• The acceptance period of the tender offer has ended on 14 June 2013;
• On the basis of the provisional results, no. 213,796,505 of Saras S.p.A. – Raffinerie Sarde ordinary shares, equal to 22.48% of the issued corporate capital of the same company, have been tendered in acceptance of the tender offer;
• As the number of shares tendered in acceptance of the tender offer is higher than the no. 69,310,933 shares which represent the maximum amount of the tender offer, the shares tendered in acceptance of the tender offer will be allocated pursuant to the following pro-rata allotment coefficient: 0.32419;
• Rosneft JV Projects S.A. will hold in aggregate no. 199,601,816 ordinary shares of Saras S.p.A. – Raffinerie Sarde, equal to 20.99% of the share capital of the latter;
• The consideration will be paid by Rosneft JV Projects S.A. on 19 June 2013.

Moscow – Rosneft JV Projects S.A. (the ”Bidder”) announces that 14 of June the acceptance period of the voluntary partial public tender offer (the “Offer”) promoted by the said Bidder over a maximum of no. 69,310,933 ordinary shares of Saras S.p.A. – Raffinerie Sarde (“Saras S.p.A.” or also the ”Issuer”), representing approximately 7,29% of the corporate capital of the latter, in accordance with article 102 of the Legislative Decree 24 February 1998, n. 58, as subsequently amended, has ended.

On the basis of the provisional results notified by BNP Paribas Securities Services – Milan Branch, also on behalf of Banca Akros S.p.A., as intermediary in charge of coordinating the collection of acceptances, no. 213,796,505 ordinary shares of Saras S.p.A have been tendered to the Offer, equal to 22.48% of the issued corporate capital of the said company, and 308.46% of the ordinary shares object of the Offer. As the number of shares tendered in acceptance of the Offer is higher than the no. 69,310,933 shares which represent the maximum amount of the Offer, the shares tendered will be allocated pursuant to the pro-rata method described in the Offer Document, through a pro-rata allotment coefficient equal to 0.32419.

Therefore, the Bidder will purchase no. 69,310,933 shares (the “Shares”), for an overall value of EUR 94,955,978.21, while the remaining no. 144,485,572 shares tendered in acceptance of the Offer which will not purchased under the Offer following the allotment procedure, will be returned to the relevant shareholders, without any costs or other expenses, by 18 June 2013.

Considering the shares purchased following the Offer, added to those already held by the Bidder, equal to approximately 13.70% of the corporate capital of Saras S.p.A., the Bidder will come to hold no. 199,601,816 ordinary shares of Saras S.p.A., representing approximately 20,99% of the corporate capital of the same.

As a consequence, in the light of the full acceptance of the Offer, there are no conditions for the reopening of the terms under article 40-bis, paragraph 1, lett. b) of the Consob Regulation no. 11971 of 14 May 1999.

By the present press release it is also announced that the condition indicated in paragraph A.1 of the offer document approved by Consob with resolution no. 18549 of the 17 May 2013 (the “Offer Document”), has been satisfied. Such condition was represented by “the non-occurrence, within the end of the acceptance period, of a material adverse event of a physical nature at the refinery or cogeneration plants of Saras S.p.A. in Sarroch (CA) which causes, in the immediate or reasonably near future, extremely material adverse effects on the long-term value of the Issuer, out of the Bidder’s control”.

Therefore, in the light of the above, the Offer has become fully effective and, thus, the Bidder:

• on 19 June 2013, following simultaneous transfer of the full ownership of the Shares tendered to the Offer, will pay to the accepting parties the cash consideration equal to Euro 1.370 per share;

The final results of the Offer will be set out in a notice to be published – in accordance with Article 41, paragraph 6, of CONSOB Regulation No. 14 May 1999, n. 11971 – on a national newspaper on 18 June, 2013.

Source

The Company is placing the four wells in the Asanketken Field onto trial production and returning the BCHW-1 well in the Baichonas Field to test production, effective immediately. As a result, the Company expects its current production of approximately 2,200 barrels of oil per day (“bopd”) from the Zhana Makat Field to increase by a minimum of 2,000 bopd.

