Sakhalin-3 prospecting gets under way
Participants of the Rosneft-led Sakhalin-3 project started to drill a first prospecting well on August 5, Rosneft’s subsidiary CJSC Sakhalin Projects said in statement. The project participants are Rosneft (49.8 percent), Sinopec (25.1 percent)...
Russian court declares YUKOS oil company bankrupt
The Moscow Court of Arbitration drove the final nail into the YUKOS coffin last week, declaring Russia’s once-leading oil company bankrupt. The ruling followed the conclusion by official receivers that the company built up...
Rosneft repays ONGC Sakhalin credit early
Russian oil company Rosneft has repaid a credit ahead of schedule, received from India’s ONGC to finance expenditure on a production sharing agreement for the Sakhalin-1 project, a source in the company told Interfax....
Slovakia wants 49% of Transpetrol from YUKOS
The Slovakian government, which owns 51 percent of the pipeline company Transpetrol, has confirmed its plans to buy the remaining 49 percent from a Dutch subsidiary of YUKOS - YUKOS Finance B.V., and has...
ConocoPhillips puts LUKoil Q2 profit at 2.2 bln
ConocoPhillips, the owner of an 18 percent stake in LUKoil at the end of the second quarter, estimates LUKoil net profit at 2.2 billion Euro in the second quarter, the US oil company said...
Novatek to use 18% of net profit for interim dividends
Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek is planning to use about 18 percent of net profit to pay out interim dividends for the first half of 2006, Leonid Mikhelson, the company’s CEO, told Interfax...
Total signs agreement on offshore oil-lease blocks
French oil giant Total announced last week that its wholly-owned Nigerian operating subsidiary, Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (EPNL), had signed a farm-in agreement with Amni International Petroleum Development Company Limited, for the Oil Mining...
SOCAR expects 8% drop in oil to Novorossiisk
The volume of Azeri oil pumped through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline in 2006 will amount to about four million tonnes, which is eight percent less than last year, a source in the State Oil Company...
Nuclear power looms as election issue
With four of Sweden’s 10 nuclear reactors shut down over security reviews last Friday, anti-nuclear parties moved to cash in politically on the issue ahead of elections due September 17, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported....
Shell aims for asset exchange with Gazprom by year-end
Royal Dutch Shell hopes to complete a deal by the end of the year, which will result in Gazprom receiving 25 percent, plus one share in the Sakhalin-2 project, and the Anglo-Dutch company receiving...
OMV discovers second oil well in Tunisia
Austria’s OMV Aktiengesellschaft, Central Europe’s leading oil and gas group, has announced a discovery and successful testing of oil and gas in its Nawara 1 exploration well in the Jenein Sud Exploration Permit in...
CNPC buys 500 mln worth of Rosneft shares
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has bought 66.2252 million shares of the Russian oil company Rosneft for 500 million Euro, a source with the CNPC management told Interfax.
“Earlier reports disseminated by a number...
EC could decide on PKN Orlen by early 2007
PKN Orlen general director Igor Chalupec said last week that the European Commission would make a decision on the Polish oil company acquiring a stake in Mazeikiu Nafta no later than the first quarter...
Gazprom to buy Gazpromneft stake from YUKOS
Gazprom has made an offer to YUKOS to buy the oil company’s 20 percent stake in Gazprom Neft for 1.3 billion Euro-1.9 billion Euro, Interfax has learned from several independent sources, which are...
High oil prices hold steady on economic concerns, Mideast fighting
Crude oil prices were steady last Friday as traders were closely monitoring the fighting in the Middle East and following comments by the US Federal Reserve chief that surging energy prices are crimping economic...
Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline launched on the heels of BTC
Following the grand opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, its masterminds, elated by success, announced the launching of new projects. And the new projects extend beyond the trans-Caspian gas pipeline that is going to...
Yukos demand letter sent to Russian federation
The US law firm Covington & Burling LLP has sent a demand letter to the Russian Federation on behalf of a Spanish client seeking to recover the value of its investment in Yukos from...
Gazprom board okays Karachaganak venture
The Gazprom executive board has approved setting up a Russian-Kazakh joint venture at the Karachganak gas condensate field, Gazprom said in a press release.
The board said it was feasible to set up on equal...
