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"If you morons won't do it, we will."
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Gazprom Pursues Russian Shale Boom [with fracking]
by Elena Mazneva


(Bloomberg) OAO Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia’s state-run gas exporter, said commercial production from its Bazhenov shale formations could start in three years amid U.S. sanctions limiting the transfer of fracking technology.

The company aims to produce about 40,000 barrels of crude a day from the deposits from 2018, Kirill Strizhnev, head of unconventional projects for Gazprom Neft, told reporters in Moscow. That’s about 2.7 percent of Gazprom Neft’s daily first-quarter output of 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Russia’s efforts to replicate North Dakota’s Bakken shale boom are being hindered by the U.S. ban on exports of equipment and technology after Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the insurgency in Ukraine. While that has stalled ventures involving Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia can still extract smaller volumes through hydraulic fracturing.

“Foreign companies are stronger in this type of drilling so it’s faster to do it with western help,” said Alexei Vashkevich, head of geological exploration and resource base development at Gazprom Neft. “Can they be excluded? Yes, they can. Can we do it without them? Yes, we can. It will be a little harder and will take a little longer, but it’s possible.’

Bazhenov is a layer of ancient organic matter that’s the source rock for most of the crude pumped in West Siberia. That gives the formation the advantage of being close to pipelines serving Russia’s largest oil-producing region.

Field Development

Gazprom Neft estimates that it has more than 70 million metric tons of potentially recoverable reserves from Bazhenov, Strizhnev said. Bazhenov as a whole could contain as much as 22 billion tons, according to Russia’s Energy Ministry.

The large players that control Bazhenov need to do a huge amount of ‘‘theoretical work” before they can show the layer is profitable to develop, unlike at Bakken, said Vashkevich, who worked in North Dakota before joining Gazprom Neft in 2013. Bakken has been drilled for about five decades because dozens of “Mom and Pop” firms took on the risks, he said.

The company, which has drilled nine wells at Bazhenov, expects extraction costs to be similar to those of conventional deposits, Strizhnev said.

Gazprom Neft may need to drill 20 to 30 wells and start developing one or two fields before devising a full investment program, Vashkevich said

There won’t be “quick victories” at Bazhenov, he said. “Everything should be done in right way this time.”




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HEY, REMEMBER PEAK OIL? Britain’s Underground Elephant Gets Bigger.
Two months ago, a small British oil exploration firm shocked the world when it announced a massive new oil discovery in southeast England, describing the site underneath Gatwick airport as a “world class potential resource.” The lucky firm, UK Oil & Gas Investments, estimated that the region’s Weald basin held as many as 158 million barrels of oil per square mile, which extrapolated out could mean a grand total of more than 100 billion barrels. Now, an outside assessment estimates the basin to contain 271 million barrels per square mile—72 percent more oil than was initially reported.

Quick, Vladimir — fund some more anti-fracking protesters in the West!

OIL IS AN ENDLESS COMMODITY
 


Ukraine halts Russian gas imports, flows to Europe unaffected (Reuters)

Russia halts gas supply to Ukraine amid pricing dispute (AP)





KIEV/MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Ukraine halted natural gas imports from Russia on Wednesday after a failure to agree on a price for the third quarter, state transport monopoly Ukrtransgaz said, in talks loaded with the political tension between the two.

Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine were unaffected,

"From today, Ukraine is not getting gas from Russia. Transit supplies are as normal," Ukrtransgaz spokesman Maksim Belyavsky said.

Russia had proposed keeping prices unchanged from the second quarter at $247 per 1,000 cubic metres with a discount of around $40 per 1,000 cubic metres. [ $207/m³ = $5.86/Mcf ] Kiev wants better terms.

Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz said after Tuesday's failed talks that it would stop buying gas from Russia until new terms had been agreed.

Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said Ukraine would buy gas from other sources and there would be another round of talks with Russia in September.

"Gazprom will not supply Ukraine under any gas price if there is no prepayment," Alexei Miller, head of the Russian gas exporter, said in a statement

Gazprom accounts for around a third of Europe's gas needs and roughly a half is pumped via pipelines crossing Ukraine. Moscow and Kiev regularly dispute supply terms and rows have led to disruptions in supplies to Europe in previous years.

Exports to Europe were unaffected during last year's row but Russia has warned that gas storage in Ukraine needs another 7 billion cubic metres to ensure the pressure needed to get gas to Europe in the winter.

