NEFTE Compass articles from September 2006

NEFTE Compass archives from September 2006

Line Manager: Putin Backs Bosporus Bypass Pipeline To Rival Turkey.
September 4, 2006... Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Athens this week raised the stakes over rival plans to build an oil pipeline bypassing Turkey's congested Bosporus waterway between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Putin threw Russia's weight...

Landmark: Gazprom, Turkmenistan Reach Breakthrough Gas Deal.
September 4, 2006... In a major effort to avoid a repeat of last winter's disruptions to gas supplies to Europe, Gazprom has agreed to new terms with Turkmenistan, including a landmark price of $100 per thousand cubic meters for its gas. The breakthrough deal,...

Sales First: Rosneft To Kick Off Sakhalin Exports In November.
September 4, 2006... Rosneft plans to export its first cargo of Sokol crude from the Exxon Mobil-operated Sakhalin-1 project on Russia's Pacific shelf in the first week of November, marking the third cargo exported from the project, following one each from Exxon...

Closed Book: Lukoil Keeps The Market Waiting.
September 4, 2006... In a blow to market expectations, Lukoil has refused to reveal the full details of its new strategy of intensive growth over the next decade, which was on the agenda of the company's board of directors meeting on Sep. 4. The Russian major...

Backtrack: Gazprom Export Monopoly Takes A Knock.
September 4, 2006... The Russian government reportedly has agreed to amend the law giving state-controlled Gazprom total control over all exports of gas following pressure from the country's largest oil firms. The government has agreed to exclude exports of gas...

Swap Deal: Yukos Agrees To Rosneft Consolidation Terms.
September 4, 2006... Fallen oil firm Yukos has agreed to the share-swap terms offered by state oil champion Rosneft for Yuganskneftegas, the 1.1 million b/d production unit stripped from the now-bankrupt Yukos by the state and sold in a disputed auction at the end...

Booster Pipe: New Pipeline To Help East Siberian Growth.
September 4, 2006... TNK-BP has struck a deal with Russia's Rosneft to construct an oil pipeline from the Verkhnechonskoye oil field in East Siberia to Surgutneftegas' Talakanskoye field, where oil from both fields will be pumped into the East Siberian Pacific...

Second Thoughts: Lukoil May Reconsider Kharyaga Option.
September 4, 2006... In an apparent change of heart, Lukoil is reconsidering the possibility of exercising its option to take a 20% stake in the Kharyaga oil project operated by France's Total in the Timan-Pechora oil province of northern Russia. "We are...

Taking Shtok: Gazprom Close To Picking Shtokman Partner.
September 4, 2006... Russia's Gazprom is close to picking its partners for the giant Shtokman LNG project in the Barents Sea, according to insiders involved in the negotiations. An announcement could be made by the end of this month. Norway's Norsk Hydro,...

Baltic Battle: Latvian Oil Terminal Goes On The Block.
September 4, 2006... Three years after Russia turned off the taps to the oil pipeline supplying the Latvian port of Ventspils, the Baltic state has approved a proposal to sell off its stake in the Ventspils Nafta oil terminal. With the current woes of Lithuanian...

Gas Futures: Central Europe Prepares For Non-Russian Gas.(liquified petroleum gas)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Plans have been outlined to bring new sources of gas to Central and Eastern European markets long dominated by Russian supply. The five-company Adria LNG consortium and Germany's E.On Ruhrgas said this week they have agreed to prepare joint...

Kazakhstan: Kazmunaigas Confirms IPO, Signs New Caspian Deal.
September 4, 2006... Kazmunaigas has confirmed plans to privatize 40% of its exploration and production arm by issuing new ordinary shares on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange, though it did not set out a...

Azerbaijan: Socar Seeks Direct Oil Contracts.
September 4, 2006... Azeri state oil company Socar is in talks with European and Israeli firms on direct crude supplies to their refineries, according to the company's Vice President Elshad Nasirov. The official reason behind the move is increasing crude...

