NEFTE Compass articles from January 2005

NEFTE Compass archives from January 2005

Takeover: Estonian Trader Takes Over Yugansk Crude Marketing.(Gunvor, Yuganskneftegas)
January 11, 2005... Russian state oil company Rosneft looks to have solidified its grip over Yuganskneftegas, now that one of its friendly trading partners has taken control of marketing the ex-Yukos producer's crude exports. Estonian trader Gunvor has emerged...

Make Or Break: BP Faces Final Hurdles As BTC Pipeline Enters Home Strait.(British Petroleum Company PLC, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan)
January 11, 2005... BP's Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is just months away from making history by pumping the first Caspian crude directly to the Mediterranean. But despite being 90% complete at the end of 2004, the mega-project still has some hurdles to clear...

Double Act: Rosneft Boosts Shareholding In Tuapse Refinery.(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... State-run Rosneft has increased its stake in the Tuapse refinery, as it continues consolidating its subsidiaries. The company almost doubled its shareholding in the plant to 80%, after a friendly company acquired a 40% stake from minority...

Christmas Cheer: December Gas Oil Exports Surge.(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Russia ramped up gas oil exports in December from the previous month, as domestic demand collapsed for the product after the end of the harvest season. Gas oil exports surged by 589,000 metric tons last month to 3.105 million tons in...

Eastern Premise: Russia Courts India And Iran.(gas trade)
January 11, 2005... India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) is confident of winning a stake in the massive Sakhalin-3 oil and gas development on Russia's Pacific Coast due to be auctioned later this year, following a December visit by Russian President Vladimir...

Tuapse-Turvy: Rosneft Starts Exploration Offshore Tuapse.(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... After a three-year lull, Russia's Rosneft has initiated exploration in the Tuapse Depression off the coast of the Black Sea port of Tuapse. Rosneft signed a deal in 2002 with France's Total to set up a 50-50 joint venture called...

Handing Over: Khodorkovsky Hands Control Of Yukos To Nevzlin.(Mikhail Khodorkovsky, OAO NK Yukos, Leonid Nevzlin)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has abdicated control of Yukos from prison, by officially giving up all his shares. The ex-Yukos CEO has handed over his entire shareholdings in Yukos to his erstwhile business partner and number...

Eastward Bound: Rosneft Starts Crude Supplies To China.(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Rosneft has joined the growing list of Russian oil companies that will supply crude to China in 2005. The state-run company plans to rail 4 million tons (80,000 b/d) of crude to China this year, according to Russian Railways president Gennady...

Full On: Shell Pressed To Speed Up Sakhalin Gas Supplies.(Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Cos.)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Russia is pressing to receive natural gas from the Sakhalin-2 project earlier than scheduled. Royal Dutch/Shell-led Sakhalin Energy, the project's operator, plans to start gas deliveries as early as 2011 or 2012, according to an official...

Shell Pushes Salym Project Forward.(Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Cos.)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Salym Petroleum Development (SPD), a Royal Dutch/Shell joint venture with Sibir Energy-controlled Evikhon, is moving ahead with its Salym oil development in Western Siberia after approving a development plan for the Vadelyp field (NC...

United Front: Moscow Hatches East Siberia Gas Plan.
January 11, 2005... The Russian government will receive in early 2005 a draft program for creating a unified system for gas production, transportation and local distribution in Eastern Siberia and Russia's Far East. The plan includes possible gas exports to China...

Growing Group: Conoco Signs Up To Shtokman Pact.(ConocoPhillips, OAO Gazprom)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... US major ConocoPhillips signed a memorandum of understanding with Russian gas giant Gazprom for joint studies related to the Shtokman gas development. Conoco joins a long list of major oil groups that have inked similar MOUs with the...

United Entity: TNK-BP Put Final Touches To Unified Structure.(TNK-BP Holding)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Over a year since the creation of Russian-UK venture TNK-BP, the company has yet to be consolidated into a single legal entity. But that is set to change, now that Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service has given TNK-BP the green light to...

