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Reuters
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Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine are likely to delay the launch of new oil pipelines in Siberia, Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said, potentially derailing plans to boost oil exports to Asia in coming years.
However, some industry sources said that the delay has long been on the cards due to the revision of fields’ reserves estimates and is not directly connected to the sanctions.
The US and European Union have imposed sanctions against Russian oil companies over Moscow’s role in the Ukrainian conflict which has claimed more than 3,000 lives.
A spokesman for the company said the sanctions could delay plans to launch the Zapolyarye-Purpe and Kuyumba-Taishet pipelines by two to three years.
He added that some companies failed to submit their plans for oil supplies via the pipelines by September 15, as had been ordered by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
“The situation with sanctions is being studied by our partners. Force-majeur is connected to the sanctions. The schedules of the fields’ launch will be delayed,” Igor Dyomin told reporters.
Industry sources said that the companies have long planned to delay development of the fields, long before the sanctions were implemented.
“The oil companies had changed output plans before the sanctions. Everyone saw that the fields’ reserves were overestimated,” one source said, declining to be named because he was not permitted to speak to the press.
Rosneft, the world’s largest listed oil company by output, is preparing to boost oil exports to China to almost 1mn bpd by the end of this decade, seeking to secure market share and billions of dollars in pre-payments. The 488-km Zapolyarye-Purpe links Northern fields in Yamal-Nenets region with Western Siberia, its nameplate capacity set at 45mn tonnes a year (900,000 bpd). SeverEnergia, Lukoil, Gazprom and Rosneft planned to supply its oil via the pipeline.
Kuyumba-Taishet is designed to pump oil from Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye field and Kuyumba deposit in East Siberia to the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean trunk. Its capacity is seen at 15mn tonnes a year, and it is essential for Russia to honour its increasing oil deals with Asian buyers.
Both pipelines were due to launch at the end of 2016.
Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye, operated by Rosneft, is due to start production in 2016, with peak production originally envisaged at 200,000 bpd.
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