On June 30, Ukraine received 22.9 million cubic metres of gas from Slovakia, 11.0 million from Russia and 2.7 million from Hungary.

Ukraine expects to receive 13.6 million cubic metres of gas from Slovakia on Wednesday, Belyavsky said.

Ukraine, whose relations with Russia are at rock-bottom following Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its backing for Ukrainian separatists, began large imports of gas from Europe in 2013 in a bid to reduce its energy dependence on Russian supplies.





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trysail said:

If I was a betting man, I'd be inclined to bet that either (1) the price of petroleum is going to fall or (2) the price of natural gas is going to rise or (3) some combination of (1) and (2) was likely to occur.
Click to expand...



Sometimes, it takes a while for these things to work out but as Herb Stein so accurately observed:


"If something can't go on forever—
it won't."​
​




​
​
 


How Much Longer Can Saudi Arabia's Economy Hold Out Against Cheap Oil?

by Vivian Nereim and Donna Abu-Nasr
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-arabia-s-economy-hold-out-against-cheap-oil-


The oil price was near its lowest in more than a decade, cash reserves were being depleted, emerging markets were in turmoil and Saudi Arabia was beginning to panic.

“It was a very scary moment,” said Khalid Alsweilem, former head of investment at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the country’s central bank. “And luckily at that point, oil prices started going up. Not by design, by good luck.”

That was 1998, and now Saudi Arabia’s fortunes threaten to turn again. This time, luck might not be enough as the government tries to protect the wealth of a nation whose economy has swelled by five times since then. The bastion of conservative Sunni Islam also is paying for an expanding role in regional conflicts in the face of a resurgent Iran and Islamic State extremists who have bombed Saudi mosques.

Economists are predicting a budget deficit of as much as 20 percent of gross domestic product and the International Monetary Fund forecasts a first Saudi current-account deficit in more than a decade. Reserves at the central bank tumbled 10 percent from a year ago, or by more than $70 billion.

As a result, bets on the devaluation of the riyal are surging. The Tadawul All Share Index lost 18 percent in the past three months and dragged stocks down across the Gulf region. The benchmark’s moving averages made a so-called death cross on Aug. 18, a sign to some investors that more losses are ahead.

Patient Saudis

The Saudis have “played a waiting game,” Robert Burgess, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief economist for emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said from London. “The budget for next year is going to be a very important milestone that the markets are going to be focusing on quite intently.”

With oil prices down by more than half over the past 12 months to below $50, Saudi Arabia faces many of the same financial problems it did in 1998.

The difference is the sheer cost of maintaining the state as an employment machine and guarantor of the riches that Saudis have become accustomed to since the last squeeze. Subsidized gasoline costs 16 cents per liter and while there’s the religious levy called zakat, there is no personal income tax in the nation of 30 million people.

“The Saudi government can’t continue to be the employer of first resort, it can’t continue to drive economic growth through the big infrastructure projects and it can’t keep lavishing on subsidies and social spending,” said Farouk Soussa, chief Middle East economist for Citigroup Inc. in London.

Taking Action

That’s not to suggest Saudi Arabia is headed for the kind of spending cuts and tax increases more familiar to austerity-hit Europeans. The government, for instance, could first freeze the expansion of two mosques in Mecca or tax wealthy landowners, Jamal Khashoggi, a former media adviser to Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, said by phone from Riyadh.

“There’s a long list of things that Saudi officials can do before touching the livelihood of ordinary Saudis,” said Khashoggi. “Yes, it’s a difficult time and maybe it could have been much better if we did what we’re doing today a couple of years ago when the price of oil was in the $100s.”

During those good times, King Abdullah, who ruled from 2005 until his death in January, increased social spending as the Arab Spring uprisings toppled leaders elsewhere.

It’s also not like Saudi Arabia has no control over its destiny. Oil rebounded after 1998 – the price of crude advanced in 11 of the 16 calendar years since then – not least because the Saudis used their clout as the de facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.

What Crisis?

The country has declined to cut production and lift prices over the past year to gain market share from the shale industry in the U.S. and other producers with higher expenses, even if that’s come at a cost to its finances. Saudi Arabia still has $664 billion of net foreign assets, equal to almost 90 percent of the economy, and little debt.

“I wouldn’t say there’s any kind of crisis or even a crisis on the near horizon,” said David Butter, associate fellow at Chatham House in London. “They’re in the oil business. They’ve had it pretty good for quite a long time and that’s not typical.”

