NEFTE Compass articles from November 2004

NEFTE Compass archives from November 2004

Chinese Win: China Hopeful As Putin Orders Decision On Pacific Pipe.
November 3, 2004... China's pleas for bigger crude supplies from Russia seem finally to have been heard in Moscow, and it could be Japan's turn to be disappointed. Russia's national pipeline operator Transneft is proposing to build a spur to China as the first...

Catching Up: Kazakh Export Capacity Fails To Keep Pace.(Kazakhstan)
November 3, 2004... Kazakhstan is on track to ramp up oil production to 3.6 million barrels per day by 2015 from around 1 million b/d currently -- overtaking Opec members such as Nigeria, Kuwait and Venezuela. But the growth of its export capacity is failing to...

Belly Up: Facing New Tax Bills, Yukos Prepares For Bankruptcy.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... After a long and bitter struggle with the Russian authorities, oil major Yukos finally looks ready to throw in the towel and declare bankruptcy. Yukos' board of directors has called two extraordinary shareholders meetings. On the agenda...

Reservations: TNK-BP Buys Slavneft Licenses.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... TNK-BP said last week that it acquired four companies from Slavneft, giving it exploration and production licenses in the Bolshekhetskaya depression. The licenses, which cover the Krasnoyarsk region, Yamal-Nenets and Taimyr regions,...

Guidelines: Trader Seeks Ground Rules For CPC Access.(Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Naftatrans)
November 3, 2004... Russian trading company Naftatrans is asking the Industry and Energy Ministry to come up with guidelines that would regulate Russian crude producers' access to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) line. The first shipment of Russian crude via...

No Way: Lukoil Resists BPS Expansion.(Baltic Pipeline System)
November 3, 2004... Lukoil is against further expansion of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS), according to Semyon Vainshtok, president of national pipeline operator Transneft. Lukoil's resistance to Transneft's plans could be explained by the oil major's fear...

Gazpromneft: Gazprom Pushes Ahead With Rosneft Merger.
November 3, 2004... The board of directors of Gazprom has approved the creation of Gazpromneft, as the vehicle for its merger with state oil company Rosneft. Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller also named Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov as general...

Mile High: High Fuel Prices Force Aeroflot To Raise Fares.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Russia's flagship air carrier Aeroflot has announced that it will add a fuel surcharge to its fares from next week due to rising oil prices. The surcharge, which will take effect on Nov. 1, will vary according to a flight's destination and...

Looking Up: Lukoil Unit Ramps Up Production And Exports.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Lukoil subsidiary Ritek is improving its operations, and ramping up production and exports. The company has posted a net profit of 2.357 billion rubles ($81 million) for the first nine months of 2004, in accounts prepared under Russian...

Max Tax: Crude Export Tariff Rises To New Record High.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... The Russian government has again demonstrated its determination to take its share of windfall oil earnings, with the Finance Ministry declaring that it will raise the crude export tariff to $101 per metric ton ($13.78/bbl), with effect from...

Mint Imperial: UK Firm Buys Into Siberia.(Imperial Energy, Allianceneftegaz)(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... UK independent Imperial Energy said that it had bought a 51% stake in Russian oil company Allianceneftegaz. Allianceneftegaz, based in the Tomsk region, owns nine licenses representing four separate blocks covering some 10,000 sq km that...

Going Dutch: Rotterdam Eyes Bigger Russian Export Hub Role.
November 3, 2004... Rotterdam's city-owned port in the Netherlands is gearing up for a big expansion in shipments of crude oil and products from Russia, with new fuel oil storage tanks planned. It is also studying possible development of a 6 Bcm (4.35 million...

Romania: Lukoil Restarts Revamped Refinery.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Russia's Lukoil restarted the Petrotel refinery in Romania last week, after upgrading the plant to produce motor fuels meeting European Union standards. The upgrading program, worth $120.7 million, included the construction of three new...

