NEFTE Compass articles from June 2007

NEFTE Compass archives from June 2007

Race Starts To Head New-Look Transneft If Vainshtok Goes.
June 6, 2007... Russia's already formidable crude oil pipeline operator Transneft is set to gain more muscle through the merger with products pipeline monopoly Transnefteproduct and by taking on the management of Russia's stake in the Caspian Pipeline...

With Kovykta In Doubt, TNK-BP Eyes Uvat For Growth.
June 6, 2007... Even as TNK-BP's grip on the license to the massive Kovykta gas and condensate field continues to slip, the Russian-UK joint venture is pouring its hopes into the Uvat fields, in an ambitious and financially huge project that will form the...

Russia Prefers New Pipe To Lithuanian One.
June 6, 2007... Moscow has no doubts about the economic viability of the planned Baltic Pipeline System-2 (BPS-2) from the Belarus border to the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk, according to Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko. An...

Rosneft Eyes Refining Capacity Expansion.
June 6, 2007... Rosneft continues to nurture major plans to construct new refining capacity, despite only weeks ago purchasing the remaining refineries of bankrupt oil firm Yukos, which will take care of the majority of its glaring imbalance between crude...

Russian Exports Dip Despite Traders' Push.
June 6, 2007... The daily rate of Russian crude exports fell by approximately 117,000 b/d in May from April, despite a massive push for exports to take advantage of the lag in Moscow's oil export duties behind climbing global crude prices. Total Russian...

New Shelf Reserves Earmarked For Russian Firms.
June 6, 2007... Any new oil and gas reserves discovered in the Russian Arctic and on its Far East shelf will be developed by domestic state-controlled companies, according to Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko. "Shelf fields of the...

Rosneft And Total Resolve Their Disagreements.
June 6, 2007... Russian state-controlled Rosneft and French major Total have resolved all their outstanding disagreements, a Rosneft representative told Nefte Compass last week. The move could open the way for the two companies to team up in new projects in...

Rebco Looks For Success With Russia Move.(Russian crude export blend)
June 6, 2007... The Russian crude export blend (Rebco) futures contract will be moved from the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) to a commodities trading floor that will be launched in St. Petersburg by the end of the year, according to Russia's Deputy...

Gazprom Neft, Statoil Sign Cooperation Accord.
June 6, 2007... Gazprom's oil subsidiary Gazprom Neft and Norway's Statoil have formed a partnership to jointly develop upstream projects in Russia and elsewhere. In a statement, the partners said the two companies had set up a working group to explore...

West Kamchatka Block Gets Reserves Boost.(Russia)(Brief article)
June 6, 2007... A consortium of companies including Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) and Russian state oil major Rosneft have discovered an estimated 10 billion bbl (1.4 billion metric tons) of crude oil in acreage off Russia's Pacific coast, more than three...

Baltic Petroleum's Field Goes Under Microscope.(Brief article)
June 6, 2007... Russia's Natural Resources Ministry has turned its attention to the exploration licenses of UK-registered Baltic Petroleum's production unit in Russia, Zauralneftegas, although company officials have downplayed any risks to the project. ...

Gazprom Revises Spending Plan For 2007.
June 6, 2007... Russia's Gazprom has increased its 2007 spending plan by almost 45% to $29.43 billion in order to cover its recent spending on the acquisition of stakes in the Pacific Sakhalin-2 project, Belarus' state pipeline operator Beltransgas and Moscow...

No Environmental Grounds To Block Caspian Pipe.
June 6, 2007... There's no environmental basis to stop the building of a pipeline through the relatively narrow stretch of the Caspian Sea dividing Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, said Daniel Houser, president of oil-field services company McDermott's Caspian...

Socar Aims For August Launch Of Kulevi Terminal.(State oil company of Azerbaijan)(Brief article)
June 6, 2007... Socar, the state oil company of Azerbaijan, plans to launch an export terminal at the Georgian port of Kulevi this August, while also starting a feasibility study to build a 200,000 b/d-capacity refinery on that site, Socar Vice President...

