Special status

Gazprom will release gas from the Beregovoye field to the detriment of gas from the Zapolyarnoye field

It seems that problems with increasing gas production are forcing Gazprom to take desperate steps. Several sources familiar with the situation confirmed to Vremya Novostey that the Sibneftegaz company (a controlling stake in its shares was transferred from Itera last year to the ownership of Gazprombank’s subsidiary, Status LLC) received a fire emergency from the monopolist permission to connect the Beregovoye field to the country's unified gas supply system. It is planned that gas from this field will hit the market in April. The exact date depends on the shareholders of Sibneftegaz, who must soon agree or reject at an extraordinary meeting contracts for the sale of up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas to Status and Transitneftegaz by the end of the year. Gazprom's readiness to connect Beregovoye, with a projected production level of 12 billion cubic meters per year, to the system is so great that it agreed to temporarily reduce gas production at its giant field - Zapolyarny - until an additional gas pipeline is built from the site of the current a tie-in to Urengoy with a length of about 150 km, which will allow gas to be transported from both Zapolyarny and Beregovoy simultaneously.

The impetus for the rush could have been either problems with production at Zapolyarny (which is unlikely), or the need to provide cash flow to Sibneftegaz shareholders in order to speed up the financing of the construction of the gas pipeline branch and, accordingly, Beregovoy’s reaching its designed capacity. As you know, gas production at Gazprom’s main fields continues to fall, and the management of the concern promises to further increase production. Beregovoe can give Gazprom an additional 6 billion cubic meters per year. Gazprom, Gazprombank and Itera declined to comment.

The fact that permission to connect has been issued is confirmed in the corporate newspaper of Surgutgazprom (a subsidiary of Gazprom), Sibirsky Vestnik. As URA.Ru reports with reference to this publication, during March, company specialists, at the direction of Gazprom management, carried out work to connect the Beregovoye gas condensate field to the Zapolyarnoye-Urengoy main gas pipeline. According to the publication, taps were made into the first and second lines of the gas pipeline. All information on gas consumption from Beregovoye is displayed on the main control panel of the Purtazovskaya compressor station. In the near future, the newspaper writes, gas from Beregovoye will be supplied to consumers.

For four years, the concern refused to Itera, which then controlled this enterprise, to issue such a permit, citing the fact that there was no free capacity in the place where the tie-in was planned (the Zapolyarnoye-Urengoy gas pipeline). Three lines (33 billion cubic meters per year each) of this gas pipeline are fully loaded with gas from the Zapolyarnoye field. In 2005, it reached its design capacity of 100 billion cubic meters per year and completely filled the gas pipeline. Sibneftegaz was asked to build a parallel branch and connect to the UGSS closer to the Urengoy transport hub, where there is free space. In parallel, Gazprom structures negotiated with Itera to buy out a controlling stake in Sibneftegaz, which ended last summer. In the fall, the deal worth $130 million was closed, and in December six representatives of Gazprom joined the board of directors of Sibneftegaz, three people remained from Itera and two from the chemical holding Acron (which refused to sell to Itera 21% shares of Sibneftegaz).

All this time, the shareholders tried to divide the gas and did not start construction of the gas pipeline. Status took 51% of the planned gas production (no one objected to this), and the remaining 49% was the subject of a dispute between Itera and Akron. The first expected to receive the entire volume, and chemists who needed gas for their production demanded their share. Last time, it was Acron that blocked the sale of gas from Beregovoe to Status and Transitneftegaz. As Akron Vice President Alexander Popov told Vremya Novostei, at the last meeting his company blocked the deal because “it was proposed to sell 49% of the gas to Itera at some incomprehensible transfer prices.” Now Sibneftegaz shareholders have been asked to vote for the conclusion of such contracts at a price of 580 rubles. per thousand cubic meters per well. Akron prefers not to say whether the current gas price is satisfactory. “We are now studying the question of how much this price is market and how much it corresponds to what Gazprom pays to other independent producers. If it suits us, if it turns out to be marketable, we are ready to vote “for” at an extraordinary meeting, if not, then we will block the deal,” said Mr. Popov. As an alternative, he proposes to supply 21% of Beregovoye gas to Acron enterprises at regulated prices.

Meanwhile, such a concept as the market price for a well is hardly applicable. For example, at the end of last year LUKOIL entered into a new five-year contract with Gazprom for the sale of gas from the Nakhodkinskoye field. Vice President of the oil company Leonid Fedun argued that according to the price formula and as of the end of last year, LUKOIL should receive more than $40 for every thousand cubic meters. And, for example, NOVATEK, the largest independent gas producer in Russia, according to reporting data for the third quarter of 2006, sold gas per well (mainly to Gazprom and Itera) for an average of 658 rubles. ($25) per thousand cubic meters. Since then, regulated prices have increased by 15%. For comparison: at current regulated prices (Sibneftegaz’s raw materials must be sold at these rates), gas from Beregovoe can be sold in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug for 779 rubles, and on average in the country - for 51 dollars per thousand cubic meters.

Anna GORSHKOVA, Alexey GRIVACHS