Editors Notes: ROGTEC Magazine Issue 10

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the issue 10 of ROGTEC Magazine, Russia and the Caspian’s leading upstream a technology focussed publication. I hope you have all had a great summer break; it was great for us to catch up with many familiar faces at all of the shows early in the summer. The Caspian oil and gas show, although small, is always worth the visit and the importance of MIOGE goes without saying.

The shall we shant we debate for Gazprom on Shtokman has come full circle since our last issue. In a recent announcement, Gazprom said that they have entered in to an agreement with Total which gives the French giant a 25% stake in phase one of the project, with the shares being transferred back to Gazprom on completion. This also raises the possibility of a further 24% stake being taken, or indeed shared, by other operators. We will keep you posted on any developments.

China also continues to invest heavily in Russia and central Asia, with both its setting up of the Sino-Turkmen cooperation project, and indeed the recent announcement that the CNPC will $1.2 billion on a pipeline to import Russian crude to China. With an initial capacity of 15 million tonnes per year, rising to 30 million, it seems that China are starting to become an increasingly important player in this exciting market. Watch this space for more news about the CNPC´s activities in the region.

Following events offshore Sakhalin, we have seen quite a few milestones being reached in this exciting project. Sakhalin Energy have recently announced both the arrival of the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Prigorodnoye in the south of Sakhalin Island, where they are currently building Russia’s first LNG plant. We have also seen the successful installation of the Piltun-Astokhskoye-B (PA-B) production platform topsides on the gravity base structure in the Piltun-Astokhskoye Field. For a more detailed look at the project, please see the article on page 33.

Moving on the Caspian, the feud between the ENI lead consortium and the Kazakh Government. Following an increase in total estimated cost projections of $57 billion to a staggering $136 billion, the Kazakhs are threatening a similar scenario as that of Sakhalin, when Shell were forced to cede control of the project to Russia’s state owned monopoly Gazprom. At the time of going to press, ENI released a statement saying they had 60 days in which top reach an agreement on the time and cost overruns. The government did not comment, fuelling the suspicion that all is not well at the site of the biggest oil find in decades.

I hope you all enjoy this issue, and we all look forward to catching up at the forthcoming exhibitions and conferences.