Kazakh And Turkmen Barrels Flow To Iran.(Brief article)
June 6, 2007... Shipments of Kazakh and Turkmen crude oil across the Caspian Sea to Iran's Neka terminal are holding steady at around 120,000 b/d as exporters take advantage of the higher premiums on offer in the Mideast Gulf. Under the "swap" system that...

Gazprom Signs Deal For Karachaganak Gas.
June 6, 2007... After years of lingering talks, Gazprom has moved forward with its plan to increase the flow of Central Asian gas to its Orenburg gas processing plant (OGPP) in southern Russia, agreeing to buy significantly increased volumes of sour gas from...

Mazeikiu Nafta's Return To Profitability Delayed.
June 6, 2007... PKN Orlen head Piotr Kownacki said last week that he expects Lithuanian oil complex Mazeikiu Nafta to return to profitability by the end of the year, later than the timetable previously outlined by the Polish group, which controls the refiner....

TNK-BP Reports Profit Growth In 2006.(Financial report)
June 6, 2007... TNK-BP International said last week that its net profits, calculated under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles standards, rose by 40% on the year to almost $6.63 billion in 2006, despite a higher tax burden. The Russian-UK joint...

Gazprom Neft 2006 GAAP Earnings Rise.(Financial report)
June 6, 2007... Russian state gas behemoth Gazprom's oil arm Gazprom Neft's 2006 profits increased by 31% to $3.66 billion from the previous year, according to US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) audited figures. Company revenues jumped to...

Novatek First-Quarter Profits Beat Expectations.(Financial report)
June 6, 2007... Russian independent gas player Novatek boosted net profits to $165 million in the first quarter of 2007, a 26% increase year-on-year, according to International Financial Reporting Standards (NC May31,p9). Novatek revenues jumped by 41% to...

Lukoil Places $1 Billion Worth Of Eurobonds.
June 6, 2007... Lukoil said this week that it has placed $1 billion worth of dollar-denominated eurobonds in two equal tranches worth $500 million each. The first, 10-year tranche, with a coupon yield of 6.356%, was placed at US Treasuries (UST) plus 145...

Equities and Currencies.
June 6, 2007... Share Prices Closing On Jun. 5, 2007

Up And Away.(Brent crude oil exports)
June 6, 2007... Front-month July Brent crude oil futures traded in a $4.60/bbl range from a May 31 low of $66.80 to a Jun. 6 high of $71.40. The rise was premised on a combination of further tension in Nigeria, including threats of a general strike, technical...

Drifting Gas Oil Supported by Med.(Mediterranean)(Brief article)
June 6, 2007... The market for Russian gas oil continued to drift aimlessly this week, firming some before dipping along with futures contracts, which were hit by expectations of a build in US stockpiles of lighter products. Concerns over Cyclone Gonu in the...

Western Firms Ready To Invest In Russia Seek Clarity.
June 12, 2007... The heads of the world's leading oil and gas companies did not get the answers to questions about rules for foreign investments in Russia they were seeking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum over the weekend. However, the oil executives again...

Mitvol Steps Up Pressure On Smaller Players.
June 12, 2007... Oleg Mitvol, the Russian environmental inspector who has hounded oil and gas companies from Siberia to Sakhalin, is taking a new tack. By this summer, his team will have compiled a dossier on reserves that could spell trouble for many of the...

Gazprom Sees Exxon-CNPC Deal As Obstacle In China Talks.
June 12, 2007... Gazprom's gas negotiations with China are being severely hampered by a preliminary agreement that Exxon Mobil signed with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) last year on supplies from the Sakhalin-1 project. Gazprom, which has the...

Gazprom Hints At UK Expansion.
June 12, 2007... Russian gas giant Gazprom is planning to boost its presence in the UK, but is playing down renewed suggestions it is lining up a big UK corporate acquisition, such as utility Centrica or Scottish and Southern. Deputy Chief Executive...