Cool Hand: Rosneft Shares Get Lukewarm Reception.
September 4, 2006... Shares in state-controlled Rosneft have received a lukewarm seal of approval from Moscow's major investment banks, which have finally begun covering the company's shares following a news blackout since Rosneft's $10.4 billion initial public...

Hot Option: IFC Gets Option For Stake In Alliance Group.
September 4, 2006... The International Finance Corp. (IFC) has reportedly signed a deal with Moscow-based independent Alliance Group to possibly buy up to $25 million worth of the Russian company's stock when it lists its shares in an initial public offering next...

Equities and Currencies.
September 4, 2006... Share Prices Closing On Sep. 5, 2006

Crude Oil: Prices Pressured By Firm Supplies, Weak Technicals.
September 4, 2006... Brent futures traded a $3.98 range from an Aug. 31 high of $71.06 to a Sep. 6 low of $67.08. Prices and sentiment were pummeled by a combination of plentiful physical supplies and technical weakness in the futures domain. At the low end,...

Products: Gas Oil Slides On Strong Supply, Weak Crude.
September 4, 2006... The market for Russian gas oil continued to slide downward this week as excess product and drooping crude prices sent product futures on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to their lowest level in five months. Lifting in the important...

Light Ends: Days Are Numbered For Siberian Light Exports.
September 12, 2006... The end is nigh for Siberian Light, Russia's premium crude export grade, as plans gather pace to turn the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse into a major oil products export hub. Driven by Moscow's new strategy of reducing crude exports and...

Neka Netbacks: Iran Makes The Most Of Rising Caspian Oil Exports.
September 12, 2006... Iran has strengthened its position as a Caspian oil transit hub in recent months as shippers from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia, buoyed by the higher netbacks the route has to offer, send more and more tankers to Iran's port of Neka. But...

Long March: Lukoil Steps Up Expansion In China.
September 12, 2006... Top Russian oil producer Lukoil is taking its lead from President Vladimir Putin and stepping up its expansion in China. At a meeting over the weekend with foreign academics and journalists, Putin said that Russia hopes to export 30% of its...

End Of Line: Rosneft Seeks Site For Pacific Refinery.
September 12, 2006... Rosneft is moving ahead with plans to build a new refinery on the Russian Pacific coast, at the end-point of the planned East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. Currently, the oil major is looking for a location for the plant, company...

Under Control: Moscow Pressures Firms To Rein In Product Prices.
September 12, 2006... Moscow appears to be cranking up the pressure on the country's largest oil companies to push down the domestic prices of refined products in a bid to stem Russia's rapidly rising inflation. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov met this week the heads...

In Denial: Exxon Facing New Sakhalin Setback.
September 12, 2006... US supermajor Exxon Mobil's request automatically to broaden the boundaries of its Sakhalin-1 acreage in the Russian Pacific shelf to include potential new reserves will likely be denied by Russian authorities who have become increasingly...

Access: State Urges Gazprom To Open Up Pipelines.
September 12, 2006... Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service last week submitted to the government a draft resolution that would -- theoretically, at least -- provide independent gas producers and oil companies with nondiscriminatory access to Gazprom's domestic...

Outside The Box: Russian Exporters Get Inventive.
September 12, 2006... The halt in Russia's pipeline crude supplies to Lithuania in August has forced oil companies to shake up the export flows of the country's crude. Lukoil sent 75,600 metric tons (18,000 b/d) of crude to Ukraine's Yuzhny (Pivdenny) terminal...

Blue Line: Blue Stream To Feed Domestic Demand.(sends gas to Turkey via the Black Sea)(Brief article)
September 12, 2006... To meet domestic demand in the south of Russia, up to 2 Bcm of natural gas are scheduled to be diverted from the Blue Stream pipeline, which sends gas to Turkey via the Black Sea but has been underutilized due to low demand. Rosneft...

Fueled Up: Rosneft To Boost Fuel Oil Exports From Tuapse.
September 12, 2006... Exports of fuel oil from the Russian port of Tuapse on the Black Sea are set to grow by another 3 million metric tons/yr after Rosneft launches a rail transshipment facility for the product near the port in the first quarter of 2007. Fuel...