Even so, the IMF recommends that Saudi Arabia control its growing wage bill, make changes to government subsidies for fuel and electricity and bring in more non-oil revenue through taxes. The country’s breakeven oil price – the point at which it can balance its budget – is about $100, said Soussa at Citigroup.

Fuel subsidies alone will cost Saudi Arabia as much as 195 billion riyals ($52 billion) this year, or 8 percent of GDP, Riyadh-based Samba Financial Group said in an Aug. 18 report. Central bank Governor Fahad al-Mubarak already has called for a review of price subsidies.

A new economic council headed by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could help make the changes if it can move quickly, said Alsweilem, the former investment chief who is now a fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center.

While less per capita than in smaller energy-rich Gulf states Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the relative wealth of Saudi Arabia means the government might need to tread carefully. Any adjustment will be “jarring,” said Soussa.

“These are things that are absolutely politically explosive,” he said. “You’ve gotten accustomed to a certain lifestyle and that lifestyle is far in excess in terms of luxury that was prevailing in 1998.”
​



​
 


Weaker Ruble Helps Lukoil Spend Less to Boost Oil Output
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...t-falls-following-oil-price-plunge?cmpid=yhoo

by Stephen Bierman


Lukoil PJSC was able to boost output in the first half of the year while reducing spending as a weaker ruble cut costs.

Russia’s second-largest oil producer cut capital expenditure by 31 percent to $5.32 billion “mostly due to ruble devaluation,” according to a regulatory filing Friday. Oil and gas production rose 4.8 percent from a year earlier to an average of 2.37 million barrels equivalent a day.

Brent crude prices have fallen by more than half in the past year, hitting revenue at Russian oil producers. That was partly offset by lower taxes and a weaker currency, which cut costs for companies that earn dollars and pay most of their expenses in rubles. The Russian exchange rate averaged about 53 to the dollar in the second quarter compared with 35 a year earlier.

In addition to the currency effect, Lukoil “also reduced drilling,” Alexander Kornilov, an oil analyst at Alfa Bank, said by phone from Moscow. The company’s largest drilling contractor said earlier this month that its order volumes had fallen.

Lukoil’s net income fell 58 percent to $1 billion as oil prices slumped, missing the $1.33 billion estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Revenue dropped 26 percent to $28.1 billion, the company said.

The company said it took a $244 million expense in the second quarter for a well in Romania that didn’t find commercial volumes of oil or gas.

Spending cuts related to lower oil prices would be focused on mature fields in West Siberia, Lukoil Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov said last year.

Oil output at the company’s main West Siberian unit fell 4.5 percent to 926,000 barrels a day in the first half. Gains in Iraq, Russia’s Timan Pechora, Volga and Urals regions offset the decline, according to the statement.

Payments received for oil produced in Iraq constituted $1.07 billion of the company’s $6.38 billion of earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization, it said.
​


​
 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...urs-alaska-plea-for-obama-to-open-oil-spigots



Pipeline Anxiety Spurs Alaska Plea for Obama to Open Oil Spigots

by Reg Gale
August 31, 2015

An 800-mile economic lifeline for state `two-thirds empty'
U.S. actions threaten ability to keep it open, supporters say


Alaska Governor Bill Walker has a message for President Barack Obama: Fill the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System while you still can.

The U.S. agreed earlier this month to allow Royal Dutch Shell Plc to resume Arctic oil exploration, yet state officials say it may not be enough to save the 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) pipeline, Alaska’s economic lifeline for the past 40 years. Efforts to limit drilling and dwindling volumes on the line may eventually make it difficult to move crude at all.

“We have an oil pipeline that’s two-thirds empty,” Walker, a Republican-turned-independent, said in a telephone interview from Anchorage. “It’s easy for people to predict what will or won’t happen, but as governor I can’t take that chance. Right now, about 75 percent of our revenue comes from that oil pipeline.”

Spanning mountains, rivers and caribou ranges, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline -- the world’s largest private-construction project when built for $8 billion in the 1970s -- symbolizes the paradox of an energy- and wilderness-rich state. Obama visits Alaska this week for an Arctic perspective on climate change.

“The actions of this administration seem destined to shut down our Trans-Alaska Pipeline,” Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairwoman, said in February after the Interior Department announced plans to restrict drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and curb development in federal Arctic waters.

Spell the End

A halt in pipeline operations “would spell the end of oil on the North Slope for a very long time,” Gunnar Knapp, an economics professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, said in a phone interview. He referred to the region in northeast Alaska where most of the state’s oil originates.

