INTERVIEW: No chance for gas export agent deal with Gazprom – Rosneft exec

MOSCOW, Jun 29 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom is very unlikely to agree to state-owned oil major Rosneft’s proposal of an agent agreement on natural gas exports, Rosneft Vice President Vlada Rusakova said in an interview to PRIME on Wednesday.

Currently, only Gazprom and its export branch Gazprom Export are allowed to export natural gas, with the exclusion made only for liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers. After liberalization of LNG exports, independent gas producers have repeatedly asked the government to allow them to export natural gas.

“Yes, we’ve submitted a draft agent agreement to Gazprom Export. But we have not received an answer. It is unfortunate, but the probability of a positive answer is very low despite a positive reaction from several government authorities, including the Finance Ministry, which is interested in attraction of additional money to the budget,” she said.

Rosneft excludes any possibility for competition with Gazprom at its traditional export markets. “We planned to work with buyers who have no Gazprom gas in their portfolios and who plan to cover their long-term balance with supplies of LNG,” she said.

The company’s LNG project in the Russian Far East, which is implemented together with ExxonMobil, receives all kinds of support, but no benefits or preferences are under discussion. “The project is being developed under the Sakhalin-1 production sharing agreements, so there is no discussion of preferences, but the support is provided at all levels,” Rusakova said.

Gazprom has not responded to Rosneft’s offer of gas supplies from the Sakhalin-1 project for loading of the gas giant’s Sakhalin-2 LNG plant, currently the only operating LNG plant in Russia. “We are studying all possible options of monetization of the gas in order to maximize incomes of the state and investors. We’ve sent the proposal to Gazprom but have not received an answer,” she said.

Rosneft still keeps its plans to increase the gas output by 4% to about 65 billion cubic meters in 2016, including natural gas and associated gas. “We are successfully fulfilling the task of increasing the level of beneficial use of associated gas, which reached the level of 91% in the first quarter of 2016,” Rusakova said.

The company’s long-term plan is to raise gas output to 100 billion cubic meters by 2020. “Rospan will act as the main driver to increase production in the coming years, and we expect its production to grow to 20 billion cubic meters per year,” she said.

Rosneft also plans to sell 2.4 billion cubic meters of gas through exchange in 2016, down 4% on the year. The company sold 3.7 billion cubic meters of gas as of today at the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange SPIMEX, including 1.2 billion cubic meters sold in January–May 2016, which accounts for about 30% of the exchange’s gas sales and exceeds the company’s share on the internal market under long-term contracts by two times, she said.

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