Fired Up: Far East Refinery Launches Euro-5 Diesel.
September 12, 2006... Rosneft's Komsomolsk refinery in the Far East of Russia has started producing diesel oil with a sulfur content of just 10 parts per million (ppm), which meets Euro-5 standards. According to Rosneft Vice President Dmitry Bogdanov, the...

Bold Move: Researchers Declare Big Oil Find In Tomsk.(Geological Oil and Gas Institute)(Brief article)
September 12, 2006... The governor of the Tomsk region has boldly declared that Russian scientists have discovered as much as 1 billion tons (7.33 billion bbl) of crude in the East Siberian region, although many observers were wary about the announcement. ...

Closing Out: Court Shelves Yugansk Claim Against Yukos.
September 12, 2006... The Moscow Arbitration Court signaled that it is closing out its role in the Yukos bankruptcy hearings and handing the reins over to the judge ruling on functional bankruptcy proceedings when it rejected a $8.44 billion claim by Rosneft...

Talking Shop: Eni, Gazprom To Sign Cooperation Pact.
September 12, 2006... Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller met his Eni counterpart Paolo Scaroni this week in Moscow where they set guidelines for an agreement between the two companies, which Eni said "will focus on the upstream and downstream sectors including...

Squeeze: Ministry Links Sakhalin-2 Pressure To Cost Increase.(liquified natural gas project)(Brief article)
September 12, 2006... Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev indicated in a surprise admission this week that Moscow's mounting pressure on the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project is linked to the doubling of the development's costs to $20 billion. ...

Kazakhstan: Karachaganak Gas Output Plays Up And Down.
September 12, 2006... Fluctuating gas output at the Karachaganak field operated jointly by BG and Eni is playing havoc with Kazakh statistics. Total Kazakh gas production was up a steep 26% at 2.122 Bcm in August compared with the same month last year, chiefly...

Azerbaijan: BP Rings The Changes In Baku.
September 12, 2006... David Woodward, president of BP Azerbaijan for the past eight years, is retiring in November and will be replaced by Bill Schrader, currently chief executive of BP Angola. Woodward's departure, following the transfer this summer to BP's...

Kazakhstan: Big Sky Comes Up Trumps In Atyrau Block.
September 12, 2006... Big Sky Energy Corp. says that its subsidiary, KoZhaN LLP, has discovered an oil pool in the Dauletaly Block in the Atyrau province of western Kazakhstan. "This is a significant oil find," Al Sehsuvaroglu, the company's president and chief...

Kazakhstan: Lukoil Takes Back Control Of Kumkol Crude.
September 12, 2006... A new oil treatment facility was commissioned this week on the North Kumkol field that will enable the operator, Russia's Lukoil, to bypass having to use facilities at the nearby Shymkent refinery. The field is licensed to Turgai Petroleum,...

Macedonia: Lukoil Makes Its Market Debut.
September 12, 2006... Lukoil has opened its first filling station in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, as a first step into one of the countries that the top Russian producer has targeted for future downstream expansion. Lukoil said it plans to spend $50 million...

Ukraine: Gazprom Makes Ground In Gas Talks.
September 12, 2006... Russia and Ukraine have taken another stab at hammering out the terms of a bilateral cooperation agreement over natural gas. The issue topped the agenda of a recent meeting between Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller and Ukraine's Energy...

Ukraine: JKX Abandons First Zaplavskoye Well.
September 12, 2006... UK independent JKX Oil & Gas said it has plugged and abandoned its first exploration well on the Zaplavskoye exploration license, adjacent to its Poltava production licences, after it turned out to be dry. Drilling was discontinued at...

Ukraine: Vanco Seeks To Resolve Deepwater PSA Impasse.(production sharing agreement)(financial backer JNR EIL)(Brief article)
September 12, 2006... Gene Van Dyke, the head of US independent Vanco Energy, arrived in Kiev this week in a bid to break a deadlock in talks with the new Ukrainian government on a production sharing agreement (PSA) for exploration of a deepwater block. Vanco...

