NEFTE Compass articles from April 2008

NEFTE Compass archives from April 2008

Gazprom Aims For Global LNG Role.
April 2, 2008... Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, has unveiled plans for a massive jump into the costly LNG business. Starting from scratch, the Russian giant is aiming to produce around 90 million metric tons of LNG annually by 2030, enough to...

Turkmenistan Holds Out Hope For Trans-Caspian Pipeline.
April 2, 2008... The president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov, said privately during a visit to Turkey last week that he was still open to proposals to build a trans-Caspian gas pipeline, an official who was present at the talks tells Nefte...

TNK-BP Steps Up Competition In Oil-Field Services.
April 2, 2008... Far from cashing out of the lucrative Russian oil-field services business, TNK-BP has launched plans to expand its drilling unit, which it runs as a separate internal arm. This U-turn from the Russian-UK joint venture is designed to secure...

Primorsk Products Line Eyes Spring Launch.
April 2, 2008... Russian state-run products pipeline operator Transnefteproduct expects shipments via the company's long-delayed products pipeline to the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk to begin in "late April or the beginning of May," according to a...

Strategy Delay Suggests Rosneft's Future In Limbo.
April 2, 2008... Further delays in the release of Rosneft's mid- and long-term strategic development plans have been read as a sign that the future of the state-run company and its management remains uncertain. The long-awaited plans will take into account...

Moscow Plots Sharp Rise In April Oil Exports.
April 2, 2008... Even with taxes set to hit a new record high, Moscow is opening up the taps in April, increasing seaborne crude oil exports by 104,000 b/d. Russian state pipeline monopoly Transneft has penciled in seaborne exports of 2.858 million b/d (11.698...

Moscow Buries Baltic Pipeline Expansion Plan.
April 2, 2008... Moscow appears to have buried earlier plans to build the Baltic Pipeline System-2 (BPS-2) from the Belarusian border to Russia's Baltic port of Primorsk. The Industry and Energy Ministry concluded in a message to the Kremlin administration...

Shell Joins Rosneft's China Refinery Project.
April 2, 2008... Shell Global Solutions has won a tender to carry out a feasibility study for a refinery complex that Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) plan to build in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin, according to Rosneft's spokesman....

Nymex Left Out of St. Petersburg Bourse.
April 2, 2008... Russia's state-controlled companies will be the primary founders of St. Petersburg's planned commodity exchange and no role will be left for the Nymex, Russian officials revealed in a recent meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. The...

Lukoil, Conoco JV Set For June Start-up.
April 2, 2008... Lukoil will begin exports from the South Khylchuyu oil field via the Varandey Arctic terminal in the first 10 days of June, which would allow the start of commercial production from the acreage, according to the Russian major's spokesman. ...

State Plans Boost In Exploration Spending.(Brief article)
April 2, 2008... Russia is to double state spending on mineral exploration to $23 billion through 2020 under a planned long-term reserves replacement program, including roughly $11.5 billion that will be allocated to the oil and gas sector, according to Natural...

Security Service Accused In Oil-For-Food Schemes.
April 2, 2008... Russia's involvement in the UN's Iraq oil-for-food program that ran from 1996 through 2003 has taken on a new twist following revelations in a book that the Russian UN oil "overseer," Alexander Kramar, was planted by Russia's foreign...

Kazakh Oil Overlord Faces Uncertain Future.
April 2, 2008... Uncertainty is mounting over the future of Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who for the past decade has been the undisputed heavyweight of the Kazakh oil industry. Kazakh oil industry sources say there are...

Kazakh Producer Braves The Stock Market.
April 2, 2008... Kazakh oil producer Zhaikmunai, which postponed plans for a stock flotation last year because of adverse market conditions, says it is to list on the London Stock Exchange, after it received the necessary approvals by the Kazakh authorities....

OMV Overture To Gazprom Stokes Mol Fears.
April 2, 2008... Correspondence that could stoke Hungarian fears about Russian encroachment via Austrian OMV's bid for Mol has been published in the Romanian press. A 2003 letter from OMV Chief Executive Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer to Alexander Medvedev, the...

Ukraine Rattles Russia Over Nato Bid.
April 2, 2008... US President George W. Bush has urged Nato to accept the membership of former Soviet republic Ukraine, whose controversial bid to join the Cold War-era alliance could exacerbate tensions between Moscow and Kiev, especially over natural gas...

Gazprom Plans Eurobond To Fund Acquisitions.
April 2, 2008... Gazprom has launched a road show in the US and Europe for its US dollar-denominated eurobond issue, which may top $1.5 billion. The Russian company is raising funds to cover recent and planned acquisitions. The bonds are part of Gazprom's...

Bashkir Assets Could Return To Regional Government.
April 2, 2008... The Russian Federal Tax Service has petitioned a Moscow arbitration court to transfer stakes in regional oil producer Bashneft and three of Russia's most sophisticated refineries near Ufa to the republic of Bashkortostan, rather than to the...

Surgut Set To Raise Dividends.
April 2, 2008... Surgutneftegas has reportedly recommended hiking its notoriously stingy dividend payments for 2007 by 13.7% from its 2006 levels, although the increase appears to fall short of the rise in the company's net income over the period. Surgut's...

Equities and Currencies.
April 2, 2008... Share Prices Closing On April 1, 2008

Urals Pressured By Freight Rates.
April 2, 2008... May Brent ICE crude oil futures traded a $6.50 range between a $105.60 high on Mar. 27 and a $99.10 low on Apr. 2 as screen prices responded to fighting in southern Iraq, a volatile US dollar and, finally, a bearish US inventory report. At...