Environmental groups say they’re not buying the doom-and-gloom scenario for the pipeline, known by its acronym, TAPS.

“There’s always a sky-is-falling mentality associated with TAPS,” Lois Epstein, Arctic program director in Anchorage for The Wilderness Society, said in a telephone interview. “We don’t need these new oil reserves to keep the pipeline going for many decades.”

In his Aug. 29 weekly video address, Obama said he realizes that the U.S. economy will rely on oil and gas as it transitions to other forms of energy. At the same time, he said his administration will allow Arctic oil exploration at only the "highest safety standards possible."

"I share people’s concerns about offshore drilling," he said.

Another Decade

Shell has said its newly approved Arctic wells may not begin production for at least another decade. Alaska has about 38 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude reserves, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Energy Department’s statistical arm.

“The pipeline is not shutting down any time soon,” Pamela Miller, head of research firm Arctic Connections in Fairbanks, Alaska, said by phone. TAPS can run “for another 30 to 50 more years without opening up special areas.”

Volume on the pipeline, which funnels crude to Valdez in the south from Prudhoe Bay in the north, has declined with North Slope oil production during the past three decades. Flows are dropping about 5 percent a year and slid to 513,441 barrels a day in 2014 from a peak of 2 million in 1988, according to operator Anchorage-based Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

Alaska in April projected North Slope crude production would tumble to about 320,000 barrels a day by 2024.

A drop below 300,000 barrels a day would likely trigger a “fundamental change” in operations, including smaller-batch shipments and additional pump stations to keep the line running, Alyeska President Thomas Barrett said by phone.

Costs Unknown

Associated costs are unknown, though they depend on factors such as fuel prices and the rate at which the oil flows, Katie Pesznecker, an Alyeska spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. Alyeska is already using heat to prevent freezing and water pooling in the line and small devices called “pigs” to remove wax that can build up when volumes are low, Barrett said.

“It’s not like there’s some shutoff point, some magic flowthrough,” the University of Alaska’s Knapp said. “The smaller the flowthrough, the higher the cost.”

Three major oil companies -- BP Plc, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. -- mostly fund Alyeska, and Chevron Corp.’s Unocal unit has a 1.4 percent stake.

“It is difficult to forecast when it will no longer be feasible to operate the pipeline” because that depends on variable factors including taxes and the price of oil, Andrea Urbanek, a ConocoPhillips spokeswoman, said by e-mail.

Spokesmen for BP and Exxon Mobil said they are working to encourage more North Slope resources to increase pipeline flows. Erika Conner, a Chevron spokeswoman, declined to comment.

“I think that he’ll have a better appreciation when he’s up here, kind of what the need is in Alaska,” Governor Walker said.​





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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...utput-reaches-post-soviet-record-in-september



Post-Soviet Record in September
by Stephen Bierman
October 2, 2015

- Supply increase comes at time of global surplus of crude
- Producers benefitting as ruble decline pushes down costs


Russian oil output rose to a post-Soviet record last month as producers took advantage of the weak ruble to push ahead with drilling.

The nation’s production of crude and condensate climbed to 10.74 million barrels a day, 1 percent more than a year earlier and topping a record set in June, according to data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. Soviet-era production peaked at 11.48 million barrels a day in 1987, according to BP Plc.

The increase comes at a time when Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are defending market share rather than cutting production amid a global output glut. Russia, which gets about half of its budget income from oil and gas revenues, is maintaining its own supplies in the face of Brent crude prices that fell 50 percent in the past year.

Higher gas condensate production, with Gazprom Neft and Novatek OJSC ramping up the vast Arcticgas project, is a “major reason” for growth, Alexander Nazarov, an oil analyst at OAO Gazprombank, said by e-mail. Second-tier Russian companies Bashneft PJSC and Tatneft PJSC are “booming,” he said.

Increased Drilling

OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest producer, said in August it increased drilling for oil and gas by 27 percent in the first seven months of the year. The company’s oil output increased 0.4 percent in September from the previous month, while declining 0.6 percent from a year earlier.

Oil producers, which earn in dollars, pay for services using the ruble, which has weakened to about 66 a dollar from 39.56 a year earlier.

Crude exports rose 3.4 percent from the previous year to 5.27 million barrels a day, according the data. They gained 5 percent from the previous month.​


​
 

Here we go.
The bargain-hunting has commenced.
What am I bid?



Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest energy company, made an unsolicited offer to buy Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. for about C$4.3 billion ($3.3 billion), taking advantage of plunging crude prices to seek to add production in Alberta.

