Weekend round-up (03/01/2010)

Weekend round-up

The weekend has seen several news stories in the Russian Oil and Gas industry. Among them are news Russia has reduced their oil export duty and that the country is due to collaborate with Kyrgyzstan in the energy sector.

Reducing export duty

It was announced that from the 1 March, Russia will reduce their export duty on crude oil from USD$270.7 to USD$253.6.

Meanwhile, export duties on light oil products will also decrease from USD$194.7 to USD$183.2 per tonne while duty on dark oil products will come down to USD$98.7 from USD$104.9. While export duties are dropped, the Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko  has stated that zero duties on Eastern Siberian oil will remain unchanged. This zero duty was introduced at the beginning of December last yea.

The Russian Energy Ministry has said that it is necessary to maintain the mechanism of zero duties in Eastern Siberia during the active phase of the region’s development.

Russian/Kyrgyzstan collaboration

At the Kyrgyz-Russian Inter-governmental Commission on trade, economic, science-technical and humanitarian cooperation it was announced that both Russian and Kyrgyzstan had come to an agreement about collaborating in the oil and gas sector.

Those meeting at the Commission worked to "provide practical realization of previously agreed arrangements on creation of joint Kyrgyz-Russian enterprise in oil-and gas sector."

Part of the deal was that the Kyrgz Government will sell the state holding of Kyrgyzgas shares to Russian state owned gas giant, Gazprom.

"This will give the republic technical re-equipment and management improvement as well as the other advantages", Daniyar Usenov said to reporters. In turn, Gazprom will provide the Kyrgyz Republic with lower gas tariffs among world prices.

The development of the collaborations also strengthen ties between the two countries as Russia pushes for a geologic exploration program at the sites Kugart and Eastern Mailisuu IV till the end of 2011.

Also...

It was also announced early this morning that French utility GDF Suez SA will sign a memorandum of understanding today with Gazprom in order to get a 9 percent stake in the NordStream pipeline project.

Relevant articles:

Gas demand and cut export duty | New gas firm to be controlled by Gazprom | Russia to aid Sri Lankan exploration

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: