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Russia Cuts August Black Sea Crude Exports, Maintains Baltic
International Oil Daily
Russian seaborne crude oil exports are set to drop off sharply in August, as Moscow plans to cut exports from Black Sea ports, while maintaining shipments from the Baltic. Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft has penciled in seaborne exports of 2.931 million barrels per day (13.396 million metric tons) in August, down more than 100,000 b/d from June’s schedules for 3.034 million b/d (12.833 million tons).
(31 July 2007)
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Contributor Jeffrey J. Brown writes:
I have been expecting to see a decline in Russian crude oil production, probably this year, no later than next year. When Russian crude oil production does start declining, I expect the decline to be rapid. If their production declines at 10% per year, and if the consumption continues to increase at about 5% per year, their net oil exports will be down by about 50% in three years.
Pay $456m now or we cut your gas, Gazprom warns Belarus
Tom Parfitt, The Guardian
Russia’s Gazprom gas monopoly has threatened to halve supplies to Belarus tomorrow in a payment dispute that could disrupt deliveries to western Europe.
Moscow said yesterday it would cut by 45% supplies flowing to its neighbour through export pipelines – which also carry gas to Germany, Poland and Ukraine – if Minsk did not pay debts of nearly $500m (£250m) by 10am on Friday.
Gazprom said exports to the European Union would not be affected but it is feared that Belarus may replace its deficit by siphoning off gas in transit.
(2 August 2007)
Russia plants flag on North Pole seabed
Tom Parfitt, Guardian Unlimited
Russia symbolically staked its claim to billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the Arctic Ocean today when two mini submarines reached the seabed more than two and a half miles beneath the North Pole.
In a record-breaking dive, the two craft planted a one metre-high titanium Russian flag on the underwater Lomonosov ridge, which Moscow claims is directly connected to its continental shelf.
However, the dangerous mission prompted ridicule and scepticism among other contenders for the Arctic’s energy wealth, with Canada comparing it to a 15th century colonial land grab.
(2 August 2007)
Gazprom says it hopes for major Arctic hydrocarbon discoveries
RIA Novosti
A Gazprom spokesman said Wednesday that the Russian energy giant expected “major new discoveries” of oil and gas reserves under the Arctic Ocean, and had large-scale prospecting plans for the region.
Press secretary Sergei Kupriyanov discussed the company’s plans in a radio interview, the day before a Russian exploration vessel is to send mini-submarines on the first-ever dive below the North Pole, a symbolic move as Russia attempts to claim a vast section of the Arctic.
The United States’ geological survey data suggest the Arctic seabed contains up to 25% of the world’s oil and natural gas reserves, and other mineral riches, made accessible by the retreating of the polar ice due to global warming.
Sergei Kupriyanov told Ekho Moskvy: “We have approved a program of work on the Arctic shelf, which includes a great deal of prospecting.”
The spokesman stressed the potential vastness of the Arctic shelf’s reserves – the Shtokman field alone in the Barents Sea holds an estimated 3.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, he said.
“This is more than we have supplied to Europe over the past 30 years. Less than 5% of the Arctic shelf has been explored, and we are sure that major new discoveries will follow,” the official said.
(1 August 2007)
Related: Gas and Glory Fuel Race for the North Pole (St. Petersburg Times)