Suncor is offering a 43 percent premium to Friday’s closing share price and promised higher dividends to Canadian Oil Sands shareholders if the proposal is accepted, Calgary-based Suncor said in a statement Monday. Canadian Oil Sands shares surged 48 percent to C$9.16 at 1:45 p.m. in Toronto, above the offer price of about C$8.84, based on Suncor’s Friday closing price. Suncor fell 2.3 percent to C$34.55.

“We are in the midst of a low crude price environment and the near- to mid-term prospects of a price recovery appear poor,” Steve Williams, Suncor’s president and chief executive officer, said in a conference call Monday. “The outlook for markets appears very challenging, especially for standalone producers like Canadian Oil Sands. We’re offering a significant premium to COS’ current market price and also providing exposure to a meaningful dividend increase.”

Syncrude Venture

Canadian Oil Sands is the biggest shareholder of the Syncrude joint venture, which also includes Imperial Oil Ltd. and Suncor as investors. Suncor’s offer would boost its share to 49 percent, giving it almost double the stake of the next-biggest holder, Imperial. Previous approaches by Suncor in March and April were turned down by the company and the board, Williams said on a conference call. Suncor decided to set aside the takeover plan until oil prices collapsed several months later, he said. The deal requires the support of two-thirds of Canadian Oil Sands’s shareholders.

The offer is 22 percent less than Suncor’s initial offer on April 9 of 0.32 of a Suncor share, according to regulatory filings. That earlier offer would have amounted to C$12.59 per Canadian Oil Sands share, as of the close that day. Under the terms of Monday’s offer, each shareholder would receive 0.25 of a Suncor share.

“They said they weren’t interested in pursuing a negotiated outcome,” Williams said in a phone interview. “My feeling was that having reflected and still seen great benefits for both sets of shareholders, I thought the only way then to take it ahead was to make the offer directly to their shareholders.”

Offer Review

Canadian Oil Sands said it’s reviewing the offer with its advisers and will make a recommendation to shareholders as soon as possible. Advisers previously retained by the company will assist it now, including Royal Bank of Canada, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Kingsdale Shareholder Services, according to a statement from the company.

Including the company’s estimated outstanding net debt of C$2.3 billion as of June 30, the total transaction value is about C$6.6 billion, Suncor said. This would be the second-largest deal for Suncor, after its purchase of Petro-Canada.

Canadian Oil Sands has plunged along with oil prices, forcing it to slash its dividend several times in recent years. The former income trust, a class of securities that paid high dividends until their tax advantage was removed by the Canadian government, pays a dividend of 5 cents a share, down from as high as C$1.25 a share in 2008. The stock had dropped 41 percent this year through Friday, compared with a decline of 4 percent for Suncor.

Higher Dividend

Suncor said the deal would lead to a 45 percent dividend boost for Canadian Oil Sands shareholders. Suncor’s dividend yield is 3.3 percent, compared with 2.5 percent for Canadian Oil Sands, based on Friday’s close. Suncor was advised by JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. The offer will be open for acceptance until 5 p.m. Calgary time on Dec. 4, unless extended or withdrawn, according to the statement.

Suncor’s unsolicited offer is surprising because hostile bids are uncommon in Canada and it comes before many were expecting mergers and acquisitions to pick up, said Martin Pelletier, managing director and portfolio manager at TriVest Wealth Counsel Ltd. in Calgary. With Canadian Oil Sands trading above its offer price, a rival bid appears expected, Pelletier said.

“If oil prices go back to $60 there’s plenty of room for that,” said Pelletier, who bought Canadian Oil Sands shares recently betting on a takeover and is in the money on the stock’s gain. “Everything’s on the table when you do a hostile like this. Canadian Oil Sands is going to look at everything.”​


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Adding capacity to long cycle, capital-intensive industries with a long history of step-function capacity additions is a roll of the dice.



85 Gas Projects Dying On The Vine As LNG's Promise Falls Short



http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iX9cf2wauZ00/v2/-1x-1.png




...More than half of the 38 terminals proposed for the contiguous U.S. may never be built... Besides Cheniere’s Sabine Pass, projects in development include Freeport LNG Development LP’s terminal in Texas, Dominion Inc.’s Cove Point in Maryland and the joint Lake Charles LNG venture in Louisiana between Energy Transfer Equity LP and BG Group Plc.

Twenty more terminals are planned for Canada...



