Olesya Astakhova News

U.S. sanctions are limiting tanker activity for Russia's top shipping group, Sovcomflot, the company's head said on Tuesday, as Washington tightens the screws on Moscow.The U.S. imposed sanctions on Sovcomflot on Feb. 23 as Washington seeks to reduce Russia's revenues from oil sales that it can use to support its military actions in Ukraine.Sanctions have impacted the company's operations, "limiting our geography and commercial prospects", Sovcomflot CEO Igor Tonkovidov told reporters.He added that as sanctions are a relatively new instrument to the shipping market…

Russia's successor to McDonald's has teamed up with energy company Gazprom Neft to fuel marine vessels with biofuel produced using waste cooking oil an effort to lower their carbon footprints, the companies said on Thursday.Russia has said it was still committed to its climate targets despite the deepest political rift with the West in decades. Biofuels are widely considered to be less harmful in terms of emissions than conventional fuels.Gazprom Neft's bunkering business subsidiary…

Russia needs permission for its vessels to conduct investigations into explosions that damaged Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. He did not specify who should grant the permission, but Nord Stream AG, the operator of the older Nord Stream 1 pipeline, said last week that the owner of a survey vessel it chartered did not have the greenlight from the Norwegian foreign ministry to depart and start assessing ruptures to the pipelines."The whole question is in the access for our vessels…

Europe, struggling with soaring gas prices, is missing out on additional Russian supplies amid delays to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a top Russian official signaled on Friday.Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said European companies that invested in the project, which is awaiting German and EU regulatory approval, would be able to ask for additional gas on top of their long-term contracts via the route."To my mind, European consumers are very interested in the project to start working, while the companies, which participate in it, they could have submitted additional requests as part of lo

The suspension of the approval process for the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline by a German regulator could be short-lived as Europe is hungry for more gas, an analyst said on Monday after meeting officials of Russian state gas giant Gazprom.Last week, Germany's energy regulator temporarily halted the certification process for the new pipeline that will carry Russian gas into Europe, throwing up a new roadblock to the contentious project and driving up regional gas prices.German…

A rapid startup of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany could help calm record-high gas prices in Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, as Moscow awaits for regulatory clearance for gas flows to begin.Russia announced last week that it had completed construction of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 to Germany, doubling its gas exporting capacity via the Baltic Sea. However, the start of gas flows via the route needs the approval of Germany's regulator…

Russia's Energy Ministry is due to prepare a report in the coming days about the possibility of Rosneft exporting natural gas to Europe via the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Interfax cited Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Wednesday.Currently, Kremlin-controlled Gazprom has exclusive rights for Russian pipeline gas exports.Novak said this month that Rosneft had asked the government for permission to export natural gas and the government was reviewing the request.The…

Russian investigators were conducting searches at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) after Saturday's oil spill near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, the regional branch of the investigative committee said on Thursday.Russia opened a criminal investigation on the spill, which occurred during loading of a tanker moored to an offshore floating jetty. According to CPC, a crucial part of the jetty broke and caused the accident."In connection with the criminal case, representatives of the Investigative Committee are interviewing CPC employees and examining documents. The consortium provides the necessary assistance to the investigation team…

An oil spill off Russia's Black Sea coast over the weekend spread over an area of nearly 80 square kilometers and was much larger than initially thought, scientists at Russia's Academy of Sciences (RAN) said on Wednesday citing satellite imaging.A leak occurred as the Greek-flagged Minerva Symphony tanker took on oil at the Yuzhno-Ozereyevka sea terminal near Novorossiysk in southern Russia, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium that owns the terminal said on Monday.The consortium, which transports oil from Kazakhstan, said on Monday the spill had spread over 200 square meters and involved 12 cubic meters of oil. It said the spill was quickly contained and posed no threat to people or wildlife.But on Wednesday…

OPEC+ agreed on Thursday to gradually ease its oil output cuts from May, after the new U.S. administration called on Saudi Arabia to keep energy affordable for consumers.The group, which has implemented deep cuts since a pandemic-induced oil price collapse in 2020, agreed to ease production curbs by 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May, another 350,000 bpd in June and further 400,000 bpd or so in July.Iran's oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, confirmed the group would boost output by a total of 1.1 million bpd by July.In addition…

Russia's Gazprom Neft has sold its first ever Arctic oil cargo to China to ChemChina, two sources familiar with the deal told Reuters on Thursday.This week, Gazprom Neft said it had sent 144,000 tonnes of light Novy Port oil grade to the Chinese port of Yantai on the Bohai Sea from Russia's north-western city of Murmansk, using the Northern Sea Route (NSR) through Russia's Arctic waters.The Delta Hellas vessel used part of the NSR, a route requiring icebreakers and ice-class tankers, Refinitiv Eikon data showed, sailing west from Murmansk to reach Suez and then China.Gazprom Neft said this week the delivery took 47 days, without providing the buyer's name.Gazprom Neft and ChemChina did not reply to Reuters requests for a comment.The company regularly supplies ESPO Blend crude oil to China

A cruise ship has arrived in Russia's northwesterly Murmansk region to accommodate healthy staff from a construction site run by the gas company Novatek, one of Russia's coronavirus hotspots, a local crisis centre said.Novatek, one of the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies, is building a facility to produce gravity-based platforms for its future LNG plants in Belokamenka near Murmansk, a region bordering Finland and Norway.Many of Russia's oil and gas facilities are located in remote areas where people live and work in close proximity for weeks on end, so that any contagious disease is hard to contain.Russia has nearly 166,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, more than France, of which 1,937 have been recorded in Belokamenka, according to the local crisis response centre.