Romania: OMV Gets Green Light For Petrom Takeover.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Romania's competition authority has approved the planned acquisition by Austria's OMV of a 51% controlling stake in Romania's state-owned Petrom. Romania's competition council said that OMV's recent decision to sell a 25.1% stake in the...

Kazakhstan: Crude Production Hits Record High.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Kazakh crude oil and condensate production hit a record high in October of 1.25 million b/d as production bounced back from the Karachaganak field operated jointly by Eni and BG. Total output was up 7% from September and was a steep 15%...

Bulgaria: Lukoil Seeks To Swallow Up Black Sea Refinery.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Lukoil has asked the Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria to approve a tender offering to buy out minority shareholders in the Lukoil Neftochim Bourgas refinery (NC May6,p4). Lukoil plans to spend $400 million by 2012 on upgrading...

Ukraine: Russia Seals Gas Investment Deal.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's state company Naftogas Ukrainy have signed a financial agreement on the investment phase of the international consortium to modernize and manage Ukraine's pipeline system. The agreement envisages the joint...

Kazakhstan: Saipem Wins Major Kashagan Contract.
November 3, 2004... Italy's Saipem has won a contract worth $520 million for the construction and installation of an offshore pipeline system that will export crude oil from the Caspian Sea's giant Kashagan field to world markets. The partners in the Eni-led...

Purse Strings: Gazprom Reviews Spending Plans.(Gazprom Russian Joint Stock Co.)(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Gazprom's executive board has approved the company's adjusted budget and investment program for 2004, increasing investments to 225 billion rubles ($7.8 billion) from an earlier plan of 212.3 billion rubles ($7.5 billion). The company's...

Flash Act: Mazeikiu Nafta Records Q3 Profits Jump.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Lithuania's Mazeikiu Nafta (MN), which is controlled and operated by embattled Russian major Yukos, is continuing to demonstrate good financial and operational results. MN reported net profits of 448.2 million litas ($158.52 million) in...

Equities And Currencies.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Share Prices Closing On November 2, 2004

Crude Oil: Futures Dive On US Stockbuild.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Crude oil futures fell sharply on news of a larger than expected US crude stockbuild, losing gains earlier in the day from George W. Bush's lead in the Nov. 3 US presidential election. US Department of Energy data showed a 6.3 million bbl...

Products: Gas Oil Dragged Down By Futures.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2004... Russian gas oil prices were dragged down by a fall of around $40 in futures prices over the last week, although some of that decline was offset by strengthening Russian gas oil premiums. In Northwest Europe, Russian gas oil is pegged at a...

Hardball: Gulf Grows With Investors As Kazakhstan Gets Tough.
November 10, 2004... Kazakhstan has taken another step toward muscling its way back into the consortium developing the giant Kashagan field, but the gulf between the government and Western investors continues to grow. Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resources...

Stop Sign: Russia To End Crude Exports Via Second Baltic State.
November 10, 2004... Moscow's campaign to steer its crude exports away from foreign ports to domestic ones has claimed its next victim. Lithuania's Butinge export terminal is facing the prospect of having to shut down its export operations, now that Russia is...

Energy Island: Sakhalin Projects Shift Up A Gear.
November 10, 2004... The two Sakhalin projects developing oil and gas reserves on the Russian Pacific shelf have shifted up a gear in the past week. The Exxon Mobil-operated Sakhalin-1 project held a ceremony to celebrate the welding of the first joint of the...

Revision: Russia To Amend Its Energy Strategy.
November 10, 2004... Russia's robust crude production growth is forcing it to rewrite its long-term Energy Strategy to reflect the higher-than-expected volumes. The Industry and Energy Ministry is planning to hold a tender to choose a candidate to amend the...

First Siberian: Surgutneftegas Sends First Russian Crude Via CPC.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Surgutneftegas has become the first Russian oil producer to ship crude through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) line. The crude was secured by the Naftatrans trading company, which was specially created to build and operate the...