Source, www.maxpetroleum.com

The Positive Outlook reflects our expectation that over the medium term the company will maintain stable brownfield production levels and strong credit metrics for a ’BB’ rated company, ie, funds from operations (FFO) gross leverage below 2x and FFO interest coverage of above 8x. It also reflects that its Trebs and Titov (T&T) greenfield project is on track to produce its first oil later this year. Bashneft is a second-tier Russian integrated oil company with 2012 upstream production of 308 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (mbbl/d) and refinery throughput of 415mbbl/d.

Key rating drivers

Stable Brownfields Production

In 2012, Bashneft’s crude production was up 2% yoy to 308 mbbl/d, which contrasts well with that of some other Russian oil companies such as OAO LUKOIL (BBB-/Stable) that reported a 1% decline in hydrocarbon production in that year. We recognise Bashneft’s efforts in increasing its brownfield production but believe that the company has limited headroom to further increase oil output in Bashkiria, its historical stronghold.

T&T Improves Upstream Profile

Bringing the T&T oilfields on-stream, in a joint venture (JV) with LUKOIL, which has a 25% stake, is important for improving Bashneft’s upstream profile and bringing it up to match its historically more sizable downstream operations. The company expects the JV to produce its first oil in H213 and to achieve peak production of as much as 95mbbl/d by 2018–2019. However, the free cash flow generated by the JV may not be fully available to service Bashneft’s debt as Bashneft will have to coordinate the JV’s dividend and capex policy with LUKOIL.

Competitive Reserves and Costs

Bashneft’s proved oil reserves of 2,007 million barrels of oil at end-2012 imply an 18-year reserve life, in line with that of Russian peers. In 2012, its production costs were manageable at USD6.6/bbl, below that of most international peers but above that of the Russian majors, due to smaller, more mature oilfields compared with those of OJSC OC Rosneft (BBB/RWN) or LUKOIL. Fitch expects that Bashneft’s operational metrics will remain sound in the medium term.

Strong Downstream and Retail

Bashneft is the fourth-largest refiner in Russia; its three refineries have 480mbbl/d total primary capacity and Nelson index of 8.55. In 2012, refining and marketing contributed around 30% to the company’s EBITDA (based on IFRS accounts). The company’s EBITDA to barrel of oil produced of USD28/bbl in 2012 is one of the highest among Russian peers, partially due to downstream being significantly higher than upstream in size — by 34% by volume in 2012, unlike most other Russian majors. Planned further upgrades of its refineries should improve Bashneft’s refining complexity, increase light product yield and help it maintain solid refining margins.

Conservative Leverage to Remain

At end-2012 Bashneft’s FFO net adjusted leverage was 1.3x, up from 1.0x in 2011, and its FFO coverage improved to 8.4x in 2012 from 6.4x in 2011. Based on the agency’s Brent price deck of USD100/bbl in 2013, USD92/bbl in 2014 and USD85/bbl in 2015, we expect that Bashneft’s gross leverage will remain below 2x in 2013–2016 and its coverage be above 8.0x.

Standalone Uncapped Ratings

Fitch rates Bashneft on a standalone basis, and assesses its linkage with Sistema Joint Stock Financial Corp (Sistema; ‘BB-’/Stable), its majority shareholder as moderate. We note that Bashneft remains a key asset for Sistema along with OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS, BB+/Stable). In 2012, Bashneft contributed around 35% to Sistema’s EBITDA, and Sistema’s ability to service its debt may depend on dividends it receives from Bashneft.

Bashneft has material related party transactions, eg during 2012 it made a number of deposits with a total amount of RUB24.8bn of cash (or 7.5% of its net revenue) with the Sistema-owned OJSC MTS Bank (B+/Stable). However, by the end of the year most of these funds had been repaid, and Bashneft’s debit balance with the bank was RUB5.1bn. While Fitch does not currently constrain Bashneft’s ratings (which can be the case if related party transactions intensify and lead to material cash outflow), Bashneft cannot be rated more than two notches higher than Sistema under the agency’s criteria.

