Analytics // Projects

Following in the footsteps of its European neighbors, Russia has set up a new spot wholesale power market, where for the first time, electricity can be traded at free market prices. With Russia?s electricity market not due to be fully deregulated until 2006, trade on the new exchange is limited to between 5% and 15% of a generator?s output.

The second international investment forum in KhMAO has showed that Russias economy is developing...

Today, the International Investment Forum ?Russia: oil, energy, progress? was opened in Khanty-Mansiysk. The audience is international, including participants from Russia, CIS countries, USA, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland.

Last May, the Russian government decided to build a 2?400 kilometer-long crude pipeline in order to transport Siberian oil to Daqing in China, which is the world?s third-largest oil consumer. A plan to construct a 1 million barrel per day extension to the Russian port of Narkhodka, from where oil could be shipped to Japan was put on hold until there would be more oil discoveries in Siberia.

Russia, China and South Korea are to sign an agreement next October in Irkutsk which should pave the way for a feasibility study for Russia?s first gas pipeline to Asia. The new link will connect China and South Korea to the giant Kovykta gas field in Siberia.

When Roman Abramovich announced last week that he is to purchase the British soccer club Chelsea for $233 million, he sent shock waves through the British soccer community. Everybody wanted more information about the oligarch, who is the second richest man in Russia, with a fortune amounting to $5.

The 7th Moscow international exhibition oil and gas 2003 was held from 24 to 27 June in the Moscow Expocenter.

Last week, during President Putin?s visit in Great Britain, the Russian energy minister, Igor Yusufov signed a corporation agreement with his British counterpart in order to construct a $6 billion pipeline that should deliver Russian gas to Britain.

The construction of the ambitious, long planned pipeline project form Baku at the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean in Turkey has started but a lot of problems lie still ahead. The BTC pipeline is being built to transport crude oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field, which lies 120 kilometers off the cost of Azerbaijan and contains at least 5.

The project on the Russian Sakhalin II Island in the Pacific shelf is the largest foreign direct investment in Russia so far. Phase one of the project started in 1999 and has successfully produces oil from the Vityaz complex.

Pending decrease of the world prices for petroleum the Government of the Russian Federation tries to predict stability of incomes for federal and regional budgets and searches for ways of disposal of raw dependence.

For the first time in the history will begin realization of the large joint oil pipeline project, which should provide for the Russian petroleum new commodity markets. November 27 managers of LUKOIL, YUKOS, Sibneft and TNK signed the memorandum "on mutual understanding of oil pipeline creation for transportation of petroleum through the sea bulk-oil terminal in the area of Murmansk".

Ministers of energy of the countries of Commonwealth of Independent States by the end of 2002 have to discuss creation of Energy Council of the CIS. Before the meeting, which will be held in December, ministries have to finish all preliminary work.

The oil extraction in Russia during the period from January to September of the current year has increased in comparison with the similar period of 2001 by 8,7 % (which adds up to 19,6 million tons).

Another Russia-EU summit opens on October 3 in Brussels to sum up the first results of the largest Russia-Europe projects - the energy dialogue. There is no common position on increasing the delivery of Russian oil and gas to Europe, a source in the Russian delegation said the day before.

A giant carrot hangs over the talks this week among the Afghan factions trying to form a post-Taliban government. And it's not just the prospect of billions in US aid after the war. Rather, it's the prospect of the next government in Kabul gaining riches by the construction of a pipeline across Afghanistan that will transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea region to world markets.

The Azerbaijani government has given the formal go-ahead to the next stage of a major oil production agreement with an international oil consortium led by the British oil company, BP. The head of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR signed the agreement, allowing the consortium to increase production at the three offshore oil fields - Chirag, Azeri and Guneshli - it operates.

China and Taiwan might soon sign a contract to explore for oil in the Taiwan Strait, officials have said. It would the first substantial joint venture between state-run firms from China and Taiwan, which the government in Beijing views as a rebel province.

In an unusually blunt approach, the World Bank has warned Georgia that it will lose all financial assistance if it does not negotiate higher tariffs on a proposed gas pipeline from the Caspian through Georgia to Turkey.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) looks to boost its ability to dominate the natural gas arena with the looming acquisition of China's fourth largest domestic oil company and a potential investment in the country's major gas highway currently under construction.