Surgut Plans New Refinery At Kirishi.
June 12, 2007... Kremlin-loyal Surgutneftegas plans to build a new refinery close to its existing Kirishi plant near St. Petersburg, and is negotiating with Russian national pipeline operator Transneft for increased crude supplies. The capacity of the new...

E.On Earmarks Russia Funds.
June 12, 2007... Russia looms large in E.On's massive investment plans, yet Europe's largest nonstate-run utility won't -- or can't -- say how soon it and German rival BASF's three-way landmark deal with Gazprom for equity in Russia's Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field...

Russia To Freeze Gas Extraction Tax.
June 12, 2007... Russia is not planning to increase its natural gas extraction tax in the short term. "There are no plans to raise gas production tax over the next three years," the head of a presidential council of experts, Arkady Dvorkovichhead, said last...

New Field Sheds Light On Far East Gas Program.
June 12, 2007... A massive new field in the Sakha-Yakutia republic could have a key role in the gas program being devised for Russia's Far East. The autonomous republic's president, Vyacheslav Shtyrov, told reporters at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum...

Russian Environmental Agency Targets Rosneft Spill.
June 12, 2007... The environmental agency of Russia's Natural Resources Ministry has brought charges against state oil champion Rosneft over an oil spill at the company's main production unit, Yuganskneftegas. Rosprirodnadzor accused Rosneft of covering up...

Lukoil Plans Floating Storage In Norway.
June 12, 2007... Lukoil will install a floating storage facility close to the Russian border in Norway for exports of crude volumes from its joint venture with ConocoPhillips, according to Lukoil's vice president, Dzhevan Cheloyants. Naryanmarneftegas, a...

Sakhalin-2 New Crude Production Season Launched.
June 12, 2007... Sakhalin Energy, a consortium led by state Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell, has restarted the summer crude production season at its Sakhalin-2 project offshore Russia's Far Eastern Pacific coast. The company, which operates the project,...

Gazprom To Announce Baltic LNG Shortlist.
June 12, 2007... Russia's Gazprom may officially announce a shortlist of overseas companies as potential partners in its proposed Baltic LNG project later this month, a high-ranking official at the company was quoted as saying last week. The issue is set...

St. Petersburg Commodities Exchange Gets Approval.
June 12, 2007... The Russian government has approved the establishment of a commodities exchange in St. Petersburg in the hope of sparking Russian interest in trading energy contracts, in particular the New York Mercantile Exchange's (Nymex's) moribund Russian...

Enel Buys Into Power Generator OGK-5.(Brief article)
June 12, 2007... Italian power company Enel has agreed to pay $1.52 billion for a 25.03% stake in Russia's OGK-5 wholesale power generation firm. The stake in OGK-5 was being sold as part of Moscow's part privatization of OGK-5's parent company, Russia's...

Azeri Development Awaits Well Results.
June 12, 2007... International majors that are beginning to circle around previously abandoned blocks offshore Azerbaijan will be paying more than a little attention to the results of the SDX4 exploration well at the BP-operated Shah Deniz gas fields. This...

Bulgaria Slows Down Bosporus Bypass.
June 12, 2007... Russia's national pipeline operator Transneft is dissatisfied with Bulgaria's progress with the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, which aims to bypass Turkey's congested Bosporus Strait. Speaking at the press conference Jun. 9,...

Cracks Are Appearing In Kazakh Power Base.
June 12, 2007... Cracks are appearing in the power base that has propped up Nursultan Nazarbayev during his 17-year reign as president of Kazakhstan. There is no doubt that the president remains hugely popular with the Kazakh people, but frailties have been...

The Devil's In The Detail Of KCTS Plan.
June 12, 2007... Officials organizing the Kazakh Caspian Transportation System (KCTS) remain cagey about a start-up date as negotiations over sea transportation details drag on. The project is designed to deliver crude from the Tengiz and Kashagan fields in...

