Oil & Gas News Digest

SODECO can increase participation in the Sakhalin 1 PSA and is analyzing the changes caused by the Russian president's decree, Japex, one of the shareholders of the Japanese consortium, said. "Thanks to the permission of the Russian government to buy shares in the limited liability company in accordance with its percent share, SODECO can continue participation in the Sakhalin 1 project. We are now analyzing the influence of this event on the Sakhalin 1 project, as well as the financial situation, operational results and money flows in the next quarter and the subsequent periods," Japex said in its report.?

Argus is changing the method for calculating Russian Urals crude prices owing to the anticipated entry into force of the European Union embargo on purchasing oil from Russia, the pricing agency said in its "Urals pricing changing radically " note for clients. Argus declined further comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved deals on the acquisition by Oil Service Technologies LLC of the Russian assets belonging to oil service company Baker Hughes. A directive to this effect is available for viewing on the official website for legal information.?

?Kazakhstan's State Fund Samruk-Kazyna, which owns 90.42% of the issued outstanding shares of national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG), intends to offer up to 30,505,974 ordinary shares, or up to 5% of the total shares in KMG, after which it will be left with 85% of KMG shares, CEO of Samruk-Kazyna Almasadam Satkaliyev told a Monday briefing in Astana. He said the price per ordinary share in the IPO will be 8,406 tenge.

MOSCOW.?Nov 8 (#Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is confident that bilateral trade between Russia and India will reach $30 billion by the end of 2022, also noting sound prospects for increasing Russian hydrocarbon exports to India. "There are good prospects for energy cooperation, which include enhancing hydrocarbon exports from Russia to the Indian market, mutual participation in projects to produce hydrocarbons, including in the Far East and on the Arctic shelf of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said after talks with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Tuesday. The parties also "noted efficient cooperation in the field of peaceful atomic energy," he said. "As you know, the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant [NPP] has been built successfully. Further steps in this field, including the provision of a new site for the construction of a Russiandesigned NPP, will help supply India with clean and safe energy in the future," Lavrov said. Lavrov said that the Indian minister and he "discussed in detail today's state and the prospects of military-technical cooperation, including the joint production of common types of weapons." The sides also welcomed the positive dynamics of bilateral trade, Lavrov said, adding that "by September, mutual trade with India had grown by more than 130% year-on-year, reaching the level of $17 billion.?

"And we are convinced that the goal set by our leaders - i.e. to bring annual mutual trade to $30 billion - will be achieved soon," the Russian minister said. Jaishankar, for his part, described Russia as a reliable and time-tested partner and expressed his interest in maintaining the advantages of Russian-Indian relations in the future. "Any objective evaluation of our relationship over many decades would confirm that it has actually served both our countries very well. I think you can see the obvious interest and commitment I would have in keeping that relationship strong and steady," Jaishankar said. Commenting on his country's oil imports the minister said the market was currently under serious strain due to a whole host of factors. "Today we are the world's third largest consumer of oil and gas; however our levels of income are not very high. It is our fundamental obligation to ensure that the Indian consumer has the best possible access under most advantageous terms to international markets," he said. "Quite honestly, we have seen that the India-Russia relationship has worked to our advantage. So, what works to my advantage I would like to keep that going," he added.

MOSCOW. Nov 7 (#Interfax) - Gaz Capital S.A., the issuer of Gazprom's Eurobonds, honored its obligations to holders of the company's series 2 debt securities maturing in 2034 in full on October 28 and transferred an interest payment in keeping with the terms of the issue, the company said in a statement. The bond issue was originally worth $1.2 billion. Gazprom placed local bonds totaling $539.9 million in October to substitute part of the 2034 issue. The "substitute" bonds have the same terms and conditions as the Eurobonds being exchanged in terms of the amount and timeframes for payment of the coupon yield, maturity, and the nominal value. Settlements on the securities will be remitted in rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Russia on the date of the respective payments. The bonds received as part of the exchange were canceled, after which $660.1 million of 2034 bonds are outstanding. A presidential decree of July 5 states that Russian companies with Eurobonds in circulation are obliged to ensure that obligations to holders whose rights are recorded in Russian depositories are honored. They can do this either in the manner prescribed by the Central Bank's board of directors, where the borrower must request information about holders from the Russian depository, and then transfer funds to fulfill obligations to them; or through the transfer of new local bonds to investors in place of Eurobonds. Gazprom has been replacing Eurobonds, the rights to which are recorded in Russian infrastructure, with local debt securities since September. Gazprom has already substituted part of the dollar-denominated 2027 and 2034 issues and some of a 2024 bind issue denominated in pounds sterling. Gazprom is now taking bids to replace euro-denominated Eurobond 2023, 2024 and 2028 issues with local bonds.

MINSK. Nov 2 (#Interfax) - The Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) will consider preparing an agreement on a single market for oil and petroleum products at a meeting to be attended in person by deputy prime ministers of the Eurasian Economic Council (EAEU) in Moscow on November 18, EEC spokesperson Iya Malkina said. "EEC Council members will discuss the issue of preparing an agreement forming single markets for oil and petroleum products within the Eurasian Economic Union, determining entities that will organize a centralized trade in power energy under fixed term contracts on a single power energy market within the Union and the organization that will organize a centralized trade in power energy on one-day-ahead conditions on such a market," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA quoted Malkina as saying at a press briefing on Wednesday. It is announced that there are plans to discuss at the meeting measures needed to attain main targets set within the macroeconomic policies of EAEU countries for 2022-2023. Participants will also discuss a draft agreement on cross-boundary access to the placement and flow of securities within organized trading in EAEU member countries, a draft agreement on mutual recognition of bank guarantees with regard to state or municipal procurement purchases. "The agenda also includes results of the monitoring and analysis of the plan of measures to improve the level of availability of strategically important medications and pharmaceutical substances for medical use, production of which must be facilitated within the Union by 2024, the issue of amending the Union technical regulation on the safety of food products, modification of the single list of goods subject to veterinary control (oversight), and the implementiation of the list of measures to raise the resilience of the economies of EAEU member countries," Malkina said. EAEU has been functioning since January 1, 2015. The union consists of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan has observer status under the decision adopted at an EAEU summit in 2020. Moldova and Cuba are also EAEU observer states.