Drowned in the Black Sea

YUKOS is deprived of its license for Val Shatsky

Rosnedra decided to revoke the license for Shatsky Val, one of the YUKOS assets included in the ninth, so-called southern lot. As a source in Rosnedra told Interfax yesterday, the license for this Black Sea site was canceled due to its expiration. Now “Shatsky Shaft” has fallen into the undistributed fund of “Rosnedra”, and the future buyer of the ninth lot will only get the shell company to which this asset was recorded. However, LUKOIL, which is considered the main contender for bidding on this lot, says that it is not too upset by the decision of Rosnedra: “There (in the ninth lot. - Ed. ) there are other equally interesting assets, such as shares in southern energy companies and the Caspian Oil Company are more attractive for us.”

The auction for the southern lot is due to take place on May 3. In addition to Val Shatsky, it included 100% of the shares of Stavropolnefteprodukt, 26.26% of shares of Kubanenergo, Kubanenergosbyt, Kuban Generating Company and Kuban Trunk Networks, 49.9% of shares of the Caspian Oil Company, 51% of shares of the company "Yu-Kuban" and a promissory note of "Stavropolnefteprodukt" with a nominal value of 1.16 million rubles. The starting price of the lot is set at 3.712 billion rubles.

As noted by geologists of the NPO Yuzhmorgeology, engaged in the geological study of the Black Sea shelf, Shatskogo Shaft is one of the most promising areas in this region. “The trough stretches in a wide strip along the coast from Georgia and almost to Crimea. Research has identified several promising areas that may have geological oil reserves of 70 to 150 million tons, but the areas are located at great depths - 1.2-2 km, so drilling has not been carried out here, which means that oil reserves have not been confirmed . So if there is no oil at Shatsky Val, then most likely there will be no oil in other areas of the Black Sea,” says one of the experts. True, an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources clarified that the results of drilling may turn out to be negative: “Previously, the Gruzneft company drilled in the Georgian section of the Black Sea, but not very successfully. A lot of wells were drilled, but production was less than a million tons of oil per year.”

YUKOS received a license for geological exploration of Shatsky Shaft in 2001. In 2002, the company signed an agreement with the French Total to carry out joint work on this section, but as soon as the YUKOS affair began, the French quickly abandoned this project. In 2003-2004, YUKOS carried out all the necessary survey work. Moreover, according to experts, the research was carried out at a very high level and included not only seismic, but also gravity and geochemical analysis. In 2005, the company was supposed to start drilling the first exploration well, but for obvious reasons it did not. According to the law, YUKOS had to renew the license and thereby retain it, otherwise the company would lose it.

As Nikolai Lashkevich, press secretary of the YUKOS bankruptcy trustee, told Vremya Novostei, the company received notifications from Rosnedra several times about the possible revocation of its license. True, he did not disclose the essence of the claims against YUKOS, adding that so far YUKOS has not received official notification of the loss of its license. Sources of Vremya Novostey both in Rosnedra and Rosprirodnadzor said that violations of the license agreement were revealed several times at Shatsky Val (also without specifying their essence), however, the issue is still pending at the Rosnedra commission on revoking licenses was not considered.

If this area falls into the unallocated fund and is later put up for auction, the most likely contender for it could be Rosneft, which already holds a license for another section of the Black Sea - the Tuapse Trough. “The Tuapse trough is located just between the Shatsky Shaft and the coast. It can be called the second most promising area after the shaft, so in this case Rosneft would be able to accumulate the main oil and gas bearing areas of the Black Sea,” notes the Yuzhmorgeologiya expert.

LUKOIL notes that they have never been particularly interested in Shatsky Val. “In the Black Sea, unlike the Caspian or Azov Seas, we do not have any assets,” notes a representative of the oil company. “But we are interested in this lot as a whole.” At the same time, the company emphasizes that the decision to participate in the auction and submit an application for this lot has not yet been made.

Anna GORSHKOVA