... Russian state-run Rosneft looks to surpass Lukoil both as the No. 1 crude producer and refiner in Russia by May as the Kremlin's pet company is set to reap the spoils of the two major lots remaining in the liquidation auction of bankrupt...

Kuwait Energy Expands Into Russia.
April 11, 2007... International oil players continue to snap up small Russian producers and licenses to acreages, with a joint venture led by Kuwait Energy purchasing a small crude producer in Russia's northern Timan-Pechora region, according to industry...

Rosneft, BP Plot Sakhalin Exploration Program.
April 11, 2007... Rosneft and BP last week announced a joint program on exploration drilling in two license areas off the coast of Russia's Far East island of Sakhalin for 2007-09. The document envisages drilling of new wells at the Western Shmidtovskoye...

Luzhkov May Hold Key To Moscow Refinery Fate.
April 11, 2007... The Kremlin's recently stated support for Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, to serve another term bodes well for the Moscow Oil and Gas Co. (MOGC) in negotiations over control of the Moscow refinery with minority shareholder Gazprom Neft, the oil...

Gazprom Switches Focus To Yamal Fields.
April 11, 2007... Slowing production at mature fields in West Siberia and higher prices for natural gas imports from Central Asia has forced Gazprom to become serious about tapping new reserves, focusing on green fields in the Yamal Peninsula. Gazprom...

Russian Gas Production, March 2007.
April 11, 2007... Russian Gas Production, March 2007

Russian Refinery Activity, February 2007.
April 11, 2007... Russian Refinery Activity, February 2007 ('000 metric tons) Notes: Table is based on the following factors for conversion to barrels: Crude - 7.33; Mazut - 6.64; Gas Oil - 7.46; Gasoline - 8.51; Jet Fuel - 8.00. Crude deliveries include...

Refinery Gate Product Prices.
April 11, 2007... Refinery Gate Product Prices

Transneft Urged To Fix Lithuania Pipeline.
April 11, 2007... Rostechnadzor, Russia's technical compliance and safety board, has ordered national pipeline operator Transneft to define the time frame for the completion of studies and repairs to the Druzhba pipeline stretch that was breached last year,...

Kazakhs Drop Tengiz Charges.(Tengizchevroil)(Brief article)
April 11, 2007... Kazakhstan's environmental authorities have dropped charges against Chevron-operated Tengizchevroil (TCO) after the company agreed to spend just over $900 million on a three-year environmental protection plan. The Environment Ministry had...

Rosneft Delays Caspian Drilling.
April 11, 2007... Rosneft will not drill a second well this year in the Kurmangazy Block shared jointly by Russia and Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea, according to insiders. Instead, the company plans to hold a tender for additional seismic work on the acreage,...

Shah Deniz Well Comeback Held Up.(Brief article)
April 11, 2007... Technical problems with the first well on the BP-operated Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan have yet to be resolved three months after they started, the head of Azeri state oil company Socar, Rovnag Abdullayev, said,...

India Presses For JVs With Azerbaijan.
April 11, 2007... Indian government officials called for oil and gas joint ventures with Azerbaijan during a diplomatic visit by Indian Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh to Baku, while Azeri President Ilham Aliyev urged greater trade between the two nations. ...

BTC Pipeline Able To Pump 1 Million b/d.
April 11, 2007... The British-BP led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline connecting Azerbaijan oil fields in the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean coast has the ability to pump 1 million b/d after the final commissioning of the pipeline's pumping stations....

Klaipeda Port Sees Shipments Fall But Profits Rise.(Klaipedos Nafta)(Financial report)(Brief article)
April 11, 2007... The operator of Lithuania's oil export terminal, Klaipedos Nafta (KN), reported a fall in its first-quarter transshipment volumes, due to a decline in oil products shipments. The company said it handled 1.561 million metric tons of oil...

Kazakh Gas Production, March 2007.
April 11, 2007... Kazakh Gas Production, March 2007

Gazprom Keeps PwC As Auditor.
April 11, 2007... Russian gas giant Gazprom's auditing committee has decided to keep international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as its auditor in the results of a recent tender, quelling fears that PwC would lose its licenses after troubles with...