Drilling in the South China Sea by Rosneft is within Vietnamese territorial waters, the Russian state oil firm said in a statement on Thursday, two days after its Vietnamese subsidiary began drilling in Vietnamese waters claimed by China.Rosneft's local unit, Rosneft Vietnam BV, is concerned that its recent drilling in an area of the South China Sea that falls within China's "nine-dash line" could upset Beijing, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Wednesday."Offshore license areas of Rosneft on the South China Sea are situated within the territorial waters of Vie

Exxon Mobil Corp will exit some joint ventures with Russia's Rosneft, citing Western sanctions first imposed in 2014, while the Russian company said the pullout will result in serious losses for its U.S. partner. The move is an about-face for Exxon, which had opposed the sanctions over Russia's invasion of Crimea and argued they unfairly penalized U.S. companies while allowing foreign energy rivals to operate in the country, the world's largest oil producer. Yet the sanctions…

Russia may allow more oil companies to access its offshore projects, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.   "In general, the access can be extended," Novak told reporters in Moscow.   An existing law stipulates that only state energy majors Rosneft and Gazprom can explore offshore fields. But Lukoil, Russia's No.2 oil producer, has long called for extending access to private firms as well.     (Reporting by Olesya Astakhova, Writing by Polina Devitt, Editing by Gabriela Baczynska)

Russia may produce more than 70 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year in its remote Arctic regions, the head of gas producer Novatek said on Wednesday. "The Gydan and Yamal peninsulas have a vast resource base that allows the production of over 70 million tonnes (of LNG); it is comparable to LNG production in Qatar", Leonid Mikhelson, the head and co-owner of Novatek told a conference. Novatek, which was put on the list of Russian companies sanctioned by the West over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis…

An ice-breaking tanker docked for the first time at Russia's Arctic port of Sabetta to test a new route that could open the ice-bound Arctic Ocean to ships carrying oil and liquefied gas. The route is eagerly anticipated by energy firms that want to develop resources in the Arctic but face obstacles in getting oil and gas from remote and freezing fields to world markets. Environmental activists fear commercial shipping in the Arctic -- now possible because climate change has thinned…

Russian energy giant Rosneft may build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the far east using exclusively its own resources and gas reserves, Rosneft vice president Vlada Rusakova said on Thursday.   Rosneft and U.S. energy firm Exxon earlier announced plans to build an LNG plant in Russia's far east together.   Rusakova said Rosneft's base scenario for monetising its gas reserves and those of its partners in the Sakhalin-1 project remained building an LNG plant together with Exxon. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Olesya Astakhova; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Energy giant Rosneft said on Thursday its trading arm had delivered an inaugural gasoline cargo to the Asia-Pacific, marking what could be Russia's first foray into a region dominated by OPEC producers from the Gulf. The 200,000-barrel cargo, bought by Rosneft from the international market and taken by Indonesian state energy company Pertamina, was delivered on free-on-board (FOB) terms to Malaysia. Rosneft declined to say from which refinery it had received the cargo. It also did not say from or to which ports it was being delivered. The cargo was shipped to Pertamina within a term agreement for the delivery of 1.2 million barrels signed between the companies in June, Rosneft said.

The Novatek-led Yamal LNG project in Russia received financing in July worth about 780 million euros from China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, according to Yamal's accounting report published on Tuesday. The 15-year loan deals, of 9.3 billion euros and 9.8 billion yuan ($1.48 billion), were signed by the two Chinese financial institutions in late April. The latest disbursement follows the first chunk of 450 million euros Yamal received in late July. Before receiving the financing from the Chinese banks…

Russia's Novatek has provisionally set Dec. 8 as the official launch date for its Yamal LNG plant, two sources with direct knowledge of the event planning told Reuters. Novatek's partners on the project are France's Total, the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and China's Silk Road Fund. The project, on the Yamal Peninsula above the Arctic Circle, will be Russia's second LNG plant after Sakhalin-2 on the Pacific island of Sakhalin. At full capacity, the Yamal facility will be able to produce 16.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year, which it will ship to Europe and Asia.

Novak says Russian oil output to rise 0.6 pct in 2014; Natural gas production seen down 4 pct this year. Russia's oil exports are expected to fall by 4.3 percent this year, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday, citing preliminary data. He said oil exports will be 229 million tonnes (4.6 million barrels per day), while natural gas production will fall by 4 percent to 641 billion cubic metres (bcm) and exports by 6.7 percent to 183.3 bcm. Russia, one of the world's top oil producers, has been cutting crude exports in recent years due to rising domestic demand and refining volumes. Novak said that crude oil output will edge up 0.6 percent to 526.6 million tonnes, in what would be a post-Soviet record high. Output may edge down to 525 million tonnes next year, he added.