Up And Away: Gazprom Revises Spending Plan Upwards.
September 12, 2006... The executive board of Russian gas giant Gazprom has upped the company's spending and profitability expectations for 2006. Under the revised budget, which still needs approval from Gazprom's board of directors, the state-controlled...

Spending Spree: TNK-BP Eyes $2 Billion For Uvat Development.
September 12, 2006... Russian-UK joint venture TNK-BP plans to invest around $2 billion over the coming 20 years to develop the Uvat group of fields. TNK-BP General Director German Khan signed an agreement last week over the fields' development with Vladimir...

Equities and Currencies.
September 12, 2006... Share Prices Closing Sep. 12, 2006

Crude Oil: Prices Pressured By Plentiful Supplies.
September 12, 2006... October Brent futures traded a $5.62 range in a steady decline from a Sep. 6 high of $68.25 to a Sep. 13 low of $62.63 before recovering a little during a bout of short-covering ahead of the contract's expiry at the close of business. Prices...

Products: High US Stocks Hit Gas Oil Prices.
September 12, 2006... European middle distillate products prices continued a downward trend over the past week tracking losses in crude futures, which on Sep. 13 dipped below $63. Prices for gas oil in Northwest Europe continued to fall as larger-than-expected...

Shell Scare: Russia Gets Tough With Shell Over Sakhalin Costs.
September 20, 2006... Russia's reputation as a reliable energy supplier has got another black eye after a major fall-out over the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project sparked a chorus of protests led by Japan and the European Union. While it waits for...

No Quarter: Russian Oil Exports To Dip In Q4 As Lithuania Cutoff Kicks In.
September 20, 2006... Moscow's assurances that the pipeline shutdown to Lithuania would not adversely affect overall crude oil exports appear to have been short-lived. With winter looming on the horizon, Russian state pipeline operator Transneft plans to slash...

Electric Shock: Moscow Advances Power Reforms After Political Breakthrough.
September 20, 2006... Reform of Russia's power sector has at last moved into high gear after years of delays, with plans now in place to begin issuing shares to investors in the new generation companies that have been spun off from UES. In late August, the company's...

Alarm Bell: Exxon Parries Sakhalin-1 Environmental Claims.
September 20, 2006... The Exxon Mobil-led Sakhalin-1 project could be in trouble after an official at the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources' regional environmental oversight board said that the recently commissioned export terminal at De Kastri does not comply...

Winter Worries: Europe Should Watch Belarus For Gas Disruptions.
September 20, 2006... Europe looks set to avoid another anxious winter over gas supplies because of improved relations between Russia and Ukraine but there could be a problem with Belarus, another transit country for Russian deliveries, Jonathan Stern, director of...

Still Rising: Crude Exports Continue Rise Despite Taxes, Shutdown.
September 20, 2006... Despite record-high export tariffs and a shutdown of pipeline supplies to Lithuania, exports of Russian crude oil trickled upward in August while deliveries to domestic refineries remained nearly flat, according to data from the Energy Agency....

Blue Moon: Gazprom Boosts Gas To Turkey Via Blue Stream.
September 20, 2006... Russia's Gazprom has temporarily increased natural gas supplies to Turkey to compensate for a halt of pipeline shipments from Iran, a Gazprom official was quoted as saying last week. The Russian gas giant increased for four days supplies...

Asian Invasion: Russian Companies Expand Into Myanmar.(Zarubezhneft sign production sharing agreement with ITERA International Energy Corp. and Sun Group)(Brief article)
September 20, 2006... State-owned Zarubezhneft has taken another step to expand outside Russia by signing a production sharing agreement to develop a block offshore Myanmar. Zarubezhneft signed the agreement with Florida-registered, Russia-based gas trader and...

Asian Eye: Gazprom Seeks Cooperation With Japanese.
September 20, 2006... With an eye on Asia's lucrative LNG markets, Russia's gas giant Gazprom is seeking closer cooperation with Japanese companies, hoping to use their technology and equipment for gas transportation, processing and utilization. LNG production...

Tapping In: Gazprom Hits Up New European Gas Buyers.
September 20, 2006... Gazprom is sounding out customers for new contracts for gas supplies via the planned North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP), which from 2011 will send Russian gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The Russian gas giant is holding talks...