Eurasia Drilling Plans IPO This Autumn.
April 11, 2007... Russian oil-field services company Eurasia Drilling has plans to float an initial public offering (IPO) of shares on the London Stock Exchange this autumn, according to news and banking sources. The size of the share to be offered was not...

Equities and Currencies.
April 11, 2007... Share Prices Closing On Apr. 10, 2007

Crude Oil -- Prices Remaining High.
April 11, 2007... Oil markets have in the past week remained strong, driven by continued tension between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program. Oil prices also jumped on Apr. 10 after US gasoline stocks fell far more than expected ahead of the busy...

Products -- Defending Higher Levels.
April 11, 2007... Middle distillate oil products prices defended higher levels achieved in the previous weeks over the Easter holidays, receiving support from healthy demand even as tensions in Iran eased, according to traders. Product prices also received...

Moscow Merges Pipeline Companies Into New State Giant.
April 18, 2007... A new Russian state giant has been born. In line with Moscow's policy of increasing state control over strategic sectors of the economy, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week merging the country's national crude oil pipeline...

Gazprom Finalizes Deal For Sakhalin-2 Project.
April 18, 2007... Russian gas giant Gazprom finalized a $7.45 billion deal Wednesday giving it control over the Royal Dutch Shell-led Pacific offshore Sakhalin-2 project. This came after the Russian government placed intense pressure on the project's budget...

East Siberian Pipeline On Time.
April 18, 2007... The president of Russian pipeline operator Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, made assurances this week that the first phase of the East Siberian oil pipeline would be completed by the end of 2008. This is despite construction beginning five months...

Baltic Pipeline System-2 Is A Priority.
April 18, 2007... The Russian government has presented its own draft resolution for the construction of the Baltic Pipeline System-2 (BPS-2), which is much shorter than one prepared earlier by the Industry and Energy Ministry, according to insiders. The...

Russia Not Ready To Resume Flows To Lithuania.(Brief article)
April 18, 2007... Russian pipeline crude flows to Lithuania are unlikely to resume any time soon despite press speculation and hopes expressed by Vilnius. The president of Russia's national pipeline operator Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, said this week that...

Mercuria Spreads Its Wings With Upstream Move.(Delta Hydrocarbons)(Orchard Petroleum)
April 18, 2007... Geneva-based Mercuria is following the example of other trading firms such as Glencore, Vitol and Addax and moving upstream. After a successful year in which it moved around 50 million metric tons of crude and products from Russia, Latin...

Belarus Eyes Further Subsidies To Russian Taxes.
April 18, 2007... Belarus' government seemingly continues to be concerned about a drop in flows of Russian crude oil to the smaller country's two refineries, despite apparently reaching a deal last month to keep the taps on in exchange for major subsidies to...

Unknown Company Takes Yukos Power Assets.
April 18, 2007... Unknown Moscow-registered firm Monte-Valle will pay $138.1 million to purchase Yukos power generation assets in liquidation auctions for the bankrupt Russian oil company, while Russian state Rosneft has agreed to pay $40 million to purchase a...

Lukoil, TNK-BP Reveal Associated Gas Plans.
April 18, 2007... Russian oil companies are increasingly looking to reduce gas flaring, spurred by the prospect of good returns from the country's rising power prices, as well as development license requirements. According to Lukoil's first executive vice...

Gazprom Eyes Expansion Opportunities In Pakistan.
April 18, 2007... Gazprom, which is striving to expand its presence in global gas markets, is now casting its eye toward Pakistan. The Russian gas monopoly hopes to reach agreements this year with Islamabad on its participation in a wide range of energy...

Estonia Opposes Nord Stream Pipeline Rerouting.
April 18, 2007... The Gazprom-led Nord Stream consortium has likely met another obstacle on its path to negotiating a route for a planned natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Estonia last week rejected the consortium's request to...

Samsun-Ceyhan Pipeline To Break Ground.
April 18, 2007... The ground-breaking ceremony for the all-Turkish Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline bypassing the congested Bosporus Strait will take place on Apr. 24, Turkey's ambassador to Russia, Kurtulush Tashkent, announced this week at a conference in Moscow....