Rating sensitivities

Positive: Successful production launch and development at T&T in 2013–2015 coupled with solid operational and credit metrics, eg, stable brownfield production and refining volumes and FFO gross adjusted leverage below 2.5x and FFO interest cover above 8x on a sustained basis, may lead to a positive rating action.

Negative: Bashneft’s failure to maintain crude production or sustained deterioration of its credit metrics, including FFO gross adjusted leverage above 2.5x and FFO interest cover below 8x on a sustained basis owing to higher capex and dividends may lead to a negative rating action.

Liquidity and debt structure

Acceptable Liquidity

At end-2012, Bashneft had cash of RUB20.1bn and RUB33bn in committed credit facilities, which covered its short-termdebt of RUB32bn. In February 2013, Bashneft issued RUB30bn 10-year bonds (with a half having a put option in 2018 and another half in 2020) and repaid most of the debt falling due in 2013. Fitch believes that Bashneft has good access to the domestic capital markets and would refinance its upcoming maturities if needed.

Balanced Debt Portfolio

At end-2012, Bashneft’s balance sheet debt of RUB110.2bn was made up of bank loans (RUB77.4bn), domestic bonds (RUB25.2bn) and pre-export finance facilities (RUB7.6bn). As most of its borrowings are RUB-denominated, its effective interest rate remained relatively high at 8.4%. This may reduce as Bashneft intends to increase the share of USD-denominated borrowings in its portfolio.

List of rating actions

Long-Term IDR: affirmed at ’BB’, Outlook revised to Positive from Stable
Short-Term IDR: affirmed at ’B’
Local currency Long-Term IDR: affirmed at ’BB’, Outlook revised to Positive from Stable
Local currency Short-Term IDR: affirmed at ’B’
National Long-Term Rating: affirmed at ’AA-(rus)’, Outlook revised to Positive from Stable
Senior unsecured rating: affirmed at ’BB’

Source

Source

The Company is in discussions with the lender in respect to the provision of the Loan to the Company and anticipates receiving the funds in the next few weeks. Once received, the funds will be applied towards  payment of the Company’s Russian creditors and general working capital. The Company requests that trading in its shares remains suspended until the Company receives the funds pursuant to the Loan.

The Company will keep shareholders updated in respect to this matter.

Source

Further to the announcement made on 5 April 2013, International Petroleum Limited (NSX: IOP) (International Petroleum or the Company), advises its shareholders that it has not yet received the US$15million loan funds from the unrelated third party pursuant to the loan facility (Loan).The Company is in discussions with the lender in respect to the provision of the Loan to the Company and anticipates receiving the funds in the next few weeks. Once received, the funds will be applied towards payment of the Company’s Russian creditors and general working capital. The Company requests that trading in its shares remains suspended until the Company receives the funds pursuant to the Loan.The Company will keep shareholders updated in respect to this matter.

The event was attended by geologists and senior experts in geology, geophysics and development of oil and gas fields of TATNEFT Group of Companies, “TNG-Group”, small oil companies of the Republic, as well as scientists from TatNIPIneft, IGiRTI, Kazan Federal University, Kazan State Institute of Chemical Engineering and other scientific institutions of Tatarstan and Russia.

The conference participants discussed a wide range of issues concerning the history of studying the characteristics of geology and development of the oil fields in the Republic, and in the first place, Romashkinskoye oil field, analyzed the current situation and shared plans for the future.

About 52 thousand wells have been drilled in Tatarstan for the past 70 years with 45 thousand of this number drilled in the fields of TATNEFT. 3 billion 180 million tons of crude oil have been produced since the start of development with the share of the Joint Stock Company accounting for 3 billion 7 million tons.

At present, TATNEFT Company is actively working to increase crude oil recovery both from new and earlier drilled wells. Extra-viscous oil production is underway at Ashalchinskoye field: more than 200,000 tons of oil have been produced there to date with the daily oil production reaching 325 tons. According to the experts this is one of the main prospective areas of TATNEFT’s activities in terms of the reserves increment and increasing production in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The scientists and geologists actively work on incrementing hydrocarbon reserves. The growth of categories C1 and C2 stock in JSC TATNEFT amounted to 488 million tons during the last 15 years, while the production volume amounted to 378 million tons.