Mercuria Buys Estonian Oil Products Terminal.
June 12, 2007... Swiss-registered trading firm Mercuria -- the Polish trader formerly known as J&S -- has established a downstream niche in the Baltics by buying an oil products terminal in Tallin, Estonia's, Muuga Harbor, from Denmark-based Eurodek. The...

Vitol Strengthens Control Over Latvian Terminal.(Brief article)
June 12, 2007... Vitol has finalized a deal to purchase a direct 49% stake in Latvia's Ventspils Nafta Terminals, strengthening the Swiss-registered commodity trader's hold over the largest oil and refined products terminal on the Baltic Sea. Vitol...

Transneft To Issue Bonds, Dilute Preferred Stocks.
June 12, 2007... Russian state crude oil pipeline monopoly Transneft is planning to offer a new five-year bond in two separate tranches to raise funds for the construction of its new East Siberia to Pacific pipeline, the company announced last week. The...

Equities and Currencies.
June 12, 2007... Share Prices Closing On Jun. 9, 2007

Urals Firms On Perceived Tightness.
June 12, 2007... Front-month July Brent crude oil futures traded in a $3.52/bbl range from a Jun. 7 high of $71.72 to a Jun. 11 low of $68.20 as it became clear that a cyclone in the Mideast Gulf had not impacted significantly on shipping or production, and...

Gas Oil, Fuel Oil Steady To Firm.
June 12, 2007... Russian gas oil prices have remained steady so far this week after sustaining losses in line with weakness in crude futures late last week. The passing of Cyclone Gonu in the Mideast Gulf, which had caused supply concerns over port...

Conoco Claims To Have Cracked Secret To Success In Russia.
June 19, 2007... Foreign oil companies have often had a rough ride in Russia, but ConocoPhillips reckons it has cracked the secret to success by sticking with a minority stake in its strategic partner Lukoil. "We own 20% of Lukoil -- it's not 50% or 60% --...

Russian Far East Gas Plan Becomes Clearer.
June 19, 2007... A determination on the part of state Gazprom to get top prices for Russian gas -- whether from Europe or China -- underpins a series of policy pronouncements flowing out of Moscow over the last week on the long-awaited unified gas development...

Gazprom Not Interested In Russneft.
June 19, 2007... Russian state gas behemoth Gazprom's deputy chief executive, Alexander Ananenkov, denied that Gazprom has any interest in beleaguered Russian oil independent Russneft, whose shares were frozen Jun. 20 by the Moscow Arbitration Court. The...

Transneft Head Will Stay For Now.(Semyon Vainshtok)
June 19, 2007... The head of Russia's national pipeline operator Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, is going to stay in his position until at least the end of 2008, following a request by Russian President Vladimir Putin, insiders say. Putin held a meeting with...

Rosneft Wins Yukos' Kuban Lot.
June 19, 2007... Russian state major Rosneft has agreed to buy the southern assets of bankrupt Yukos for slightly more than 4.9 billion rubles ($189 million), which is just below the initial winning bid from little-known Promregionholding. ...

Poland Sees Russian Crude Flows Fade Away.
June 19, 2007... Shipments of Russian crude out of Poland's Baltic port of Gdansk are set to take a significant hit if Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft sticks to its preliminary shipping plans for the next three months. According to export schedules drawn up...

Half Of Shtokman Gas To Be Exported As LNG.
June 19, 2007... Gazprom seems to be keeping its options open in order to find the best price not only for East Siberian gas, but also for the development of its massive offshore Barents Sea Shtokman fields. Coming back around to almost where it began,...

BP Boss Backs Reciprocity With Russia.
June 19, 2007... With the fate of TNK-BP's Kovykta licenses hanging in the balance, BP's new chief executive said this week that he believed in the principle of reciprocal investment as a way for Russia and the West to move forward. "Our commitment [is] to...