Room Service: National Oil Field Services Firm Proposed.(Russian Union of Oil and Gas Producers)(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Yuri Shafranik, council chairman of the Russian Union of Oil and Gas Producers and a former energy minister, plans to present the government with a plan for creating a national oil services company. The idea would be to allow domestic...

Life Saver: Yukos Chair Says Menatep Could Sell Out Soon.
November 10, 2004... Yukos chairman Viktor Gerashchenko has caused a stir by announcing that the besieged Russian oil giant's main owners may sell out of the company. "Menatep may cease to be one of the owners of Yukos in the very near future -- i.e. the...

Green Light: EU Clears Conoco-Lukoil Deal.(European Union)(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... The European Commission has given regulatory clearance to a deal between ConocoPhillips and Lukoil, whereby the two sides will have joint control over Russian upstream company Naryanmarneftegas(NMN). The company is currently an indirect...

Turkish Tender: Turkey To Auction Off Imported Russian Gas.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Turkish state pipeline operator Botas has launched tenders for the sale of imported Russian natural gas volumes under long-term contracts. The company intends to sell Russian gas supplied under agreements that expire in 2026, 2022 and 2012...

Adding Value: Moscow Appoints Evaluator For Gazpromneft.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... The Russian government has appointed US investment bank Morgan Stanley to value both Gazprom and Rosneft as part of the deal for the state gas monopoly to take over the oil giant. Gazprom's board of directors has approved the creation of...

Pyramid: Lukoil Starts Drilling In Egypt.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Lukoil has launched exploration drilling at Egypt's offshore North-East Geisum Block. The contractor is Egyptian drilling company EDC, which owns a self-elevating floating drilling rig Senusret. The drilling will be carried out for two...

Kazakhstan: Gas Output Recovers As Karachaganak Comes Back.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Natural gas production in Kazakhstan jumped by 43% in October to 1.94 Bcm compared with the previous month as output from the Karachaganak field operated jointly by BG and Eni staged a massive comeback. Flows of gas and condensate from...

Lithuania: Klaipeda Ramps Up Products Shipments.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... The operator of Lithuania's oil export terminal, Klaipedos Nafta (KN), is increasing its oil traffic. The company says it handled 5.408 million metric tons of oil products from January to October, up 2.5% from the same period last year. ...

Estonia: Russians Buy Into EOS Terminal.(Estonian Oil Services)(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Russian steel giant Severstal has bought a controlling stake in Estonia's biggest fuel oil terminal, as it expands the scope of its oil transport business. Severstal's transport subsidiary Severstaltrans has signed a deal to buy a...

Slovakia: Bratislava Tries To Kick Out Yukos.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... The financial woes of besieged Russian oil giant Yukos are starting to alienate its foreign partners. Slovakia's government has announced that it wants to buy back a 49% stake in Transpetrol, the country's pipeline operator, from Yukos. ...

Hungary: Germans Move In On Mol.(E On)(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Germany's E.On, which owns Ruhrgas, is to acquire a majority stake in the gas business of Hungarian energy group Mol, in the latest of a series of asset purchases in central and eastern European grids and supply by the German giant. It...

Restarting Grid: Power Grid Healed After Yugoslav War Cut-Off.
November 10, 2004... Reconnection of the South-East Europe Electricity Grid (Seeeg) to that of the European Union -- severed 13 years ago by the 1991 war in former Yugoslavia -- was celebrated at a ceremony this week at Ernestinovo, Croatia. Market...

On The Block: Irkutsk Offers Gas Field For Sale.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... The local government in the Irkutsk region plans to launch an auction to sell its 11.29% stake in TNK-BP-led Verkhnechonskneftegas, the license holder for the Verkhnechonskoye oil and condensate field in Eastern Siberia. The auction will...

Loan Star: Sibneft Snares Lowest Lending Rate.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... Russia's Sibneft has raised $160 million in a syndicated loan from a group of international banks headed by Dutch ABN Amro. The 25-month credit is secured by Sibneft crude export contracts with trader Vitol and will be used to refinance an...

