Translated material
Sea knot
The presidents of Korea and Russia agreed on joint development of the West Kamchatka shelf
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said yesterday after negotiations with Dmitry Medvedev that the heads of state “agreed on cooperation in the joint development of the West Kamchatka shelf.” Both presidents did not provide details. However, Lee Myung-bak's statement can be interpreted as a promise to provide a consortium of Korean investors led by Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOK) with some form of participation in this large-scale project, the cost of which a year ago was estimated at $24 billion. The resources of the West Kamchatka shelf fields are estimated 1.766 trillion cubic meters of gas and 1.411 billion tons of oil. A consortium of Korean investors owns a 40 percent stake in West Kamchatka Holding BV, whose subsidiary held the license to develop these fields until August of this year. The remaining 60% belongs to Rosneft. Now the license is in the undistributed fund, but Gazprom is claiming it, to which Vladimir Putin promised it a year ago.Rosneft has held a license for the West Kamchatka shelf since 2003. At the same time, she managed to attract Korean investors to the project, who agreed to finance the work before the start of commercial production and give the Russian company its share of raw materials, without waiting for all costs to be recouped. According to sources close to Rosneft, in total, Korean investors spent about $50 million on the fields. They carried out seismic exploration work (albeit in violation of the deadlines) and drilled a well, which, however, turned out to be “dry”. However, a letter from Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Anatoly Varlamov, dated February of this year, states that drilling never began. One way or another, the license expired on August 1, and the Rosnedra commission decided not to renew it due to failure to fulfill license obligations.
However, by that time no one had any doubt that the license would not be renewed. The fact is that in September last year, Vladimir Putin (he was then the president of the country) at a meeting in Kamchatka Vilyuchinsk criticized the work on gasification of the region. “We already talked about this three years ago,” he said then. — The gas pipeline was never built. This is federal property. Everyone is nodding at each other... If they had given it to Gazprom, they probably would have built it a long time ago.” The gas pipeline and two small fields with reserves of 15 billion cubic meters of gas were transferred to Gazprom. And a month ago - after the license for the Western Kamchatka shelf ended up in the unallocated fund - at a meeting in Vladivostok, Vladimir Putin said that it should also be transferred to the gas monopolist as a resource base for gas supply to the Kamchatka region.
The corresponding instruction, as Gazprom sources say, was recorded in the minutes of the meeting, but it has not yet been implemented. And if the transfer is delayed, then Gazprom, according to the concern, risks not having time to fulfill the order to gasify the region by 2010.
At the same time, Korean companies obviously do not intend to accept the loss of such a promising project and announced a month ago their readiness to continue working on the Western Kamchatka shelf and finance the work. Gazprom, as it turns out, does not need co-owners of the license. “We are ready to cooperate with Korean companies,” a representative of the gas monopolist told Vremya Novostei, “but exclusively on the terms of contract and service work. In other words, according to the same scheme by which we agreed to develop the Shtokman field.” To develop Shtokman, as is known, a special-purpose company has been created that will build and own the infrastructure of the project, shares in this company are distributed as follows: Gazprom - 51%, French Total - 25%, German BASF -- 24%. At the same time, Gazprom owns the license to develop the field completely alone.
At the same time, a source close to Rosneft believes that without the company’s participation, further development of the Kamchatka shelf will be ineffective, since over the course of five years it has collected a huge amount of information on the project. “It’s unlikely that Gazprom will be interested in starting everything from scratch,” says the source. “But if Rosneft is not invited, then it obviously will not share this information - there are plenty of ways to counter it.” But, according to the source, recently an option has been discussed in which the number of participants in the project would be expanded - both from the Russian and Korean sides. “True, there was no agreement as to who would get the controlling stake,” he says.
It is unclear whether this option was discussed at the meeting between the presidents of Russia and Korea yesterday. A government source close to the negotiations claims that in the end the Koreans will definitely not receive a share in the company that will own the license: “What can they offer now? If only money, then this is not necessary - there is enough money in Russia. Technologies? In this case, they can be involved as a contractor. It is unlikely that they have anything that can be exchanged for a share in the project. Five years ago, Rosneft did not have the funds for such a large-scale project, but now times are completely different.” Thus, what form of participation in the project is promised to Koreans, as President Lee Myung-bak spoke about yesterday, remains unclear. However, no documents were signed in this regard.
Gazprom and the South Korean state corporation Kogas intend to prepare a feasibility study for investments in a project to supply natural gas from Russia to South Korea via a pipeline through the Korean Peninsula by 2010 , the companies said in a statement. “The parties agreed to continue commercial negotiations and prepare a feasibility study for investments in the project by the end of 2010,” the press release said. The possibility of passing a pipeline to supply natural gas to South Korea through the Korean Peninsula, as well as conducting joint research along this route, is provided for in a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday by representatives of Gazprom and Kogas. In October 2006, the governments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of the gas industry, according to which Gazprom and Kogas were designated as authorized organizations for organizing the supply of natural gas from Russia to the Republic of Korea. Currently, Gazprom and Kogas are conducting relevant commercial negotiations. The cooperation agreement between Gazprom and Kogas was concluded on May 12, 2003 and extended in May 2008 for another five-year period. “It was also decided to study the possibility of implementing projects in the field of gas processing, construction of a gas chemical plant and a plant for the production of liquefied gas in the Russian regions of the Far East,” Gazprom said in a statement. RIA Novosti