Ministry Looks To Cut Flaring 95% By 2011.(Brief article)
June 19, 2007... Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev warned Jun. 18 that the ministry would take steps toward creating a system of environmental fines with the goal of reducing the flaring of associated gas in Russia by 95%. Under the plan,...

Urals Energy Will Sell Gas To Gazprom.
June 19, 2007... Gazprom and Urals Energy, a London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) listed independent, signed a cooperation agreement last week under which Gazprom will buy gas from Urals' Dulisminskoye oil and gas condensate field when it starts...

CIS Nations Back Odessa-Brody Reversal.
June 19, 2007... A summit meeting of CIS nations disgruntled with Russia -- Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan -- under the auspices of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) gave its support to a pipeline project extending the...

Lukoil Taps Into Turkmenistan To Bolster Caspian Position.
June 19, 2007... Lukoil is tapping into Turkmenistan, lining up three offshore blocks that will underpin the Russian company's strong position in the Caspian Sea. A team from Lukoil is due in Ashkhabad on Jun. 29 that will present proposals on work...

Supply May Be The Least Of Nabucco's Challenges.
June 19, 2007... The Austrian OMV-led Nabucco pipeline project, which aims to deliver 30 billion cubic meters per year of natural gas across Turkey to Europe, is looking at a potential headache from Turkey and other transit nations. The proposed line has...

Kazakh Leader Calls Early Elections For August.
June 19, 2007... President Nursultan Nazarbayev has dissolved Kazakhstan's Parliament and called early elections for Aug.18 -- more than two years ahead of schedule. The move is in line with recent constitutional changes that lifted term limits on...

Foreign Firms Urged To Boost Kazakh Export Routes.
June 19, 2007... Leading foreign oil companies working in Kazakhstan have been urged by President Nursultan Nazarbayev to invest in new "breakthrough" export routes because the Central Asian state's transportation infrastructure is currently failing to keep up...

Former Shell Man Takes Top Oil Job.(Maksat Idenov appointed at Kazmunaigas)(Brief article)
June 19, 2007... Maksat Idenov, a former executive at Royal Dutch Shell in Dubai who also worked at the World Bank, has joined Kazakh state oil company Kazmunaigas as first vice president, replacing Zhakysbek Kulekeev, who has been made head of state railway...

Equities and Currencies.
June 19, 2007... Share Prices Closing On June 19, 2007

Yukos Debt, Export Duties Hit Rosneft Profits.
June 19, 2007... Hit by Russian tax authorities, state oil firm Rosneft's net profits fell to $358 million in the first three months of the year, a drop of 55% from the same period in 2006. Although the weaker results are in part connected with steeper export...

TNK-BP Holding Releases First GAAP Results.
June 19, 2007... TNK-BP Holding, the publicly traded subsidiary of Russian-UK joint venture TNK-BP International, has released first ever US GAAP audited results showing net income of $6.41 billion for full-year 2006, reflecting the sale of Udmurtneft. This was...

US Stockbuild Hammers Futures, Dated Brent Firms.
June 19, 2007... Front-month Brent crude oil futures traded in a $3.91/bbl range from a Jun. 13 low of $68.34 to a Jun. 19 10-month high of $72.25 in advance of a potentially supply-disruptive general strike in Nigeria and more generally supported by rising...

Gas Oil Futures Fade From Nine-Month Highs.
June 19, 2007... Russian gas oil has cooled down slightly after big advances at the start of the week, courtesy of ICE gas oil futures. The front-month ICE contract traded in a $32.75 range from a Jun. 13 low of $598.50/metric ton to a Jun. 18 nine-month high...

BP Keeps Faith With Russia Despite Loss Of Kovykta.
June 26, 2007... The controversial deal that allows Gazprom to grab control of the Kovykta gas field underlines just how determined BP is to hang on to the $8 billion investment it made four years ago into the TNK-BP joint venture. After months of pressure from...