More than 20 spotlight presentations were offered at the conference. Modern technical and technological solutions in the oil exploration and production were considered in the framework of the geological scientific and technical forum. The geologists believe that drilling of horizontal and multilateral wells is one of the key areas for further development of the oil fields in Tatarstan, which will allow improving profitability and increasing the bulk of oil production in the near future. In the future – the development and implementation of new technologies to enhance oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs, technologies for enhanced oil recovery, including microbiology, thermal methods, etc.

Source

The meeting participants pointed out the high efficiency of the joint efforts. The companies had been cooperating for 18 years in financial statements audit and on a wide range of consulting services.

Special attention was paid to the current activities within the consolidated group of taxpayers set up in Gazprom as well as on the risk management enhancement.

In addition, the parties discussed the ongoing cooperation aimed at working out the asset swap agreements between Gazprom and Wintershall as part of the project for developing the Achimov deposits in the Urengoy field.

Source

KEY POINTS:

• Early testing results from the J-58 well have been encouraging and stabilized flow rates are expected to be available in March.
• J-59 well has reached TVD of 3,191m and results of wireline logs will be announced as soon as independent analysis of the results is complete, which is expected to be within the next week. A decision has been made to case and complete the well.
• The workover/completion of both the J-53 and J-55 wells continues and it is now expected that stabilized flow rates will be established for both wells during March 2013.

Two service rigs are currently operational as Jupiter works towards finalizing the testing of the J-53 and J-55 wells and determining the initial stabilized flow rate from the J-58 well. The Company is also awaiting confirmation of the independent analysis of the wireline logging results from the J-59 well.

J-53 Workover:

Following the initial production testing of the J-53 well during which higher than expected water cuts were recorded, the well underwent a chemical treatment that partially reduced the water production; the well subsequently underwent a cement squeeze to further reduce the water influx.

During the current workover program approximately 250 barrels of fluids have been recovered to surface with a 30% oil cut.
Remedial cementing is currently in progress to repair the poor primary cement bond, thought to be the cause of the water ingress, and then it is planned to re-perforate the lower T2B Triassic. The well will then be brought on to production with an electric submersible pump (ESP) and will be produced under its already approved Trial Production License (TPL).

There is also believed to be productive Z sand present in the J-53 well and this will be also evaluated at a later date.

A further update on J-53 is expected during March 2013.

J-55 Testing:

Following the initial acid-wash stimulation of J-55 in December 2012, approximately 50m3 of oil (300 barrels) was recovered to surface, however stabilized natural flow was not established. A review of the transient bottom hole pressures recorded during the initial testing indicated that the flow characteristics of the lower T2B Triassic horizon may improve following a re-perforation and a further, more aggressive, acid stimulation. This work was carried out in January 2013 and production of up to 200 barrels of oil per day (bopd) was established during the first week of February, using an ESP in the well.

The service rig was then moved from the J-55 well to the J-58 location to carry out the completion of that well and this rig is now currently being moved back to the J-55 well location.

The forward plan is to perforate the upper T2A Triassic and production from this zone will be comingled with the producing lower T2B Triassic. The upper Z sand is also scheduled for evaluation in the next round of well intervention work.

A further update on J-55 is expected during March 2013.

J-58 Completion:

After all the necessary approvals had been granted to commence production testing of the J-58 well, 5.5m of the lower T2B Triassic was perforated and flow tested delivering approximately 400 barrels of oil over an 8 hour period (1,200 bopd equivalent) on a 9mm choke. Based on this initial rate, a decision has been made not to carry out an acid stimulation at this stage.

Pressure Transient Analysis indicates a reservoir pressure of 349 atmospheres which is very encouraging and the J-58 well is currently being brought on to production to determine a stabilized, and sustainable, flow rate.