Gas Oil Flows Hit By Refinery Maintenance.
April 2, 2008... Middle distillate prices in Europe have eased this week, but the fundamentals remain bullish. Both Russian gas oil flows and Europe's ability to handle them have been reduced by refinery maintenance in both regions, with plants returning...

Kazakhstan Abruptly Adopts Controversial Export Tax.
April 9, 2008... Potentially staring down the gun barrel of financial trouble, the Kazakh government on Apr. 8 unexpectedly approved a measure that would allow the state to begin claiming a considerable chunk of the revenues from crude oil exports more than six...

South Stream Juggernaut Falls Back To Earth.
April 9, 2008... Earlier this year, Russia's political machine stormed through Central and Eastern Europe, rolling up intergovernmental agreements with transit nations for the proposed South Stream pipeline through Europe and surrounding the project with an air...

Russia And Norway Move To Melt Border Freeze.
April 9, 2008... Russia and Norway have moved to settle a nagging maritime border issue in the immediate offshore of their neighboring coastlines. The progress has fueled hopes that, after 30 years of gridlock, the two sides will now move toward broader...

Sides Near Final Deal For Moscow Refinery.
April 9, 2008... Gazprom Neft and Sibir Energy expect that the initial memorandum of understanding signed in January to settle a long-running dispute over the Moscow refinery could be finalized in May or June, according to a source close to the talks. The...

TNK-BP Fills In For Lukoil With German Exports.
April 9, 2008... Russian oil exports to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline rebounded sharply in March as TNK-BP stepped in to fill the void caused by Lukoil's refusal to ship to the country over the past few months. TNK-BP directly shipped 95,000 b/d of crude...

Russian Crude Production Continues To Fall.
April 9, 2008... The fall in Russia's crude oil and condensate production accelerated in March, with output registering at only 9.76 million b/d, or 1.3% lower than in March 2007, according to preliminary data from the Industry and Energy Ministry. The figure...

Oil Starts Flowing Into East Siberian Pipeline.
April 9, 2008... Russia's national pipeline operator, Transneft, has begun filling the first section of the huge East Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline with oil from the existing trunk network in preparation for the line to operate in reverse mode to bring oil...

Lukoil Plans Boost In Rail Shipments Of Products.
April 9, 2008... Lukoil has forged an agreement with state monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) to expand the railway lines running to Lukoil's Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk, allowing the export terminal to handle 14 million tons of oil products by 2010. According...

Yukos Posthumously Wins Russian Tax Case.
April 9, 2008... Bankrupt Russian oil firm Yukos has posthumously won a ruling from Russia's Supreme Arbitration Court insisting that the country's tax police overcharged the company by 90 billion rubles ($3.8 billion). With all of Yukos' assets stripped...

TNK-BP Remains Optimistic About Future.
April 9, 2008... TNK-BP remains optimistic about its prospects despite the recent raid of its offices that has sparked speculation that the company is next in line in the Kremlin's campaign of resource nationalism. "The outlook looks bright," TNK-BP Chief...

Gazprom Deal Pays Off For Itera.
April 9, 2008... Independent gas producer Itera has started to reap the benefits of dealing with state gas company and pipeline monopoly Gazprom, as the company's profits have jumped thanks to the start-up of production from the Beregovoye gas and condensate...

Novatek Reports Reserves Increase.
April 9, 2008... Top independent Russian gas producer Novatek has announced that proven oil and gas reserves rose to 4.678 billion boe at the close of 2007 from 4.664 billion boe the year before, according to a year-end audit by DeGolyer and MacNaughton using...

Abu Dhabi Eyes Uzbekistan.
April 9, 2008... Uzbekistan is moving ahead with its campaign to cultivate relations with foreign investors, with state Uzbekneftegas signing a cooperation accord with Abu Dhabi's state-owned International Petroleum Investment Co. to cooperate in developing the...

Gazprom Targets Latvian Power Plant.
April 9, 2008... Gazprom could participate in a project to build a major new natural gas-fired power plant in Latvia if the Russian state firm gets a blocking stake of at least 25% plus one share in the venture, Kirill Seleznev, a member of Gazprom's executive...

Rosneft Profits Soar On Commodities Surge, Yukos.(Financial report)
April 9, 2008... Rosneft announced net profits of $12.86 billion for 2007 as soaring commodities prices and the addition of the assets bought through Yukos' bankruptcy auctions boosted the company's net income by 264% from 2006. The sharply higher profits come...

Gazprom Bond Offer Rattles Market.
April 9, 2008... Gazprom rattled the bond markets for both Russian and foreign sovereign players when it raised $1.5 billion in a new offering that initially was priced far above contemporary bonds. The Russian gas monopoly raised the funds in a two-part...

Equities and Currencies.
April 9, 2008... Share Prices Closing On April 8, 2008

Record Brent Futures, Firm Differentials.
April 9, 2008... May Brent ICE crude oil futures appeared to have gained their second wind, trading a $9.67 range between a $99.10/bbl low on Apr. 2 and a new record $108.77 high on Apr. 9, as a bullish US inventory report on Apr. 9 helped prices rebound from a...

Fire Fuels Record-High Futures.
April 9, 2008... The bulls pushing Europe's middle distillate prices ever higher responded quickly to news this week of a fire at Neste's 200,000 b/d Porvoo refinery that has disabled the facility's new diesel line until the end of May. That, and some...