Equities And Currencies.
November 10, 2004... Share Prices Closing On November 9, 2004

Crude Oil: Futures Hammered By Increasing Supply.
November 10, 2004... Crude oil futures took another hammering over the past seven reporting days as growing supply from both Opec and non-Opec producers, increasing inventories and signs of slowing demand growth made markets look more comfortable. At press time,...

Products: Gas Oil Premiums Soar On Med Tenders.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2004... A spate of Mediterranean tenders for winter heating oil sent Russian gas oil premiums soaring in the south. Some of the gains were offset by a further drop in futures, which have plummeted more than $50 over the last two weeks. Differentials in...

Tapping America: Lukoil Pushes For Decision On US Crude Sales.
November 17, 2004... Lukoil has put the spotlight back on the prospects for Russian crude oil exports to the US by coming up with a new scheme that involves a shorter pipeline and much cheaper costs than an earlier plan. Lukoil wants a government ruling on the...

Selling Sakhalin: Exxon And Shell Slug It Out Over Sakhalin Sales.
November 17, 2004... Rivalry between Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch/Shell on Sakhalin island in Russia's Far East is alive and well. The two operators are level-pegging on the construction of their respective projects -- the $12 billion Sakhalin-1 development and...

Smackdown: Yukos Faces New Bills, Yugansk Sale Delayed.(YUKOS Oil Co.)
November 17, 2004... Yukos has been hit with a tax bill of $6.7 billion for 2002, raising its total tax debts to $18.4 billion, including claims against its subsidiaries. Additional claims are expected for 2003. According to Yukos CFO Bruce Misamore, the...

Tax Mad: TNK-BP Faces New Tax Bill.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... The Russian tax authorities have informed TNK-BP that it owes millions of dollars in back taxes for 2001. The move, however, is not a Yukos-style attack on TNK-BP but rather is a matter of making final adjustments to tax bills. "We've seen...

Discovery: BP, Rosneft To Step Up Sakhalin Search.(British Petroleum Company PLC)
November 17, 2004... BP and Rosneft are having talks on drilling a second exploration well on their Kaigansky-Vasukansky license in the southern part of Sakhalin-5 in 2005. BP Sakhalin president Jens Pace said it would be spudded at a different location to the...

Landlubbers: Russneft Kicks Off Druzhba Sales.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Russneft has kicked off crude exports via the Druzhba pipeline to Central Europe, with shipments going to Poland and Germany in October. Swiss trader Glencore handled shipments to both countries, selling the Poland-bound volumes to J and S. ...

New Deal: TNK-BP, Gazprom To Agree On Kovykta.(Gazprom Russian Joint Stock Co.)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Russian-UK venture TNK-BP, which has a 63% stake in Rusia Petroleum, the license-holder for the Kovykta natural gas field in Eastern Siberia, expects progress at talks with Gazprom over the field's development by the end of this week. ...

Spud Sale: Lukoil Offloads Drilling Unit.(to Eurasia Drilling Co. )(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Lukoil this week signed a final agreement to sell its drilling company Lukoil-Bureniye to Eurasia Drilling Co. (EDC). The transaction is valued at $130 million, including EDC obligations to repay over $60 million of Lukoil-Bureniye's debt....

Iraqi Pledge: Lukoil Holds Out Iraqi Promise To Conoco.(ConocoPhillips)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Lukoil would give a 17.5% stake in Iraq's West Qurna development to US major ConocoPhillips if it manages to reclaim the project. The price of the transfer would be based on the Russian company's expenditure on the project, Lukoil vice...

New Bonds: Lukoil Bond Issue Will Be Its First This Year.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Lukoil says it will start placing its five-year, 6 billion ruble ($210 million) bonds on Nov. 23. They will be Lukoil's first securities issued this year. The oil major said it would use the funds to finance its operations including...