OMV Eyes Regional Supremacy With Move On Mol.
June 26, 2007... In what could be the start of the final act in the long-running battle for supremacy in Central Europe's oil and gas market, Austrian OMV appears to be gearing up for a bid to take over Hungarian Mol. This week, OMV announced it had spent 1...

Gazprom Could Alter Kovykta Plans.
June 26, 2007... Gazprom could start development of the Kovykta field earlier than the 2017 date stipulated by the new unified gas development plan for East Siberia and Russia's Far East, Gazprom managers indicate. China and South Korea are also still potential...

Moscow Looks Into Kazakh Crude Swaps.
June 26, 2007... Moscow is taking steps aimed at halting crude supply deals to Kazakhstan that would allow the freed-up Kazakh volumes to be exported to China. Russia is losing big sums in payments into its budget, as export duties are not levied on such...

Russian Production Rises By 2% In May.
June 26, 2007... Russian crude and condensate production stood at 9.82 million b/d (41.51 million metric tons) in May, 2% higher than a year ago and 0.2% more than in April, according to the latest data from the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry (see...

Russia Routes Crude Southward As Loadings Rise.
June 26, 2007... Russia plans to open up the export taps in July, adding 29,000 b/d from the June seaborne export schedule, which was itself significantly higher than the realized volumes because of multiple open loading spots that went unclaimed. Oil pipeline...

Gazprom Resumes Talks With Germans On Yuzhno-Russkoye.
June 26, 2007... Gazprom has resumed talks on a deal with top German utility E.On to jointly develop the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev said this week. Medvedev rejected the idea that the negotiations stalled...

Gazprom Has Big Appetite For Sakhalin Gas.
June 26, 2007... Gazprom, which recently got control of the Sakhalin-2 project from Royal Dutch Shell, has confirmed ambitious expansion plans on Sakhalin Island offshore Russia's Far East. The state gas concern "is interested in participation in all...

Rosneft Gets Yukos Retail Chain, Aims For Trading Houses.
June 26, 2007... Russian state-controlled Rosneft has paid 16.32 billion rubles (over $600 million) to purchase 495 retail stations and product terminals from Unitex that it had acquired during the liquidation auctions for bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos,...

Tankers Ordered For Primorsk Expansion.
June 26, 2007... State-controlled shipping company Sovcomflot is expanding its Baltic fleet with larger capacity vessels in order to minimize the number of ships servicing the expansion of the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk, a move that adds increasing...

Refinery Output Dips As Crude Ships Out Of Russia.
June 26, 2007... The output of Russian refineries tapered down in May, as traders diverted more crude out of the country. Total production of fuel oil, gas oil and gasoline reached 13.042 million metric tons, up in total volumes from 12.843 million tons in...

Samsun-Ceyhan Pipe Could Be Extended.
June 26, 2007... Turkey's Bosporus bypass pipeline project linking the Black Sea port of Samsun to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan could be extended to Israel to bypass the Suez Canal, said Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler as Turkey also looks to position...

Ukrainian Gas Price Negotiations Loom.
June 26, 2007... Russia and Ukraine plan to renegotiate the price of Russian natural gas supplies in October, sharp on the heels of Ukraine's next parliamentary elections, as well as a new round of talks about cooperation in a pipeline to bring more Central...

Russia And Italy Sign Agreement On South Stream.
June 26, 2007... An agreement between Gazprom and Italy's Eni to begin work on a plan to deliver Russian gas to Europe via the 900 kilometer South Stream pipeline to Bulgaria under the Black Sea may press the boundaries of economic sense as the Russian state...

Lotos Begins Upgrade Of Gdansk Refinery.
June 26, 2007... Polish state refining group Lotos has executed the first major contract to upgrade its principal Gdansk refinery, changing its product focus. The upgrade will increase throughput capacity from 6.1 million metric tons of crude in 2006 to...