ONGC to shut down 2 facilities off Mumbai
India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. will shut down two key facilities at its largest gas field off Mumbai in January and February, a move that will cut output by one-third, Asia Pulse reported.
ONGC plans to shut down two production complexes at the Bassein field to hook-up new facilities leading to fall in natural gas availability from 42 million cubic meters per day to 29-31 million cubic meters, a company official was cited as saying.
The company will shut BPB process complex from Jan. 1-25 and BPA complex from February 14-28 as it needs to hook-up the South Bassein field and the Vasai East field to the production system.
Under these two major development projects, two offshore platforms, namely BCPA-2 and BCPB-2, are being installed near the existing process complexes of BPA and BPB at South Bassein field.
"These two new platforms will be bridge connected to existing BPA and BPB process complexes and during hook-up, integration and pre-commissioning, the BPA and BPB production facility will require shutdown," the official said.
The shutdown of BPB facility for 24 days would reduce gas output by 13.5 million cubic meters per day and the 15 day shutdown of BPA facility to cut output by 11 million cubic meters per day.
Gazprom to start new field for Europe
Russia's Gazprom will start-up a major northern field that will deliver gas to Europe through the future Nordstream pipeline, Dmitri Medvedev, board chairman of Gazprom and Russian first deputy prime minister, told reporters on Thursday.
"Gazprom will commission the Yuzhno-Russkoye field at 10:00 hours Moscow time on December 18," he said.
Proven reserves of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field in the West Siberian Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area comprise 600 billion cubic meters of gas. The deposit has to reach the annual projected capacity of 25 billion cubic meters by 2011. It is a core deposit for the $10.5-billion North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP or Nordstream), an ambitious Gazprom-managed project to pump natural gas to Germany through a pipeline running across the bed of the Baltic Sea. Russia's Severoneftegazprom owns the field development license.
Gazprom and German BASF, which holds 35 percent of stock minus one share in the field, set up Gazprom YRGM Trading Company that will buy gas from Severoneftegazprom. Gazprom holds 100 percent of ordinary shares in the venture, while BASF has one preferred share.
Medvedev said Gazprom is developing into a fully-fledged global energy company and all its activities are aimed to achieve the target.
"We are consequently accessing international markets and enhancing our existing positions. We are operating along the guidelines, where we have been absent before," he said.
Russia, China disagree on gas prices
Russia and China still have significant disagreements on the price for Russian gas, Alexei Mastepanov, an aide to a Gazprom deputy chairman, told reporters during the 4th Russian- Chinese-Kazakh oil and gas forum in Beijing.
"Significant disagreements on the price are still in place. I would not like to name particular figures, as negotiations are still underway. But the sooner we come to an agreement and the sooner we start building (a gas pipeline), the sooner Chinese consumers will receive gas," he said.
Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. agree that the price should be determined based on market principles and that it should also take into account other factors, Mastepanov said. In particular, retail supplies to end users in China could be a subject of such negotiations and affect the final price for gas, he said.
In addition, the price calculation should also take into account various adjustment coefficients, the dates when the supplies could be started and a number of other factors, he said.
The principle of equal profitability will prevail in determining the price for gas supplies to both Russian and foreign consumers, Mastepanov said.
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Closing oil prices, Dec. 7, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $90.23
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $90.20
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