Signed Up: Gazprom, Wintershall Take Gas Field To New Level.(OAO Gazprom, Achimgas)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Russia's Gazprom and Germany's Wintershall are moving forward with plans to develop the Achimovsk reservoir of the Urengoi gas field in Western Siberia. Gazprom, through its subsidiary Urengoigazprom, along with Wintershall -- the oil and...

No Go: Croatia May Pull Out Of Druzhba-Adria Project.(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Croatia is threatening to block the implementation of the Druzhba-Adria pipeline project -- a scheme that would allow Russian crude to be piped to the Croatian Adriatic port of Omisalj, bypassing the Bosporus Straits. "The government is...

Azerbaijan: Transneft Stands Firm Against Helping BTC Pipeline.(Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan )
January 11, 2005... Despite BP's efforts to persuade Moscow to reverse the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, so that Russian crude could flow into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline due to start up later this year, Russian pipeline concern Transneft remains...

Kazakhstan: Putin Declines To Discuss CPC Expansion.(Vladimir Putin, Caspian Pipeline Consortium)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Russian President Vladimir Putin poured cold water on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC)'s expansion plans, by refusing to even discuss them during his visit to Kazakhstan on Jan. 12. The problem was raised by Kazakh President Nursultan...

Kazakhstan: Mol Hires Yukos Manager For Kazakh Block.(Ray Leonard)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Yukos managers are departing the beleaguered company for greener pastures. Former vice president of exploration and new ventures at the company's upstream arm, Ray Leonard is joining Hungary's Mol to lead its international upstream activities....

Poland: Rivals Come Together For Libya.(PKN Orlen, Lotos Refining)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Poland's top refiner and fuel retailer PKN Orlen says it is teaming up with rival Lotos and other state-owned energy firms to negotiate with Libya over access to its oil fields. PKN chief executive Igor Chalupec traveled with Prime Minister...

Poland: PKN May Face Higher Bill For Czech Refiner.(Unipetrol A.S.)
January 11, 2005... Petrochemical group PKN Orlen may end up paying double what it expected for control of the outperforming state-owned Czech firm Unipetrol, according to analysts and press reports from Warsaw. PKN could pay up to 29.6 billion Czech koruna...

Share Prices Closing On January 11, 2005.
January 11, 2005... Share Prices Closing On January 11, 2005 RTS prices are given for companies listed on the exchange. ADRs market capitalization supplied by Nikoil. Market capitalization updated weekly.

Downer: Russian Market Lags In Wake Of Yugansk Sale.(Yuganskneftegas)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... In the wake of the forced auction of Yukos production arm Yuganskneftegas -- the first de-privatization in post-Soviet times -- the Russian government is starting to take account of the damage the long, drawn-out process has caused to the...

Sweet Stuff: Lukoil's Profits Soar Despite High Taxes.(OAO Lukoil)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Lukoil saw a surprisingly sweet third quarter this year, with net income up 100% on the year to $1.4 billion, as calculated under US GAAP accounting standards. Third-quarter revenues stood at $9.8 billion, a 62% increase on the year. "The...

Equities And Currencies.
January 11, 2005... Share Prices Closing On January 11, 2005

Crude Oil: Room To The Downside.(markets)
January 11, 2005... Brent futures traded a volatile $5.03 range during the seven-day reporting period from a $39.82 low on Jan. 6 to a $44.85 high on Jan. 10. Futures build back to the high on the back of much-mooted cold front heading for the US heating oil...

Products: A Glut Of Gas Oil.(Russia)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2005... Despite unseasonably mild weather, Russian gas oil differentials this week held firm in Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean on the back of rising futures. Earlier in the week, however, a glut of Russian gas oil took its toll on...

Flat Tire: Russia Set For Production Slowdown In 2005.
January 17, 2005... Russia is set to slow down its crude production growth in 2005, hampered by infrastructure constraints, an onerous tax burden and aggressive state consolidation of the sector. Output is still expected to rise by a robust 5%-6% this year to...

East Trend: Moscow Looks East For New Investors.(oil and natural gas development)
January 17, 2005... Moscow seems to be turning to the East in search of investors as Western companies tread more cautiously in the wake of the de facto re-nationalization of Yukos assets. China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp....