Reserves Funds: Cabinet Approves Bigger Investment In Exploration.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... The Russian government approved last week bigger investments into the country's geological exploration until the year of 2020. The document, presented at a cabinet meeting by Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev, proposes to increase the...

In the House: Millhouse To Regain Control Over Sibneft.(Millhouse Capital)(Sibneft Oil)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Millhouse Capital, the main shareholder in Russia's Sibneft, which recently regained a controlling stake in the oil major, has decided to call a Sibneft annual shareholder meeting after a delay of several months. The meeting is due to take...

Emerald Buy: UK Junior Buys Into Siberian Company.(Krasnoyarskgazprom)(Emerald Energy PLC)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... UK junior Emerald Energy has entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Star Capital Research to acquire a 25% interest in Russian oil and gas company Krasnoyarskgazprom (KGP). KGP has the right to explore and produce...

Changing Times: Moscow's WTO Bid To Impact Oil And Gas Business.(World Trade Organization)
November 17, 2004... Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization could bring major changes to the country's energy sector -- particularly affecting its oil and gas exports. Moscow has played the oil and gas card to win the backing of China and the...

Holding Hands: Lukoil And Gazprom To Sign Cooperation Deal.(Gazprom Russian Joint Stock Co.)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Lukoil and Gazprom reported this week that they are to sign a new long-term cooperation agreement by the end of this year. Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller and Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov discussed the partnership, which is to...

Launch: Gazprom Launches Yuzhno-Russkoye Field.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Gazprom plans later this year to start the development of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field in Western Siberia, which was defined as the main source of gas for Gazprom's proposed the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) under the Baltic Sea. The gas...

Kazakhstan: Nelson Buoyed By High Prices.(Nelson Resources)
November 17, 2004... Nelson Resources, a Canadian oil company that operates exclusively in Kazakhstan, has increased its oil production fourfold over the last year and is making the most of the current high oil prices to underpin its future growth, the company said...

Azerbaijan: Petrofarm Wins Socar Tender.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Singaporean trader Petrofarm has won the latest tender to purchase two cargoes of Urals crude from Azeri state oil firm Socar. The cargoes, which are 82,000 metric tons (600,000 bbl) each, will load out of Russia's Black Sea port of...

Kazakhstan: Kazmunaigas To Auction Off Oil Field Assets.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Stakes in three onshore oil assets are to be sold at auction on Nov. 24 by state oil company Kazmunaigas. The company said in a statement that the stakes are: 50% in the Arman field, in which the other half is held by Royal Dutch/Shell; 69%...

Hungary: Gazprom To Farm Into Mol Assets.(Gazprom Russian Joint Stock Co.)(Mol Rt)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Russia's Gazprom is pushing ahead with efforts to secure stakes in European gas utilities by farming into the $2.8 billion in Hungarian gas assets that state energy group Mol agreed earlier this month to sell to Germany's E.On Ruhrgas. The...

Azerbaijan: BTC Comes Under The Spotlight.(Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... BP's Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline came under scrutiny this week when a UK parliamentary committee cross-examined the government's Exports Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) over its support for the project. Environmental...

Kazakhstan: Karachaganak Gas At The Crossroads.(Karachaganak Petroleum Organization)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... The Karachaganak Petroleum Organization (KPO), led jointly by BG and Eni, is moving towards the third stage of development of the giant onshore Karachaganak gas condensate field, which will focus on increasing gas production. BG chief...

Bingo!: European Oils Look Ahead To Bumper Year.
November 17, 2004... Buoyed by higher energy prices, oil and gas companies in Central and Eastern Europe are looking ahead to a bumper year. Poland's largest oil refiner, PKN Orlen, has reported a three-fold increase in third-quarter 2004 net profits to 837...

Equities And Currencies.
November 17, 2004... Share Prices Closing On November 16, 2004

Crude Oil: Urals Defies Market Direction.
November 17, 2004... The downward pressure on crude oil futures appears relentless, with January Brent slumping another $2.10, or almost 5%, to stand at $41.90 at press time. The futures debacle was mirrored in grade differentials in the Atlantic Basin, but --...

