Translated material
“This is simply impossible!”
The Minister of Finance could not stand the monopoly of Gazprom
Emotions had not yet had time to cool down from the head of government’s readiness to give Gazprom for use without the legally required procedures (auction) the subsoil within the Sakhalin-3 project and the Chayandinskoye field, when the gas monopolist asked for new preferences. Yesterday, at a meeting of the presidium of the commission for the socio-economic development of the Far East and Transbaikalia, the acting chairman of the board of Gazprom, Alexander Ananenkov, said that his company does not have the opportunity until 2014 (only by this time is Gazprom ready to launch the Sakhalin- 3”, which he already considers unambiguously “his own”) to supply sufficient quantities of gas to the Russian Far East .Mr. Ananenkov’s assessment is as follows: “The needs of only four Far Eastern subjects exceed 15 billion cubic meters per year.” Meanwhile, according to him, ExxonMobil, which is the operator of the Sakhalin-1 project, is going to supply most of its gas to China (annually 8 billion cubic meters of 10-11 billion project production). Therefore, Gazprom’s acting executive again demanded non-standard solutions from the government: “We believe that it is necessary to give a directive so that they sell this gas to Gazprom, and it will not be exported, as ExxonMobil suggests.”
Mikhail Fradkov somewhat doubted, but not about the adequacy of Mr. Ananenkov’s judgments (why on earth could the government tell what a private consortium should do with the extracted products), but about the realism of the American company’s plans. “This is a theory. How will they get him to China? - asked the prime minister. “They won’t do anything,” responded Mr. Ananenkov. - But according to the PSA they have the right. This means that we must take gas from Sakhalin-1, because we have no other resource base.”
The fact that Gazprom is driven crazy by even the hypothetical possibility of someone else managing gas exports was noted by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. “Tell me,” he turned to Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy Andrey Dementyev. “Exxon is independent in its plans of where to supply gas?” “I am independent in my intentions,” Mr. Dementyev assured of the inviolability of Russian market principles. - But there is a law. Export supplies, like it or not, are tied to a single system.” Although in fact this is not entirely true: existing projects that are implemented on production sharing terms (Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2 and Kharyaga) do not fall under the law “On Gas Export”, which was adopted last year (which, as is known, recorded Gazprom’s export monopoly).
The Deputy Minister noted that the Americans can only supply liquefied gas bypassing us, although in fact, liquefied gas (with the exception of the Sakhalin-2 project) is now legally required to be exported by a 100 percent subsidiary of Gazprom. “And what if they consider this issue?” - Mr. Kudrin persisted. “We hope that colleagues will think that this is ineffective for them. In any case, this is technologically possible only beyond 2011,” explained Mr. Dementyev. It should be noted that Exxon declined to comment on the discussion at the government commission meeting. Previously, the company said that it was negotiating a contract with the Chinese, and was also considering other possibilities for selling gas. By and large, the Americans have nowhere to rush - obligations on the timing and volumes of gas production are not spelled out in this PSA. Here Alexey Kudrin sincerely saw the light about Gazprom’s tactics: “Perhaps I had no idea before what measures of “persuasion” are used. Just don’t let it go down the pipe, that’s all!” In this case, however, we are talking about not allowing it to be built and in every possible way hinting to Beijing that the only seller of Russian gas is Gazprom.
But a brief excursion into Gazprom’s fairy tale was not enough for the chief financier, and he decided to join the ranks of the rebel ministers, opponents of Gazprom’s complete and final victory over the minds in the White House. The head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev, who was in Khanty-Mansiysk yesterday, called the transfer of Chayanda and Sakhalin-3 out of competition to Gazprom a “non-systemic” phenomenon, but still admitted to journalists that only in a week he would be able to express the exact position of the ministry on this question. “In about a week I will be ready to give a more detailed answer to the question, but for now I can call Gazprom’s proposal an out-of-system solution. Simply giving something to someone without a competition, even such a respected company as Gazprom, I don’t really like, like any out-of-system solution,” Interfax quotes him.