Fixer Upper: Butinge Shuts Down For Pipeline Repair.
January 17, 2005... The Lithuanian Baltic Sea port of Butinge halted operations on Jan. 16 for 10 days to repair a pipeline connecting the shore facilities to the mooring buoy, a port official tells Nefte Compass. One of the underwater lines was damaged by a storm...

Stickup: Tax Police Hit Volgatanker.
January 17, 2005... Russia's largest river barge operator, Volgatanker, has become the oil industry's latest victim of the country's tax authorities. Federal Tax Service gumshoes raided and confiscated property from Volgatanker worth 650 rubles ($23 million),...

Latin Romance: Gazprom Courts Mexico, Venezuela.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Russia's Gazprom is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to secure a large role in delivering liquefied natural gas (LNG) to North America, and plans to accelerate cooperation with Mexico. The issue was high on the agenda of talks between...

Old Score: EBRD Pursues Abramovich Over Loan.(European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)(Roman Abramovich)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is threatening to file a lawsuit in a Swiss court, accusing Roman Abramovich's Swiss trading outfit Runicom of failing to repay a $14.5 million loan. The EBRD has been pursuing...

Boost: Lukoil, Conoco Size Up Timan-Pechora Fields.(OAO Lukoil)(ConocoPhillips)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Lukoil and the US' ConocoPhillips have been discussing ways to increase the oil production of Naryanmarneftegas to 200,000 b/d by 2008 from around 16,000 b/d last year. Naryanmarneftegas, 70% owned by Lukoil and 30% owned by Conoco, holds...

Share Swap: TNK-BP Lays Out Restructuring Plan.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... The enactment of TNK-BP's long-awaited corporate restructuring is now only months away, according to company president Robert Dudley. On Mar. 1, TNK, Onaco, and Sidanco -- the Anglo-Russian oil major's primary subsidiaries -- will each hold...

Heavy Stuff: Russia Ramps Up Fuel Oil Exports In 2004.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Russia ramped up fuel oil exports considerably in 2004 as the Baltic Sea ports expanded their loading capacity and a healthy arbitrage pulled the fuel out of the region to Asia. The Estonian port of Tallinn saw the biggest increases,...

Pipe Talks: Russia, Japan Discuss Financing East Siberian Line.
January 17, 2005... Japan has confirmed its interest in financing the construction of a crude oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Coast. Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko discussed the issue at a Jan. 14 meeting with Japan's...

Kazakhstan: Oil Production Soars By 15% In 2004.
January 17, 2005... Buoyed by high oil prices and new export capacity, crude oil and condensate production in Kazakhstan jumped by 15% in 2005 to 1.18 million barrels per day (59.17 million metric tons) from 1.03 million b/d (51.28 million tons) in 2004. The...

Kazakh Row: Canadians Launch New Challenge Against Lukoil.
January 17, 2005... The row over Kazakhstan's Turgai Petroleum has intensified. In the latest development, Canada's PetroKazakhstan, which jointly owns Turgai with Russia's Lukoil Overseas, has brought a claim against Turgai in the Almaty City Court. ...

Kazakhstan: Saipem Wins Kashagan Job.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Italy's Saipem has been awarded the contract for the installation of the offshore facilities system relating to the experimental phase of the Kashagan field development program. The $286 million contract was awarded after an international...

Kazakhstan: Russia Agrees To Equal Shares Of Gas Field.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Russia and Kazakhstan have agreed to share equally the Imashevskoye gas condensate field that straddles their border, opening the way for Gazprom and Kazmunaigas to press ahead with a joint development program. The agreement was a byproduct...

Bulgaria: Lukoil Boosts Black Sea Refinery Stake.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Russia's Lukoil has increased its stake in the Neftochim Bourgas refinery to 93.16%, after picking up just under 3 million shares, the company revealed last week. In December, the company announced a tender to buy out minority shareholders...

Caspian Division: Baku And Ashkhabad Clash Over Disputed Field.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... A long-standing dispute between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan over an offshore field bubbled to the surface this week after reports that Turkmenistan was talking to a Canadian company about the deposit. The Turkmen presidential press service...