Rosneft May Refinance Credit With Eurobonds.
April 18, 2007... State-run Rosneft may issue $2 billion-$4 billion in eurobonds this summer to refinance takeouts on a short-term credit line opened to purchase assets in the liquidation auctions for bankrupt oil company Yukos, according to Russian newswire...

Gazprom Initials German Power Joint Venture.
April 18, 2007... Gazprom plans to become a German power generator through a joint venture with Luxembourg's main energy supplier, Soteg. It tightens Gazprom's cooperation not only with its largest Western customer, E.On, but also the world's wealthiest...

Q1 Crude Deliveries To Russian Refineries.
April 18, 2007... Q1 Crude Deliveries To Russian Refineries*

Vitol Increases Ventpsils Stake.(Brief article)
April 18, 2007... Vitol has further tightened its hold over Latvia's Ventspils Nafta (VN) by raising its stake in the crude oil and products terminal to 43.06%. The move comes even as the international commodities trader this week expressed misgivings to...

Kazakhstan Plans Major Gas-Processing Plants.
April 18, 2007... Kazakhstan is planning to build a large gas-processing plant at the Karachaganak field operated jointly by BG and Eni to supply the domestic market with gas and reduce dependence on imported pipelined gas supplies from Russia. A similar plant...

Transmeridian Weighs Offers For Kazakh Field.(Transmeridian Exploration Inc.)(Kazakhstan)
April 18, 2007... Transmeridian Exploration has become a takeover target barely two months after signing a 25-year production contract for its primary asset, the estimated $1 billion South Alibek field in northwestern Kazakhstan. The Houston-based company...

Turkmenistan Doubles Gas Supplies To Iran.
April 18, 2007... Turkmenistan has doubled gas supplies to neighboring Iran to 2.2 Bcm in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same time last year, according to news reports from Ashkhabad. Turkmenistan has a long-standing contract to supply up to 12...

Uzbekistan To Open Exploration Talks With India.
April 18, 2007... Uzbekistan has agreed to start technical talks with Gail (India) on exploration projects in the Central Asian country, according to reports from New Delhi. Gail has identified four specific blocks for gas exploration, the reports said,...

Kazakh Refinery Activity, March 2007.
April 18, 2007... Kazakh Refinery Activity, March 2007

Q1 Crude Deliveries To Belarussian Refineries From Russian Producers.
April 18, 2007... Q1 Crude Deliveries To Belarussian Refineries From Russian Producers

Q1 Crude Deliveries To Kazak Refineries From Russian Producers.
April 18, 2007... Q1 Crude Deliveries To Kazak Refineries From Russian Producers

Q1 Crude Deliveries To Ukranian Refineries From Russian Producers ('000 metric tons).
April 18, 2007... Q1 Crude Deliveries To Ukranian Refineries From Russian Producers

RTS Breaks New Ground Above 2,000.
April 18, 2007... Russia's benchmark RTS stock index cracked through the 2,000 mark for the first time this week. Unlike the last two years, when the RTS was propelled upward by Russia's rapidly growing oil and gas stocks, the index has made only modest...

Lukoil Top Brass Reveal Company Shareholdings.
April 18, 2007... Lukoil Chief Executive Vagit Alekperov currently holds a 16.9% stake in the firm, while its deputy head, Leonid Fedun, holds 8.3%, the company announced this week. The announcement, which was required under European Union and UK disclosure...

Novatek Board Proposes Higher 2006 Dividend.
April 18, 2007... Top independent Russian gas producer Novatek announced Apr. 17 that the company's board of directors has recommended a final-year dividend payment of 1.1 rubles (4cents) per ordinary share for 2006, equaling a total payout of roughly $130...

Equities and Currencies.
April 18, 2007... Share Prices Closing On Apr. 17, 2007

Volatile Futures, Softer Differentials.
April 18, 2007... May Brent futures went off the board on Apr. 13 in something of a blaze of glory, reaching a $69.59 high before expiring at $69.97. Unfortunately for the bulls, the high formed a bearish double top and technical logic then dictated a test to...