As an alternative solution to the issue, the minister proposed organizing an investment competition for these deposits, the winner of which would be the company that proposed the best project for the further use of the obtained raw materials. “Large strategic deposits are distinguished by the fact that on their basis it is possible to develop processing capacities, create new jobs, and develop regions. Therefore, it is quite effective if several large deposits, there should be no more than five or six of them, go through a competition for investment projects,” the minister explained.
Mr. Kudrin, as if continuing the thought of Mr. Trutnev, sharply condemned the government decree adopted the other day, which, in his words, “will double the price of gas for all new consumers.” "Who did this?" - he asked. “MERT did it. It is very likely that the price according to this formula will be indicative,” said Mr. Dementyev (although the Ministry of Economic Development was the main opponent of discrimination against new gas buyers). That is, market. The Minister of Finance refused to believe: “The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade could not! We create nonsense. This is absurd. That is, Gazprom, when necessary, is a state enterprise and receives fields for free, and when it is profitable, it is a private enterprise and stops supplying gas according to the limit. It’s simply impossible!” The Minister of Finance actually turned white with indignation.
The prime minister considered it best not to notice Kudrin’s accusatory speeches. They say that all the “conversations” should be held in a week, when the government commission on the fuel and energy complex, in the usual closed mode, will finally discuss the gas balance, which Gazprom stubbornly refused to present to the government. But only a gas balance will make it possible to realistically assess who actually needs and how much gas. And at the same time, it will be possible to evaluate the behavior of “dissenting” ministers who do not understand the strategy of the country’s leadership, which has long been nicknamed “our home is Gazprom.” And those who persist can easily be sent to some other house, not the White House at all.
While Mikhail Fradkov suddenly became extremely receptive to Gazprom’s initiatives, oil workers are having an increasingly difficult time. Mr. Trutnev promised them a complete ban on the flaring of associated gas from 2011 under the threat of revocation of licenses. Yesterday, the government commission quite harshly made it clear to the heads of oil companies that they will have to invest in geological exploration of Eastern Siberia on an equal basis with the state, otherwise they will receive a “strict punishment”, including the deprivation of licenses. In any case, the prime minister threatened about this: “They are oligarchs. They have a lot of things there... To sit on oil and do nothing for 15 years is dangerous... We must take care of how the family will live in the fifth generation. And we, as officials, must tell them using economic methods if they misunderstand something in life. Why are people specialists and want to take the easy path? Maybe treat oil like raw timber: impose export duties properly!.. What? Do we need to take tough measures?! Are they asking for it? “Either there is a shortage of duties, or open customs. “Someone has privileges,” the prime minister said. “We cannot show helplessness here, otherwise we will never get to the beginning of the river.”
As a result, the head of government instructed the head of Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, to “get to the bottom of the problem” - to provide a certificate on all export supplies of Russian oil, including the neighboring countries. Then consider this problem together with the Federal Customs Service.
Compromise in the pipe
One of the points of a possible compromise with Gazprom, which the Ministry of Natural Resources is striving for , could be the situation with filling the oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific coast (ESPO). The government is demanding guarantees from officials to prepare the raw material base in Eastern Siberia to fill its second line, which will increase the pipeline's capacity to 80 million tons of oil per year. And this is impossible without the adoption of the program for a unified gas production system in the Far East, which Gazprom is currently preparing. The fact is that the East Siberian oil fields are distinguished by a large gas component and oilmen are not ready to undertake their development in the absence of gas transportation infrastructure. In addition, as Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Alexey Varlamov said in April, sufficiently large volumes of raw materials for ESPO could be taken from the oil rims of large gas and oil fields, and primarily from Chayandinskoye. However, due to Gazprom’s desire to comprehensively develop the Chayandinskoye field within the framework of the eastern program, the Ministry of Natural Resources cannot use the slugs to expand the resource base, as Mr. Varlamov explained, because Gazprom asked the ministry to postpone the licensing of the Chayandinskoye slugs. So now, apparently, Yuri Trutnev will offer Gazprom to engage in their development (which, for example, Gazprom Neft can only be happy about), providing in return a guarantee of filling the ESPO. Then, presumably, the minister will be able to turn a blind eye to the fact that the gas concern will develop the Chayandinskoye field and the fields of the Sakhalin-3 project without a competition. Anna GORSHKOVA