Forced partnership

Gazprom and Rosneft agreed on the principles of peaceful coexistence

The heads of the two main state-owned companies - Gazprom and Rosneft - Alexey Miller and Sergei Bogdanchikov yesterday signed a long-announced agreement on strategic cooperation until 2015 . It turned out that in the five months that have passed since the public announcement of the proximity of this event, the parties have not agreed on anything specific. Behind the loud words about numerous areas of joint work, the issues of Rosneft increasing natural gas production and its sales, as well as the global fate of Sakhalin gas, and in particular Gazprom’s acquisition of the Sakhalin-Komsomolsk-on-Amur-Khabarovsk gas pipeline , remained unresolved.

The signed agreement is the first official document of cooperation since the two companies became a symbol of domestic competition not only in the oil, but also in the administrative field. Two years ago, Rosneft President Bogdanchikov was appointed to the post of General Director of the newly created Gazprom Neft company and was supposed to ensure a smooth absorption of Rosneft assets by the gas concern. However, he did not remain Mr. Miller's subordinate for long. As a result of a short administrative struggle and a happy coincidence of circumstances, the merger with Gazprom did not take place. The main producing subsidiary of the disgraced Yukos was transferred to the balance sheet of Rosneft, and this was enough to disrupt the deal to exchange 10.7% of Gazprom shares (needed by the state to obtain a controlling stake) for 100% of the shares of the state-owned oil company.

Since then, the heads of Gazprom and Rosneft have refrained from public contacts, although their regular working meetings resumed last fall. Sergei Bogdanchikov went to the concern's office on the street. Nametkina to discuss opportunities for developing the gas business.

First of all, Mr. Bogdanchikov tried to negotiate the connection of the large Kharampurskoye field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, owned by Rosneft, to the gas transportation system. However, specific negotiations on this issue were sluggish - the head of Rosneft was in no hurry to agree to reciprocal concessions in the Far East and Sakhalin, where Gazprom does not yet have any assets.

On June 29, 2006, Miller and Bogdanchikov announced on federal channels that they would soon sign a large partnership document. “We believe that using our vast experience and ability to manage gas resources and transportation experience, we will be able to solve a mutually beneficial problem - Rosneft - sell gas to Gazprom, Gazprom - transport and supply it to final markets,” - Mr. Bogdanchikov spoke then on television. “And most importantly, without a doubt, such joint cooperation will ensure comprehensive development of fields both in traditional production regions and in new production regions. Integrated development of fields, taking into account the gas transportation network and oil and gas processing capabilities,” echoed the head of Gazprom.

It is now clear that these estimates turned out to be too optimistic - both in terms of the timing of signing the agreement and in its content. However, at that time there were only a few days left before the placement of a large block of Rosneft shares on the stock exchanges, and good news about the gas business of the oil company, obviously, should have fueled investor interest in the securities.

The signed document stipulates that Gazprom will purchase gas from Rosneft from Western Siberian fields already connected to the gas transportation system “in volumes based on actual production results, but not less than 2006 production volumes.” The companies found it difficult to say what this minimum volume would be. In 2005, 3.6 billion cubic meters were sold from the fields of Western Siberia to Gazprom, 1.1 billion cubic meters to independent traders, and 420 million cubic meters to end consumers.

A source at Gazprom only clarified that this year Mezhregiongaz will buy 2-3 billion cubic meters from Rosneft and Rosneft will transport about 3 billion on its own. Therefore, it can be assumed that in 2007 Gazprom committed to purchase at least 5-6 billion cubic meters of input into the system. The price of gas has not been determined. It and other conditions for the purchase of gas must be determined within three months by a coordinating committee of ten people (five from each company) and enshrined in the appropriate memorandum, after which contracts will be signed. That is, the situation has practically not changed, and there are simply no firm agreements on the gas produced by the oil company.

As for the new West Siberian fields (Rosneft’s main gas hope, Kharampurskoye, with reserves of about 1 trillion cubic meters, also falls into this group), decisions on them will be fixed in separate agreements. Previously, top managers of the oil company even hinted to investors that they might develop projects for the production of synthetic liquid fuels (Gas to Liquids) based on this field if it was not possible to resolve the issue of gas access to the system with Gazprom.

The only thing that Gazprom managed to achieve in this agreement was recognition by Rosneft of a single export channel for gas supplies from Sakhalin fields, including Sakhalin-1 (which is not formally obliged to export raw materials through Gazprom Export). There is no talk now of buying out the 20% stake in the project that belongs to Rosneft. And the process of acquiring from Daltransgaz (controlled by Rosneft and the Khabarovsk administration) the main gas pipeline from Sakhalin to the Khabarovsk Territory has sharply slowed down. According to Vremya Novostei, the oil company unexpectedly refused to approve the deal, although the price was 2.7 billion rubles. was already agreed upon. The pretext was fears that in this case the Komsomolsk Oil Refinery (owned by Rosneft) could lose the volumes of gas necessary for normal functioning.

Meanwhile, the creation of a joint venture between Gazprom Neft (ex-Sibneft) and LUKOIL to acquire assets in Russia and abroad, which was announced two weeks ago by the head of the private oil company Vagit Alekperov, is being postponed. The LUKOIL press service found it difficult to name the date of signing the agreement. True, the company representative recalled the words of Vagit Alekperov that the company does not expect to be Gazprom’s only partner. The gas concern does not comment on the topic. A Vremya Novostey source close to the company’s management reported that Nametkin was dissatisfied with the speech of the head of LUKOIL, who announced the creation of a joint venture before signing the documents. True, things have not yet come to the point of abandoning the agreements reached; the signing of the agreement was simply held back for educational purposes.

However, it cannot be ruled out that plans to increase gas purchases from Rosneft should push LUKOIL to extend the corresponding contract with Gazprom. At least for Nametkin, they seem to be counting on this very much. The agreement on the sale of about 6 billion cubic meters of gas from the Nakhodkinskoye field to Gazprom at a price of no less than $22 per thousand cubic meters expires on December 31, and a new one has not yet been signed. The parties are trading both in terms of volumes (LUKOIL, counting on the beginning of market liberalization, hopes to sell part of the gas independently on an electronic platform) and at a new price.

Anna GORSHKOVA, Alexey GRIVACHS