Lithuania: MN Moves To Secure Stable Crude Supplies.(Mazeikiu Nafta)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Lithuania is looking at proposals to regain control over oil complex Mazeikiu Nafta (MN), which is controlled and operated by besieged Russian major Yukos. The government, which currently has a 40.6% holding in MN, is considering boosting...

Turkmenistan: Ashkhabad Angling For Higher Gas Prices.
January 17, 2005... A gas-pricing dispute that arose between Turkmenistan and buyers Russia and Ukraine around the turn of the year highlights the tensions that rising, oil-linked international gas prices are generating in the former Soviet Union -- especially in...

Moving Target: EBRD, World Bank Buy Into Russia's Novatek.(European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corp. (IFC) -- the investment arm of the World Bank -- have proposed purchasing parallel $40 million stakes in Novatek's common shares, the EBRD said. The...

Running Scared: Capital Flight Tripled In 2004.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Capital flight from Russia skyrocketed more than threefold last year, according to data released by the Russian Central Bank. Spooked by the government's tax and legal onslaught against Yukos, investors shifted their cash to offshore accounts,...

Equities And Currencies.
January 17, 2005... Share Prices Closing On January 18, 2005

Crude Oil: US Cold Heats Futures.(Petroleum industry)
January 17, 2005... Brent futures traded a $3.85 range during the seven-day reporting period from a $42.50 low on Jan. 12 to a $46.35 high on Jan. 18, before easing back about $1.50. The futures rally was sparked by a very cold snap throughout the US Northeast...

Products: Gas Oil Faces Glut In The North, Tight In The Med.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Russian gas oil has been mixed this week, with Northwest Europe experiencing a glut, while the Mediterranean has enjoyed heightened demand from the eastern Med and Asia. Prices, however, were buoyed more by strong futures than physicals,...

Ghost Train: Shadowy Murk Descends Over Yukos Crude Exports.
January 25, 2005... Crude exports from Yukos' current and former producers has descended into a shadowy murk that harkens back to the wild dealings of Russia a decade ago. For world oil markets, however, the same oil volumes are still being exported and little has...

American Dream: Lukoil Steps Up US Operations, Cements Ties With Conoco.(OAO Lukoil, ConocoPhillips)
January 25, 2005... Lukoil is stepping up its operations in the US, signing a leasing deal to use storage capacity in New York Harbor to blend and store products shipped over from Russia. Although Lukoil and its new strategic partner ConocoPhillips declined...

Direct Access: Vitol Invests In Kaliningrad Terminal.(Vitol S.A.)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... Swiss trader Vitol is investing in an oil terminal at Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad. The BNK terminal will handle both crude and light oil products, with a storage capacity of 10,000 cubic meters. Vitol announced: "The key...

Breakthrough: Gazprom Makes First Visit To North Korea.(OAO Gazprom)
January 25, 2005... A delegation of Russia's Gazprom, headed by the company's chief executive Alexei Miller, made its first-ever visit to North Korea last week. According to media reports from Pyongyang, the Gazprom delegation declined to disclose the purpose...

Money Talks: After Yugansk, Rosneft Scrambles for Cash.(Yuganskneftegas, ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (Amsterdam, Netherlands)'s credit)
January 25, 2005... After its rocky ride in acquiring Yukos' main production asset, Yuganskneftegas, Rosneft is now in dire need of funds. Although the bulk of the funding for Yuganskneftegas seems likely to come from China and India, Rosneft is receiving two...

No Problem: Moscow Confirms Resource Base For Pacific Pipe.(Russia. Ministry of Natural Resources)
January 25, 2005... Eastern Siberia's resource base supports plans for crude production of 1 million b/d (50 million metric tons per year), enough to feed a proposed pipeline to the Pacific coast, Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources said this week. Exploration...

Blast Off: Gazprom Export Sales Hit All-Time High.(OAO Gazprom)
January 25, 2005... Russia's Gazprom has released preliminary results for 2004 -- and by all accounts the world's largest natural gas producer seems to have had quite a successful year. Most significantly, its export revenues to countries outside the former...