Products: Gas Oil Wobbles.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Russian gas oil prices were dragged down by falling futures. Differentials in the Mediterranean held their strength, but in Northwest Europe they lost some steam in a mostly illiquid market. Gas oil shipments out of the Baltic Sea ports...

Day Of Reckoning: Moscow Sets Auction For Key Yukos Unit.
November 23, 2004... Yukos looks set to be carved up by Christmas after the Russian government set a date for the forced sell-off of the company's 1 million barrel per day production arm, Yuganskneftegas. But while the Dec. 19 auction is open to all-comers,...

Troubled Waters: Tanker Queues Put Spotlight On Bosporus Bypass.
November 23, 2004... Delays in squeezing ships carrying Russian and Caspian crude through the Turkish Straits have grown to over two weeks as winter sets in, putting the spotlight once again back on the need for a pipeline that bypasses the congested Bosporus and...

Rail Runup: Lukoil Inks Vysotsk Rail Deal.(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... Lukoil has signed an agreement with Russian Railways to ship 5 million metric tons of crude and oil products to its Vysotsk terminal in 2005. Lukoil financed construction of the railway infrastructure and access lines to the Baltic Sea...

Kiev Shambles: Moscow Gets Its Man In Ukraine.(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... Russia's wish for a friendly leadership in Kiev has come true after Ukraine's Moscow-backed prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, was elected president of Ukraine in a second, highly controversial round of voting on Nov. 21. But the divided...

Deep Cut: Norsk Hydro Targets Russian Deepwater.(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... Driven by its experience as a deepwater operator, Norway's Norsk Hydro is aiming to take its international oil and gas activities far beyond its base business on the Norwegian continental shelf, with Russia being one of the targets. "We...

Chinese Change: Lukoil To Oust Yukos In Rail Sales To China.(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... Russia's Lukoil plans to replace the embattled Yukos in rail crude shipments to China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). According to an official, Lukoil has agreed to supply 170,000 metric tons (1.2 million bbl) of crude to China before the...

Freezing Up: Seasonal Change Bites Into Russian Crude Production.(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... Russia's crude production fell by 12,900 b/d in October to 9.403 million b/d (39.77 million metric tons) compared with the previous month (see p10). But it is still up a robust 7.3% from a year ago. The country's crude output for the first...

On Board: Lukoil Wants To Get Conoco On Board.
November 23, 2004... Russian oil major Lukoil is calling for an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Jan. 24 to elect a new board of directors that will include a representative of ConocoPhillips. Conoco has just increased its stake in the Russian major to 10%...

Downshift: Gazprom Profits Fall 13% In First Half.
November 23, 2004... Despite higher revenues from gas sales, Gazprom's net profit dropped 13.3% in the first six months of 2004, due to an increase in production taxes, wages and other costs. The Russian state monopoly reported a net profit of 89.9 billion...

Gas Blast: Gazprom Plans Export Boost For 2005.(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... Gazprom says it plans to increase gas exports outside the CIS by 3.57% in 2005 to 145 Bcm, from a forecasted 140 Bcm for 2004. According to Russia's 2005 gas balance, approved by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, the gas monopoly plans to slightly...

New Fields: UK Junior Expands In Siberia.(Imperial Energy)(Brief Article)
November 23, 2004... UK junior Imperial Energy says it has agreed to acquire two exploration licenses in the Tomsk region of Western Siberia. Imperial said that the purchases, which followed an auction that took place in Tomsk on Nov. 18, would be made via its...

Black Winter: Governments Have Their Say Over Bosporus Bypass.
November 23, 2004... As they see the benefits of high oil prices eroded by sky-high shipping costs because of the congestion in the Turkish Straits, oil producers in Russia and the Caspian are taking a closer look at the menu of bypass projects, some of which have...

Thanksgiving.
November 23, 2004... Nefte Compass is published a day earlier than usual this week due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the US.