​
 
thør said:
Stopping the Keystone Pipeline doesn't seem to stop the business of Canadian Syncrude.
Click to expand...


...and it never will.

Unfortunately, that will never dawn on the small, implacable, vocal minority of delusional extremists bent on opposing it regardless of reason.


​
 



PJSC LUKOIL press office announces the completion of drilling of the exploratory well Lira-1X and the discovery of a gas field in the Lira offshore structure, which is located at the Trident block (EX-30) in the deep-sea Romanian offshore.

Exploration on the EX-30 block is conducted by LUKOIL Overseas Atash BV (100-% subsidiary of PJSC LUKOIL) within the framework of the Concession Agreement with the Government of Romania of 2011. Currently LUKOIL's share in the project is 72%, while PanAtlantic Petroleum Ltd owns 18% and Societatea Nationale de Gaze Naturale Romgaz SA owns 10%.

The water depth within the block ranges from 300 to 1,200 meters. The block has an area of 1,006 km2. The Lira-1X well is located at a distance of about 170 km (90 miles) from the coast, where the depth of the sea is about 700 meters. The well was drilled to a depth of 2,700 meters (8,858 feet) from the semi-submersible drilling rig TransOcean Development Driller II. The well was temporarily abandoned for further evaluation of the Lira gas discovery.

According to preliminary results of the analysis of drilling data and geophysical exploration, the Lira-1X delivered a productive interval with an effective gas-saturated thickness of 46 meters.

According to seismic data, the area of the gas field can reach up to 39 km2, reserves can exceed 30 bln cubic meters of gas, which is to be confirmed during evaluation drilling. The success of the Lira-1X well will reduce the risk for further exploration on a series of prospective sites with significant potential reserves, located both close to the Lira structure and in other parts of the block. The program of future works planned for 2016 includes drilling an exploration well at the Lira and the reprocessing of seismic data to confirm the size of the discovery and precise assessment of its potential hydrocarbon reserves.



​
 


Gazprom Said to Seek Baltic Pipes From June Amid EU Criticism

by Elena Mazneva and Yuliya Fedorinova



(Bloomberg) Russia’s Gazprom PJSC will take delivery of as much as $3 billion of pipes starting as early as June as it pushes ahead with a natural gas link direct to Germany in the face of opposition from transit countries including Ukraine and Poland, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

A project company called Nord Stream 2 AG started a tender for the pipes this month and may sign deals with the winners in February or March, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Gazprom’s press service declined to comment.

The Baltic Sea link has faced criticism since the Moscow-based exporter signed in September an agreement on the project with five European energy companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and EON SE. The pipeline risks concentrating 80 percent of the European Union’s Russian gas imports on one route, European Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said this month.

The pipe-supply contracts would be worth as much as $3 billion, according to estimates by Oleg Petropavlovskiy, a BCS Financial Group analyst in Moscow.

Gazprom has previously ordered pipes for a link, only to see it scrapped over political issues, when Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled the South Stream pipeline through the Black Sea last year, citing EU opposition. Gazprom ordered pipes for the first line of the link worth about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) and has been paying to store them in Bulgarian ports.

2019 Start

The state-run gas exporter, which supplies about 30 percent of the EU’s gas needs, owns 51 percent in the Nord Stream-2 project and plans to start fuel deliveries in 2019. Shell, EON, BASF SE’s Wintershall unit and OMV AG hold 10 percent each, while France’s Engie SA owns the remaining 9 percent.

While the undersea route isn’t subject to EU energy rules, the bloc’s regulator may set limits for its overland connections in the region. Gazprom is currently able to use only 50 percent of the Opal pipeline in Germany linked to the working Nord Stream as EU rules demand third-party access.

The Nord Stream-2 investors need a clear framework on building the onshore network before starting construction on the offshore link, OMV Chief Executive Officer Rainer Seele said Oct. 6.


​
 


PRESS-RELEASE
27.10.2015

EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL SHAREHOLDERS MEETING OF PJSC LUKOIL TO CONSIDER INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT


A Board of Directors meeting of PJSC LUKOIL was held today and resolved to hold the Extraordinary General Shareholder Meeting on 14 December 2015 in the form of absentee voting. The list of the shareholders entitled to participate in the Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting will be compiled as of 9 November 2015.

The Board of Directors recommended that the PJSC LUKOIL Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting adopt a decision on dividend payment based on the results of the first nine months of the 2015 financial year in the amount of 65 rubles per ordinary share.


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