Buyers, agreements and deals

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It has been an interesting weekend for the Russian oil and gas industry with several agreements made and negotiations continuing on several projects.

First, was that Turkish stated owned gas company, Aksa Natural Gas, who signed a 'cooperation protocol' with Putin last year, announced that would begin to import natural gas directly from Russia next year. Not just that, but the company also stated that it expected to collaborate with Gazprom to bid in the privatization tenders for the natural gas grids of İstanbul and Ankara and to work together to establish a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility in Adana's Ceyhan district.

Gazprom success

It seemed to be a successful weekend for Gazprom, with news that the gas giant had found buyers for half of the volumes of gas that will be supplied to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline. The news was revealed by the consortium's Managing Director Matthias Warnig who stated that contracts for the supply of more than 21 billion cubic meters of gas a year had been concluded with consumers in Germany, Denmark, France and Great Britain.

Gazprom also stated that they planned to close negotiations with Austria in the near future regarding the South Stream gas pipeline. Gazprom CEO Alexi Miller was reported as saying, "It is not surprising: ever since the idea of the South Stream project was conceived, Gazprom has viewed Austria as one of its high priority potential partners."

Austria has a well-developed gas infrastructure, including the Baumgarten hub and underground gas storage facilities. By securing a route to the South Steam pipeline, Gazprom would have a new gas exchange in Vienna.

Other agreements

Gazprom weren't the only ones to secure deals; it has been announced that Rosneft Oil Co. have sold 600,000 metric tons of its East Siberian Pipeline Oil, or ESPO, for loading in February and March to Vitol Group, Mitsubishi Corp., Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and Russian-Swiss trading company Crudex International.

Of course, there was also the traditional disagreement. This time, it was a resurgence in the Russian/Belarus disagreement with Minsk accusing Russia of applying full export fees to oil pumped to Belarus.

At a press conference, Alexander Shpilevsky, the head of the Belarussian customs committee said, "Russia has effectively come out of the agreement one-sidedly and is illegally applying full duties to Russian companies supplying oil to Belarus."

It seems that the dispute is far from over and that Europe's supplies are still at risk of being disrupted.

Relevant articles:

Gazprom heads to Turkey | The Nabucco Pipeline | Shtokman project delayed

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