Russia 111130 Basic Political Developments
'Trans-Caspian pipeline not to be realized until Russia, Iran stop resistance'
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- Gas in Russia More Costly Than in U.S.
- Gazprom
- Gazprom’s new Arctic oil rig arrived to Murmansk
- LOANS: Gazprom signs US$800m club
- Estonia Needs to Nationalize Gazprom-Owned Gas Grid, Report Says
- Gazprom delegation arrives in Sri Lanka to look at gas field development possibilities
'Trans-Caspian pipeline not to be realized until Russia, Iran stop resistance'http://www.news.az/articles/politics/49813 Wed 30 November 2011 07:21 GMT | 8:21 Local Time News.Az interviews Andreas Heinrich, a researcher at the University of Bremen's Centre for East European Studies. How may the Nord Stream project change situation at European energy market? The opening of the Nord Stream pipeline will not dramatically change the situation on the European energy markets. For example, it will not lead to an immediate increase in imports of Russian natural gas as most long-term delivery contracts stay unchanged. However, European markets will be less affected by conflicts with transit countries for Russian gas in the future. Will this project help to ensure stable gas transit to Europe without any problems like it was during Russian-Ukrainian energy crisis a few years ago? The Nord Stream pipeline will indeed increase the European supply security as it completely avoids transit countries. However, the pipeline is not replacing the existing pipeline infrastructure for Russian gas (such as the Yamal-Europe pipeline through Belarus to Poland and Germany or the Brotherhood pipeline through Ukraine to the European Union); it is merely a complementary pipeline project. Thus, supply interruptions are still possible (either due to conflicts between Russia and its transit countries or due to technical problems with the aging pipeline infrastructure) but the consequences of such events will be less severe for customers in Western Europe. An uncertain situation still continues with the Nabucco project. The consortium representatives talk about some obligation from the Azeri side but there is not visible progress yet in realization process. I do not expect to see any progress in that matter anytime soon. Russia and Iran are against any energy project across the Caspian Sea. Some Russian experts even don’t exclude military invasion to Turkmenistan if this country will agree with Trans-Caspian pipeline. How would you comment on situation and do you believe in this project? In my opinion a Trans-Caspian pipeline has no chance to be realized as long as the resistance of Russia and Iran cannot be overcome. I do not feel competent to speculate about Iran’s motives and rational on that issue. However, Russia is neither interested in giving Turkmenistan another export option for its natural gas because Russia relies on imports of Turkmen gas for its own gas balance; nor does it want to give the Nabucco project a leg up by placing Turkmenistan in the position to become a potential gas supplier for it. The Nabucco pipeline project would be competing with Russia’s own South stream pipeline for European markets. F.H. News.Az Gas in Russia More Costly Than in U.S.30 November 2011 Bloomberg Industrial users in Russia, the world's biggest natural gas producer, are paying more for the fuel than U.S. consumers as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government raises prices to improve Gazprom's profitability. Russian industrial users will pay about $2.84 per million British thermal units for gas this year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Gazprom data. That compares with $2.83 per million Btu for the next-day contract at Henry Hub in Louisiana, the U.S. benchmark. Russia, which sits on the world's biggest gas reserves, is gradually increasing domestic rates to match oil-linked prices in Europe, Gazprom's biggest market by revenue. The domestic market is the producer's largest by volume. U.S. prices fell 26 percent over the past year as increased production from shale deposits boosted supply. "It feels like the end of an era where cheap gas was a foundation of the old system," said Kingsmill Bond, an analyst for Citigroup in Moscow. "The domestic price is now arguably artificially high not artificially low, and that will surely over time put more pressure on Gazprom to be run more effectively." Natural gas prices for Russian industrial users will average $107 per thousand cubic meters next year, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said Nov. 25. That's about $3 per million Btu.
Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/gas-in-russia-more-costly-than-in-us/448889.html#ixzz1fAzrXK6t The Moscow Times GazpromThe local JV partner in Russia's South Stream project claims that the gas pipeline is definitely set to cross Sloveniahttp://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=128041 bne - 29.11.2011The local JV partner in Russia's South Stream project claims that the gas pipeline is definitely set to cross Slovenia, IntelliNews reports, citing Slovenian daily Dnevnik. "The project is entering its final and most important business decision-making phase. Our Russian partners are completing the consolidated (joint) feasibility study and as we understand, definite decisions as to the further development of the project are to be made shortly," representatives of Plinovodi, which signed a joint venture agreement on South Stream with Gazprom, told Energetika.NET. Plinovodi sent its feasibility study on technical solutions and possible pipeline routes in Slovenia to Gazprom, which then joined all the documents submitted also by other countries to make a collective, consolidated study. According to reports in Dnevnik, Gazprom has already completed the consolidated feasibility study for the gas pipeline project, as well as made the decision regarding Slovenia's participation. Source: bne
Yesterday night, Gazprom’s new “Arkticheskaya” jack-up offshore drilling rig moored at Shipyard No. 35 in Murmansk for completion. The drilling unit has undergone all acceptance trials during the transition from the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk, and will be handed over to the customer Gazflot in December, Portnews writes. The rig will be completed at Shipyard No. 35 in Murmansk, which is the same yard that completed the Prirazlomnoye oil platform, which was transported to its designated place in the Pechora Sea in August. The platform has been under construction at Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk since the early 1990s. Problems with financing led to a halt in the project, but in 2006 construction was speeded up again. The rig has undergone testing in the White Sea this summer and autumn. This is the first oil rig to be built at the naval shipyard Zvezdochka. The rig is designed for operations in Arctic waters and will be used primarily in the Pechora Sea. It has an 88 meter long and 66 meter wide platform and can house 90 workers. Maximum drilling depth is 6.500 meters. Text: Trude Pettersen LOANS: Gazprom signs US$800m clubhttp://www.ifre.com/loans-gazprom-signs-us$800m-club/1617829.article 29 November 2011 November 29, 2011 (RLPC) - Russian energy group Gazprom has signed an US$800m, five-year unsecured club loan. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, UniCredit Bank Austria, Mizuho Corporate Bank Nederland, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance Dublin and ZAO Sumitomo Mitsui Rus Bank acted as mandated lead arrangers, bookrunners and original lenders. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ acted as sole co-ordinator and facility agent.
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Estonia needs to nationalize AS Eesti Gaas’s natural-gas transmission network to create a functioning energy market, according to a report by Poeyry Oyj, a Finnish consulting company. The country should decide on and perhaps implement the splitting of Eesti Gaas’s sales and transmission units by 2015, nationalizing the grid and building a regional or local liquefied natural gas terminal, according to the report, commissioned by power grid operator Elering AS. A supply contract with Russia’s OAO Gazprom is due for renewal then. “The development of the natural-gas market and expansion of gas consumption will probably occur only if the transmission grid belongs to the Republic of Estonia,” Poeyry said. “The state can only ensure effective energy markets through two simultaneously functioning levers: working regulations and ownership of the system operator for the main grid.” Estonia’s ruling Reform Party published plans in October last year for gas unbundling to reduce dependence on Gazprom, Eesti Gaas’s biggest owner and the sole supplier of gas to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic nations, which have uneasy political relations with Russia, are seeking EU support for building an LNG terminal in the region, citing higher gas prices than in western Europe and supply risks. The Economy Ministry has drafted a bill to separate ownership of gas sales and transmission by 2015. Last year, Lithuania announced a similar plan at Lietuvos Dujos AB, bringing criticism from Gazprom and from Germany’s E.ON AG, which also has a stake in Eesti Gaas. The Baltic nations asked the European Commission this month to help decide whether a regional liquefied natural gas terminal is needed and where it might be built, after failing to agree on a location. A regional terminal for the Baltic nations and possibly Finland would cost 375 million euros ($504 million), Estonian Economy Minister Juhan Parts said in September, citing the Poeyry report before it was published. --Editors: Alan Purkiss, James Kraus To contact the reporter on this story: Ott Ummelas in Tallinn at oummelas@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net 12:32 30/11/2011ALL NEWS
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/285171.html NEW DELHI, November 30 (Itar-Tass) —— A delegation of four technical experts from Russia’s national gas utility Gazprom on Tuesday arrived in Sri Lanka to study a possible development of oil and gas fields in that country. According to Sri Lankan Minister of Petroleum Industries Susil Premajayantha, a group of specialists from the Indian oil company Cairn will join in next week. In early October, a natural gas field was discovered at Sri Lanka’s north-western coast. The field rests in the Gulf of Manar at a depth of 4,300 meters below sea level. Talks on the development of this field were held in the framework of the recent Moscow summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text18068 Citi
As expected, on Friday Russia and Belarus signed a series of agreements on gas supply. Belarus was given a substantial discount to current formula prices, and will now get a West Siberian price plus costs, or $165.6/mcm in 2012 vs. the current $286/mcm. For the following two years the price will rise with Russian domestic prices after which time, according to PM Vladimir Putin in statements to the press, prices will go to parity (more on that below). Gazprom buys the remaining 50% of Beltransgas for $2.5bn, with agreements setting out the minimum margins that company will earn as well as the transit fees. Belarus commits to taking 22.5-23bcmpa in the next three years, similar to past consumption levels. While the pricing discounts were larger than we were originally anticipating, this is an important strategic gain for Gazprom, in our view. Price below our recent expectations: The $165.6/mcm price was below our recent expectations of netback parity with European exports, which would today be in the range of $230/mcm vs. the $400/mcm nominally set out in the previous contract, the current $286/mcm, and the c$265/mcm we have been assuming in our model for next year. Relative to that last number, this agreement suggests a 2012 revenue stream about $2bn below our numbers for Gazprom. Some of that will be compensated for by a c$16/mcm margin Beltransgas will be allowed to earn on sales of Russian gas, which itself will at least partly compensate for the cost of acquiring the company and will push the integrated price received by Gazprom to c$182/mcm. Going forward, the underlying price will rise by 15% each July for the next three years per the schedule recently approved by the Russian tariff authority. Netback parity beyond 2014?: The ÔparityÕ statement by Putin on Friday afternoon wasnÕt clarified in the press reports, but we presume it means parity with European exports. Assuming that is true, then our long-term pricing assumptions for Belarus will remain unchanged, as we have long assumed that all export countries go to European netback parity in the near future, typically in 2013. Our long-term parity assumption of $171/mcm is based on a relatively conservative oil price of $80/bbl Brent. Should oil prices be materially higher than that in, say, 2015, then we would expect Belarus to negotiate some continuation of a discount to parity, although prices themselves should continue to climb. Beltransgas acquisition Ð adding pressure on Ukraine: The Beltransgas acquisition appears unlikely to give Gazprom a large return on its investment in the company, but has significant, unquantifiable strategic value, in our view. Gazprom will now have absolute control over a transit route to Europe that, with a bit of modification and a small extension, could theoretically reach several countries that could heretofore only be reached via the Ukrainian pipeline system, including Slovakia. Combined with the growing capacity of Nord Stream, this decreases GazpromÕs dependence on Ukrainian transit, lowering that countryÕs bargaining power in its own discussions with Russia and Gazprom on gas pricing. Where does this leave Ukraine?: RussiaÕs negotiations with Ukraine on 2012 pricing are ongoing, with 50% larger sales volumes and even larger transit volumes at stake. We think Ukraine is highly unlikely to agree to sell its entire gas transport system to Gazprom (we consider it a near impossibility, politically speaking), and appears highly reluctant to join the Russia Ð Belarus Ð Kazakhstan customs union. Therefore, we expect Ukraine will not be able to negotiate a price break nearly as great as that received by Belarus, and the Belorussian deal appears to impair somewhat UkraineÕs negotiation position. We still think the most likely outcome is the sale of a minority stake in the Ukrainian gas transport and storage system, with a European party stepping in as another large shareholder and acting as a mediator between the Russian and Ukrainian sides. Directory: gifiles -> attach attach -> British Forces – Akrioti, Greece Griffin Fighter Squadron (84 Squadron raf) MoD announced possible Typhoon and Tornado arrivals to the base France attach -> Russia 110204 Basic Political Developments attach -> Unclassified//for official use only attach -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution Download 317.41 Kb. Share with your friends:
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