Hola: Spanish Power Chief Meets Gazprom, UES.
September 20, 2006... The head of Spain's largest power supplier and generator has been in Moscow for talks on medium-term Russian gas supplies. Endesa Chief Executive Rafael Miranda met Gazprom Deputy Chief Alexander Medvedev, who also heads its export arm...

Foster Wheeler Wins Tatar Refinery Contract.
September 20, 2006... US contractor Foster Wheeler said its Paris subsidiary has been awarded a contract to provide front-end engineering design by CJSC Nizhnekamsk Refinery for a new refining and petrochemical complex worth over $3 billion to be built at...

Bypass Operation: Eni Takes Stake In Turkish Pipeline Company.
September 20, 2006... Italy's Eni is acquiring 50% of a company set up by Turkish conglomerate Calik to build and operate an oil pipeline from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, bypassing the congested Bosporus waterway through Istanbul. The jointly owned...

Kazakhstan: Refinery Throughputs Come Off In August.
September 20, 2006... Crude oil processing at Kazakhstan's three refineries rose a steep 30% in August to 261,000 b/d from the previous month as the northern Pavlodar plant climbed back to normal levels after a downturn in July. Throughputs at the...

Lithuania: Mazeikiu Nafta Turns To Venezuelan Crude.
September 20, 2006... Lithuanian refiner Mazeikiu Nafta (MN) has imported Venezuelan crude oil for the first time, as the company scrambles to find supplies in the face of a shutoff of pipeline deliveries from Russia. MN imported two 70,000-ton cargoes of...

Kazakhstan: Kazmunaigas E&P Sets IPO Price.
September 20, 2006... Kazmunaigas Exploration & Production (KMG E&P), an arm of Kazakhstan's state-owned oil and gas company Kazmunaigas, has set a global price range for its initial public offering that it hopes will raise $1.9 billion. A 20% chunk of the...

Azerbaijan: Sun Oil Wins Socar Urals Tender.
September 20, 2006... Swiss-registered Sun Oil has won the latest two tenders for a total of 160,000 metric tons (1.173 million bbl) of Russian export blend crude from Azeri state oil company Socar. The oil, which is the eleventh Socar Urals tender of the year,...

Uzbekistan: Uzbekneftegas Seeks To Boost Reserves.
September 20, 2006... Uzbekistan's state-run oil and gas holding company Uzbekneftegas plans to increase the country's hydrocarbons reserves by 521.1 million metric tons of fuel equivalent in 2006-10, a spokesman for the company said last week. To implement the...

Tax Man: Russian Court Upholds CPC Tax Claim.
September 20, 2006... In another blow to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a Russian court reportedly has upheld the vast majority of the state's hefty back tax claims against the group for the second half of 2002 and 2003. The court reportedly trimmed the...

Toll Road: Transneft Gets Tariff Boost, Shares Renew Trading.
September 20, 2006... Pipeline monopoly Transneft has received government approval to raise pipeline tariffs by 2% beginning Oct.1 in order to help finance the construction of the East Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline. The added income will be used to pay for the...

Equities And Currencies.
September 20, 2006... Share Prices Closing On Sep. 19, 2006

Crude Oil: Cash Values Still Heading South.
September 20, 2006... November Brent futures aborted a short-lived, gas oil-led $1.25 rally to resume its downward path. The contract traded a $3.31 range from a Sep. 18 high of $64.05 to a Sep. 20 low of $60.74. This is the front month's lowest level since Mar. 13....

Products: Plentiful Supplies Keep Prices Under Pressure.
September 20, 2006... European middle distillate prices again headed south on Sep. 20 after showing some signs of firming early in the week. The story remained the same as in previous weeks: Continuing evidence of larger than expected inventories in the US and...

Walking The Plank: Moscow Counts Time As Sakhalin Costs Go Overboard.
September 27, 2006... Sakhalin Energy, the Royal Dutch Shell-led operator of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project on Russia's Pacific shelf, remains confident that threats to revoke a key environmental permit will not be carried out, but if it came to the crunch a...