It is anticipated that a service rig will return to J-58 towards the end of March when the upper T2A Triassic will also be perforated. A final decision on the timing of this work will be made after evaluating the performance of the well during March.
Once the work has been carried out, the forward plan will be to comingle production from the T2B and the T2A for the allowed 90 day period. The upper Z sand is also thought to be productive and the forward plan will be to complete and evaluate this horizon in the next round of well intervention work.

The Company currently anticipates updating shareholders on the initial stabilized production rates from the J-58 well during March.

J-59 Wireline Log Analysis:

The Company spudded the J-59 well on 31 December 2012 and the well reached Total Vertical Depth (TVD) of 3,191m on 20 February 2013.

Hydrocarbon shows while drilling, including a core in the reservoir zone, and subsequent open hole wireline logs all indicated hydrocarbons in the Triassic reservoir. Drilling crews are currently preparing to run production casing and cement the well.
Independent analysis of the wireline logs is currently being carried out and a separate announcement will be made in the next week to confirm the outcome of this analysis. At this stage it is likely that the Triassic pay section will be scheduled for completion, 90 day flow testing will be carried out and all oil produced will be made available for sale into the domestic market.

During August 2011, the Company entered into an agreement to acquire Vamaro Investments Limited (“Vamaro”), the 100% legal and beneficial owner of two licences for geological study of subsoil, prospecting and extraction of oil and gas in the Yuzhno-Sardakovsky field and in the Zapadno-Novomolodezhny field in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region in Western Siberia (respectively, the “Yuzhno-Sardakovsky Project” and the “Zapadno-Novomolodezhny Project”).
During February 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of Vamaro.

Prior to the acquisition of Vamaro by the Company, 14 wells (8 prospecting and 6 exploration) had been drilled in the Zapadno-Novomolodezhny field and 8 wells (3 prospecting and 5 exploration) had been drilled in the Yuzhno-Sardakovsky field.

Since acquiring Vamaro, the Company worked over some of the historical well stock and constructed a short pipeline on the Zapadno-Novomolodezhny block to tie some of these wells into the existing pipeline. Currently, the Company is producing oil from wells at the Zapadno-Novomolodezhny field.

From May to July 2012, the Company drilled well number 34 at the Yuzhno-Sardakovsky field. Well number 34 was an appraisal well with the purposes of increasing proved reserves in known reservoirs, discovering new production reservoirs, obtaining new core data, clarifying well production potential and preparing for production drilling of the field. Currently, the Company is evaluating the results of the well.

Now, the Company has commenced drilling of well number 38 at the Yuzhno-Sardakovsky field. Well number 38 is another appraisal well with the purposes of increasing proved reserves in known reservoirs, discovering new production reservoirs, obtaining new core data, clarifying well production potential and preparing for production drilling of the field. It is is expected to take approximately two months to drill the well to its target true vertical depth of 3,100 metres.

Commenting on the commencement of drilling well number 38 at its Yuzhno-Sardakovsky field, Chris Hopkinson, International Petroleum CEO said, “The Company is focussed on maximising shareholder value by investing cash wisely on drilling wells to produce oil and to increase oil reserves”.

Source

The listing is expected to be effective from 29 October 2012.  The information memorandum is in the Polish language only; it contains no material information that has not already been disclosed to shareholders.  Existing shareholders of London listed shares will be unaffected by this and need take no action.

Mark Martin, CEO of Exillon Energy, said:  “Exillon is listing on the WSE to expand our investor base.  We already have some Polish pension and mutual funds as shareholders, and we believe that a local listing will facilitate investment by a wider range of investors.  This is a secondary listing, and London will remain our primary listing.”

WOOD & Company are acting as Financial Advisor and Listing Agent in connection with the Warsaw listing.

Source

Pursuant to the terms of the Loan Facility, the Company will have access to US$2 million and the amount drawn down under the Loan Facility (“Loan Amount”) will attract interest at the rate of 5% per annum and will be repayable by the Company 12 months from the date of the agreement (unless extended by the parties) (“Repayment Date”).