Fire Sale: Menatep Puts Other Assets On The Block.(Menatep Group, Mikhail Khodorkovsky securities offering)
January 25, 2005... Now that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has relinquished his controlling stake in Group Menatep -- the core shareholder in besieged Yukos -- the remaining Menatep shareholders are looking to put the past behind them by selling off their non-Yukos Russian...

Free Bird: Lukoil Unit Hikes Exports And Production.(OAO Lukoil's subsidiary Ritek)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... Lukoil subsidiary Ritek's crude exports in 2004 climbed 36.6% from 2003, to 2.1 million metric tons (42,000 b/d), and about 85% of this volume was exported westward outside the former Soviet Union. Ritek has focused on rail and sea export...

Refined Manners: Shell Inks Deal With Sibneft On Omsk Refinery.(Shell Global Solutions USA, Sibneft Oil)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... Sibneft has signed a four-year deal with Royal Dutch/Shell subsidiary Shell Global Solutions to provide operational and technical service support for its Omsk refinery. The program covers most aspects of the management and upkeep of the...

Power Play: Russia Puts Power Restructuring On The Back Burner.(Unified Energy Systems of Russia's privatization)
January 25, 2005... Plans to privatize Russia's power sector have been delayed for now, although reform of the country's electricity business continues to progress. Originally due to be sold off from Jan. 1 this year, the sale of the new Russian wholesale...

Ukraine: Koreans To Revamp Largest Refinery.(Ukrtatnafta plant, LG International contracts)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... South Korea's LG International has signed an initial agreement to modernize Ukraine's largest refinery, the Ukrtatnafta (Kremenchug) plant. Under the agreement, signed with Ukraine's state-run Naftogas Ukrainy and Ukrtatnafta -- a joint...

Kazakhstan: UK Minor Digs Deep Into Shallow Prospects.(Caspian Holdings)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... Caspian Holdings, which was listed on the UK's Alternative Investment Market at the end of last year, said it had brought into production the first of three wells drilled in a seven-well program on the Zhengeldy field in Kazakhstan. The...

Ukraine: Yuschenko Makes Moscow His First Stop.(Viktor Yushchenko's visit)
January 25, 2005... Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko has kicked off his presidency by treading a fine line between East and West. Yushchenko made his first order of business to smooth things over with Russia, by making an official visit to Moscow on Jan. 24 -- the...

Romania: Europa Spuds New Well In Carpathian Gas Search.(Europa Oil and Gas )(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... UK independent Europa Oil and Gas has spudded the Bilca-2 well in northern Romania. Located on the Brodina Block, the well is an appraisal of the western part of an earlier gas discovery made in 2004. If successful, the latest well will be...

Azerbaijan: Socar Sends Profit Oil To Novo.(Novorossiysk, Arcadia contract)
January 25, 2005... Azeri state oil company Socar is being forced to pump some of its "profit oil" to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, which prompted it to hold a tender for an extra, third Urals cargo next month. London-based trader Arcadia was...

Liquid Launch: Sibneft To Increase Liquidity Overseas.(Sibneft Oil)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... Sibneft has announced a move to increase the liquidity of its stock on foreign exchanges. Russia's fourth biggest oil producer will double the number of its American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Sibneft ADRs will be equivalent to five of...

Safe Bet: Moody's Says Russia's State Firms Are Safer Bet.
January 25, 2005... Politics is the name of the game in forecasting growth in Russia's fast-changing oil and gas industry, Moody's rating agency said in a report issued last week. Although Russia's oil and gas sector continues to benefit from high oil prices,...

Equities and Currencies.
January 25, 2005... Share Prices Closing On January 25, 2005

Crude Oil: Firmer Futures, Softer Physicals.(Brief Article)
January 25, 2005... Brent futures traded a $3.85 range during the past seven-day reporting period from a $43.73 low on Jan. 20 to a $47 high on Jan. 26, before easing back about 50o. The cold weather in the US Northeast continued to support the entire energy...

Products: US Cold Snap Heats Demand For Russian Gas Oil.(prices)
January 25, 2005... Russian gas oil futures have risen over the past few days on the back of a cold spell in the US Northeast. Traders in the Mediterranean and Northwest Europe (NWE), however, are waiting to see how much this will actually affect demand. Gas oil...