Sea Sickness: Kashagan Headache Still Going Strong.(petroleum exploration in Kazakh area of Caspian Sea)
September 27, 2006... The controversy raging over the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia underlines the difficulties involved in executing huge upstream schemes in the former Soviet Union, where cost overruns and environmental pressures are a fact of life. Another prime...

Fading Out: Lukoil Plans Refinery Boost, With Or Without Conoco.
September 27, 2006... When Russian Lukoil and US ConocoPhillips forged their strategic alliance in 1994, it looked like a perfect fit: Lukoil had abundant production capacity, Conoco ample refining capacity. Two years on, the two sides are still negotiating their...

Falling Behind: Putin Signals US Firms Sliding In Shtokman Race.
September 27, 2006... Gazprom is considering shipping gas from the huge Shtokman development in the Barents Sea to European markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend at a meeting in France with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French...

Border Check: Rosneft Takes Disputed Sakhalin-1 Block.
September 27, 2006... State oil champion Rosneft is set to claim the disputed acreage bordering the massive Sakhalin-1 project, apparently putting a dent in Exxon Mobil's efforts to have the reserves added to those covered by the production sharing agreement (PSA)...

Launch Date: Nymex Moves Forward With Urals Contract.
September 27, 2006... The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) plans to begin trading of a futures contract for Russia's Urals crude blend by the end of the year, a representative for the exchange said. The monthly Russian Export Blend Crude Oil (Rebco) contract...

In Limbo: TNK-BP's Kovykta License Awaits Audit.
September 27, 2006... TNK-BP appears to have received a slight respite from the threat that the company could lose its license for the giant Kovykta gas field in East Siberia, though it remains unclear how long the break will last. Russia's Natural Resources...

Rising Tide: Russian Crude Production Continues Growth.
September 27, 2006... Total Russian crude production continued to grow to hit 9.78 million b/d (41.37 million tons) in August, up 105,000 b/d from July and up 288,000 b/d, or 3%, from August 2005, according to statistics from the Ministry of Energy and Industry (see...

Second Take: Gazprom Backtracks, Will Supply More Gas To Utility.
September 27, 2006... Gazprom expects to supply the country's utilities monopoly UES with more natural gas this year than last year, an apparent backtracking from both companies' assertions earlier this year that the utility would have to slash its consumption of...

African Inroads: Gazprom, Itera Plan JV For African Opportunities.
September 27, 2006... In a bid to expand overseas, gas behemoth Gazprom has signed a deal with Equatorial Guinea on possible electricity generation and LNG projects, opening a new opportunity in Africa. According to a statement from the Russian company, the...

Positive Energy: Novatek Eyes Power Generation Assets.
September 27, 2006... Independent gas producer Novatek is eyeing power generation assets that should become available with the breakup of federal power monopoly Unified Energy Systems (UES). Novatek has set up a new company, Northern Energy, with Russian power...

Doubling Down: Rosneft, Sinopec Double Investment In Udmurtneft.
September 27, 2006... Russian state run Rosneft and Chinese Sinopec plan to double capital investment in developing their newly acquired joint venture, Udmurtneft, though it remains unclear what effect this will have on production. The two oil companies plan to...

Eastern Showdown: Mol, OMV Build Plans For Expansion In Russia.
September 27, 2006... Hungary's Mol and Austria's OMV have extended their downstream competition in Central and Eastern Europe to include the upstream in Russia, as both companies have announced fresh license acquisitions from Russian holding companies. In...

Bosporus Bypass: Shell Looks At Joining Eni's Turkish Pipeline.
September 27, 2006... Royal Dutch Shell has signed an agreement with Italian Eni and Turkish conglomerate Calik to investigate the possibility of participating in the development of a pipeline across Turkey that would allow crude shipments to bypass Istanbul's...

Rompetrol Aims High In Gasoline Market.
September 27, 2006... The Rompetrol Group has set up a new subsidiary in Ukraine that will initially carry out wholesale trading and will aim to grow to operate about 200 gas stations within two years. Rompetrol Ukraine will supply fuel to Ukrainian gas stations...