If the Loan Amount is not repaid by the Repayment Date, the Loan Amount will be converted, subject to the receipt of all necessary shareholder approvals, into shares at a deemed issue price equal to A$0.15 per share. If all necessary shareholder approvals for the conversion of the Loan Amount into shares are not obtained, the Company must satisfy the Loan Amount in cash and not shares.
To allow the Company the future flexibility to determine whether to satisfy the Loan Amount in cash or shares, the Company may seek all necessary shareholder approvals for the conversion of the Loan Amount into shares prior to the Repayment Date.

Funds drawn down from the Loan Facility will be applied towards exploration expenditure and general working capital.

Source

“Customers expect Schlumberger to be able to fully characterize reservoir fluids in today’s complex reservoir environments,” said Catherine MacGregor, president, Schlumberger Wireline. “Whether the reservoir is unconsolidated, has low permeability or contains heavy oil, we can now perform pressure measurements and downhole fluid analysis and bring high-quality samples to surface.”

The Saturn probe is comprised of four elliptical suction probes mounted at 90 degree intervals circumferentially around the tool, providing the largest surface flow area of any probe in the industry—more than 500 times that of a standard probe.

Analyzing reservoirs from more than 85 tool settings, the Saturn probe has been run in South America, Africa and the Middle East in environments ranging from onshore to deepwater. In Mexico, the Saturn probe successfully sampled fluids as low as 7 API gravity from unconsolidated formations with unconfined compressive strength as low as 300 psi, which would have been difficult using conventional probes. In the Middle East, the Saturn probe sampled fluid in formations with mobility less than 2 mD/cP, enabling the customer to accurately identify the location of the hydrocarbon-water contact point.

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HIGHLIGHTS

• US$13.034 million cash at bank at 31 March 2012.
• Completed the acquisition of 100% of the shares in Vamaro Investments Limited, which indirectly owns licences for geological study of subsoil, prospecting and extraction of oil and gas in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region in Western Siberia, Russia.
• Completed the acquisition of 75% of the shares in Charlize Investments Limited, which owns 100% of the issued share capital of OOO VostokNefteGaz, which owns an exploration licence in the Tomsk region of Western Siberia, Russia.
• Completed a placement to institutions and sophisticated investors of 165,730,000 fully paid
• ordinary shares at an issue price of A$0.20 per share, raising A$33,146,000 before costs.
• Mr Pierre Godec was appointed as a Non-Executive Director on 17 February 2012.
• Mr Vladimir Mangazeev was appointed as a Non-Executive Director on 1 March 2012 and Mr Mark Gwynne resigned as a Non-Executive Director on 1 March 2012.
• At the Vamarov Project, in March 2012, the Company commenced the work-over and hydraulic fracturing of some of the existing wells and the construction of infrastructure.
• Conducted a stimulation programme using hydraulic fracturing in Well No. 1 and Well No. 2 at the Krasnoleninsky Project in Western Siberia.

For the full report please click here

Application has been made for these Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on 1 March 2012. For the purposes of the Financial Services Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency  Rules (“DTRs”), the issued ordinary share capital of the Company following this allotment  consisted of 1,018,188,858 Shares with voting rights attached (one vote per Share). There  are no Shares held in treasury. This total voting rights figure may be used by shareholders  as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine whether they are required to notify their interests in, or a change to their interest in, Max Petroleum under  the DTRs.

Enquiries:
Max Petroleum Plc Michael Young
President and Chief Financial Officer
Tel: +44 (0)207 355 9590
Tom Randell
Director of Investor Relations

Merlin PR David Simonson/ Anca Spiridon Tel: +44 (0)207 726 8400

WH Ireland Ltd Daniel Bate / Robin Gwyn Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174

Macquarie Capital Paul Connolly / Steve Baldwin Tel: +44 (0)203 037 2000

Oriel Securities Michael Shaw / Ashton Clanfield Tel: +44 (0)207 710 7600

Source

The Persea 1 well, drilled some 5 kilometres from the town of Kurgan Teppa, reached a total depth of 2,655 metres. Wireline logs show a 50 metre gross zone of possible hydrocarbons within a mixed sandstone and carbonate sequence assigned to the Alai formation, similar to that about to be tested in the East Olimtoi (EOL09 well). Because of hole stability issues the section was drilled with relatively high mudweights which tends to mask hydrocarbon shows whilst drilling.

