Russia 100414 Basic Political Developments

Oil and Gas Eurasia: Russkoye Field Sees First Quarter Production Double

http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/7013

Crude production at the Russkoye field in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District exceeded 25,000 tons in the first quarter of 2010 ­– double the amount produced in the same period in 2009, vsluh.ru reports.

The TNK-BP press office reported that over 400 million rubles was invested in the Russkoye field in the first quarter of 2010. The bulk of this investment was spent on building infrastructure and exploration drilling.

This year ten wells are to be drilled at the Russkoye field and the capacity of diesel power stations is to be increased 2 mW.

“We will invest about $200 million into Russkoye this year”, TNK-BP Executive Vice-President for E&P Sergey Brezitskiy said. He added that the company had started building 47 kilometers of permanent roads to the Zapolyanoye field in order to make it possible to transport all of the crude produced during test drilling by the end of 2011. “We hope the government will quickly confirm the program for the full development of the Yamal-Nenets Region and the north of Krasnoyarsk Territory and then we can accelerate the development of our fields”, Brezitskiy said.

Copyright 2010, Vsluh.ru. All rights reserved.

Upstreamonline: Bashneft runs reserve tally

http://www.upstreamonline.com/incoming/article211827.ece

Russian producer Bashneft said its proven oil reserves stand at 1.27 billion barrels based on an independent audit.

Upstream staff  14 April 2010 07:24 GMT

The company said the audit was conducted by Miller&Lents under Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS) criteria. It is the first independent audit in 12 years.

"At current output levels, the company's proven oil reserves will last for more than 20 years," Bashneft President Viktor Khoroshavtsev said in a statement.

Published: 14 April 2010 07:24 GMT  | Last updated: 14 April 2010 07:24 GMT

13.04.2010

Oil and Gas Eurasia: TNK-BP Cuts Subeconomic Wells by 25 Percent at Sorochinskneft

http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/7021

The number of subeconomic wells at fields operated by Sorochinskneft (part of Orenburgneft, a TNK-BP subsidiary) was trimmed 25 percent in March, TNK-BP reported in a news release.

Arkadiy Popov, the head of Sorochinskneft’s field development section, said production in most of the wells is subeconomic because of the high water-cut.

“After assessing the commerciality of the entire operating well stock together with the economics department, we compile a list of subeconomic wells and decide whether to perform well interventions or to shut in wells for subsequent suspension or abandonment”, Popov said. “During March 2010, the number of subeconomic wells was cut by 25 percent, or by 13 wells, 10 of them thanks to well interventions.”

Sorochinskneft monitors the performance of each well that is currently subeconomic on a monthly basis.

Popov noted that the monitoring program will help to achieve annual savings across Sorochinskneft of around 6 million rubles.

Copyright 2010, TNK-BP. All rights reserved.

Your Oil and Gas News: TNK-BP Applies New Well Clean-out Technologies at OJSC Orenburgneft Fields

http://www.youroilandgasnews.com/tnk-bp+applies+new+well+clean-out+technologies+at+ojsc+orenburgneft+fields_47850.html

Tuesday, Apr 13, 2010

A new clean-out technology was used during drilling operations at the Buzuluk and Bogolyubov oilfields under development by OJSC Orenburgneft (a member of the TNK-BP structure) – in each case a viscoelastic fluid was pumped into the borehole. “A water-soluble container is placed in a drilling string before it is extended, then it dissolves and forms a viscous pad”, explains Konstantin Koulakov, head of the OJSC Orenburgneft well construction department. Based on this technology we perform preventive sludge level tests in the borehole and clean out bit cuttings”.

The advantage of this technology lies in is its simplicity. This method may be replicated anywhere regardless of the well layout.

Source: TNK-BP

13.04.2010

Oil and Gas Eurasia: NOVATEK Increases Gas Production 20.8% In First Quarter

http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/7006
According to preliminary data, NOVATEK increased gas production in the first quarter of 2010 by 20.8 percent compared to the first three months of 2009, the company reported in a news release. Natural gas production reached 9.98 billion cubic meters, while liquid hydrocarbon production grew 21.8 percent to 866,000 tons. 

NOVATEK refined 816,000 tons of unstable gas condensate in the first quarter of 2010 at the Purov refinery.

NOVATEK also reported that it exported seven tanker shipments of stable gas condensate in the first quarter, up from six tankers in 2009. As of March 31, 2010, 444 million cubic meters of natural gas and about 277,000 tons of stable gas condensate were listed in the company's report as "residual prepared product" under reserves.

Copyright 2010, NOVATEK. All rights reserved.  

Gazprom

April 14, 2010 10:17

Interfax: PwC the winner once again in tender for Gazprom auditor; fee reduced 7%

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=158424

MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - CJSC PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit has once again won the tender to conduct the annual audit of Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) in 2010, the gas giant reported.

PwC won with a bid of $7.25 million, compared with the maximum contract size of $8 million. PwC received $7.8 million to conduct the audit last year.

PwC will audit RAS financials for the lead company and for the consolidated group as well as the consolidated IFRS financials.

PwC has conducted Gazprom's audits every year since 1995. Nonetheless, the annual tender for the job attracts bids from many auditing companies.

The latest tender received bids from eight companies, including PwC, CJSC Petro-Balt-Audit, CJSC Prima Audit, CJSC MKD, Ernst and Young LLC, FBK LLC, CJSC BDO and CJSC KPMG.

Shareholders will confirm Gazprom's auditor at the annual meeting on June 25.

RTS$#&: GAZP

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Haaretz: Gazprom wants into Israeli gas scene

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162998.html
By Lior Zeno

Representatives of Russian energy giant Gazprom have met with Ya'akov Mimran, the National Infrastructure Ministry's petroleum commissioner, to discuss the possibility of Gazprom being part of the group operating the Sarah and Mira offshore natural gas fields.

The petroleum commissioner is responsible for awarding oil and gas exploration and drilling licenses, on land and at sea. To receive a license, the oil and gas exploration firms need a professional partner, known as the "operator," with experience in drilling such wells. Usually, the operator is also a partner in the venture.

For example, the Israeli partners in the Tamar offshore gas field are Delek Drilling, Avner, Dor Alon and Isramco; and they brought in U.S. firm Noble Energy as their operator. In general, the partners invest the funds for production based on their relative share in the partnership, and then split the proceeds based on the same relative share.

Gazprom is Russia's largest company and the world's largest extractor of natural gas. It was partially privatized at one point, but now the Russian government owns it. It has a monopoly in the Russian gas market and supplies 25% of Europe's natural gas.

Mira and Sarah are located 40 kilometers off the coast near Hadera, adjacent to the Tamar and Dalit fields, which have already show.

Ofer Nimrodi and Yitzhak Sultan signed an agreement to buy the Canadian company PetroMed Corporation, which holds licenses to explore the Sarah and Mira areas for fossil fuels. Nimrodi and Sultan paid $16 million. The rights to the Mira and Sarah licenses belong to PetroMed (95%). A difference of opinion with the 5% stakeholder, a foreign company owned by geologist David Peace, had earlier stymied negotiations for the purchase.

The chairman of Gazprom is Viktor Alekseyevich Zubkov, who is also Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin's First Deputy Prime Minister.

An energy industry source said Gazprom's interest in the Israeli market is not at all surprising. It had considered becoming a local operator in the past in other fields. Another possibility is for Gazprom to provide Israel with natural gas through a pipeline via Turkey. Former National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer met with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller in Moscow two years ago on such matters.

A number of other Russian energy giants are showing interest in the Israeli energy and infrastructure sector.