Grand opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
Last week, the small Turkish port town of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea hosted a solemn ceremony of a landmark project - the launching of the USD four billion Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan...
LUKoil plans to supply “base oil” to foreign companies
LUKoil is planning to sell base oil to foreign oil and gas companies, although not through spot contracts, but long-term ones, Maxim Donde, general director of LLK International, a LUKoil subsidiary, told reporters last...
TNK-BP selling Udmurtneft to Sinopec for USD 3.5 bln
TNK-BP is selling 96.9 percent of its Udmurtneft production unit to China’s Sinopec for approximately USD 3.5 billion, the Russian-British oil major said in a memorandum for its Eurobond issue. The parties have signed...
IPO could value Rosneft at USD 70 billion
Rosneft’s Initial Price Offer could value the oil company at around USD 70 billion, investment bankers told Interfax. The price range for the global IPO is USD 5.85-7.85 per common share and GDR. A...
Iran to begin initial phase of Euro-based oil bourse in Sept.
Iran will start the initial phase of its planned Iranian oil bourse at the end of September, the news agency ISNA reported last Wednesday. An unnamed oil ministry official told ISNA that his ministry...
KazMunaiGaz closes purchase of PetroKazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz has closed the purchase of 33 percent of PetroKazakhstan from China National petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The company also signed papers on the establishment of a joint venture...
SOCAR to attract credit to develop Shah Deniz
Azeri state oil company SOCAR plans to attract a credit to finance its share in the project to develop the Shah Deniz field, SOCAR vice president for Investment and Marketing Eduard Nasirov said on...
Gazprom boosts net profit 49% in 2005
Russian gas giant Gazprom’s net profits in 2005 surged 49 percent to over 311 billion rubles (USD 11.6 billion), the company reported last Friday. Despite the strong rise, the figure was short of the...
NEGP company’s Switzerland headquarters opens for business
The headquarters of North European Gas Pipeline Company SA (NEGP Company) - the operator for the construction of the marine section of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) - started to operate in Zug,...
Gazprom, Naftogaz agree on underground storage volumes
Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz have agreed that it will be sufficient for Ukraine to pump 16 billion cubic metres of gas into underground storage to get through the autumn and winter period and that...
Petronas to pump USD 12 mln into exploration in Uzbekistan
Malaysia’s Petronas plans to invest USD 12 million in oil and gas exploration in Uzbekistan this year, a source at Uzbek national oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz told Interfax last Friday. The source said...
SOCAR, Target Petroleum, Firstdrill establish JV
Azeri state oil company, Canada’s Target Petroleum and Scotland’s Firstdrill Ltd. have signed an agreement to set up the joint drilling venture Azeri Drilling Company, Firstdrill said in a press release. The joint venture...
Gazprom hopes to increase stake in Wingas by year-end
Russian gas giant Gazprom hopes by the end of the year to increase its stake in the joint venture with Wintershall - Wingas - to 50 percent minus one share from 35 percent, Gazprom...
Environmentalists accuse Sakhalin Energy of violations
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has said that Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin-2 project, is violating its commitment to protect the Okhotsk-Korean grey whale population during construction of an oil...
US calls for transparency in gas supplies to Europe
Transparency in gas supplies from Central Asia and Russia to Europe through Ukraine will improve the effectiveness of gas cooperation in the region, US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor said. Transparency will help make...
Oil exports from Azerbaijan increase 62% in H1
Oil exports from Azerbaijan in January-June 2006 amounted to 8.979 million tonnes, up 61.7 percent year-on-year, a source in Azeri state oil company SOCAR said. The Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli operator Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) exported...
Turkmenistan offers Burren Energy gas partnership
Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov has suggested that Britain’s Burren Energy discuss possible partnership in the gas sector, the presidential press service said. This offer was made during a Tuesday meeting between Niyazov and Burren...
Solar energy heads for bright future in Germany
With the high monetary and environmental cost of fossil fuels, Germans are investing in the sun for alternative energy, thanks to generous government subsidies that pay people for solar power they feed into the...
International push for clean coal effort looks for US home
An unusual international alliance of private companies and governments is slated to choose a US site for the world’s cleanest coal-fuelled power plant, called FutureGen, by summer 2007. The alliance includes the governments of...