The Company now intends to run 7-inch liner in preparation for a production test with the aim of establishing commercial flow of hydrocarbons from this zone. The actual testing itself will be carried out in the first half of 2012 with the cost to be financed by internally generated cash flow.

Following the recent acquisition of additional interest in the Bokhtar Production Sharing Contract, which includes the Persea prospect, Tethys now holds an 85% working interest in this prospect.

Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia with activities currently in the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This highly prolific oil and gas area is rapidly developing and Tethys believes that significant potential exists in both exploration and in discovered deposits.

Source

The share swap agreement, between BP and Rosneft, together with the related Arctic Opportunity, were originally announced on 14 January 2011. Both the share swap agreement and the Arctic Opportunity remain subject to an interim injunction.

BP intends to continue with the arbitration process to obtain a final award on all outstanding issues, including whether or not the interim injunction should continue.

BP remains fully committed to TNK-BP as its primary business vehicle in Russia and fully supports its strategy and investment programme, which should ensure its success for decades to come. BP also owns a 1.3% interest in Rosneft and has been exploring offshore Sakhalin for over a decade and engaging in Arctic studies.

The arbitral tribunal was convened to resolve issues raised by Alfa Petroleum Holdings Limited and OGIP Ventures Limited relating to the share swap agreement and Arctic Opportunity arrangements agreed between BP and Rosneft and to clarify BP’s obligations under the TNK-BP shareholders’ agreement.
The Arctic Opportunity described above refers to the arrangements agreed between BP and Rosneft in January 2011, other than the share swap agreement, in particular the exclusive opportunity until up to 31 December 2012 to negotiate final terms with Rosneft for joint exploration of the three licence blocks EPNZ-1, 2, 3 on the Russian Arctic continental shelf.
Rosneft is Russia’s leading oil producing company. It produces some 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day, and has reserves of 15.146 billion boe. It produces oil in all key regions of Russia. Rosneft reported (pre tax) profits for the year end 31 December 2009 of $8,519m and gross assets (as at 30 September 2010) of $87,984m.

Speaking at the Gastech 2011 conference, where he chaired the technical session on FLNG terminals and systems, Sember noted that as recently as five years ago, floating solutions for the import and export of LNG were still considered new and novel concepts.

“Today emerging proprietary technologies and transport designs have come of age and industry is poised for the first projects. With more than one-third of global gas reserves stranded by their location or field size without commercially viable access to world markets the attractiveness of FLNG cannot be denied,” he told attendees.

Major projects in progress include Shell’s Prelude field in the Browse Basin off Western Australia, which gained environmental approval in late 2010 and has a target production start date of 2016. Also being closely followed are several projects offshore Papua New Guinea and Inpex’s Abadi Field gas project offshore Indonesia.

FLNG offers a number of advantages over land-based terminals. FLNG installations can result in  lower overall project costs and reduced environmental footprint because facilities such as long pipelines to shore, onshore development and offshore compression platforms are not needed. With gas deposits often in remote or stranded areas far from the coast the ‘marinizing’ of production, liquefaction and export facilities offers great potential for many future development projects.

Sember noted that the shipping and offshore industries have spent the past five years successfully advancing both the technology and commercial attractiveness of the FLNG concept as a means of delivering new sources of cleaner energy.

Technology developments have addressed issues as the integration of subsea architecture with FLNG; offloading systems, in particular for harsher environments with tandem configurations based on cryogenic hoses or flexible pipes; and the qualification and testing of components with regard to LNG transfer systems.

“From a class society perspective there are no technology showstoppers for FLNG. Liquefaction plants have been suitably optimized in order to efficiently use deck space while taking into account the safe and efficient operation of process equipment,” said Sember. “The advances and level of sophistication in all these subjects are evident. The time for commercialization and the first project is now.”

Founded in 1862, ABS is a leading international classification society devoted to promoting the security of life, property and the marine environment through the development and verification of standards for the design, construction and operational maintenance of marine-related facilities.