MOSCOW, April 30, 18:06 /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft will invest 400 billion roubles ($11.9 billion) in investment projects until 2018, the company’s Vice President Svyatoslav Slavinsky said on Wednesday, April 30.

“These include not only Rospan and Kharampur but a number of other major projects as well,” he said, adding that Rosneft was drafting a gas strategy for a period of at least 30 years.

Based on 2013 performance, Rosneft became the third largest gas producer in Russia, having produced 38.17 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas. The record-setting more than two-fold increase of gas production is related primarily to the addition of large gas assets following acquisition of TNK and consolidation of NGK Itera. In 2013, the Company worked to lay the foundation for the future growth of is gas business through organic growth of gas production. Among other things, the Company focused its efforts on active development of the Rospan project (development of the Vostochno-Urengoiskoe and Novo-Urengoiskoe license blocks) and obtaining approval for a comprehensive field development plan for gas deposits of the Kharampurskoe field. Gas sales in 2013 amounted to 39.07 bcm, including 24.02 bcm in West Siberia, 10.42 bcm in the European part of Russia, and 0.94 bcm outside of Russia.

Thanks to its considerable reserves, Rosneft has an immense production increase potential.

 

Rosneft's plans

Gas value assurance is one of Rosneft’s strategic objectives. The Company is planning to expand its presence in the gas market and is actively pursuing this sector of business executing direct gas delivery contracts with major consumers. By 2020, the company is planning to produce 100 bcm of gas per year, which is estimated to make a two-fold increase in its domestic market share (to circa 20%).

LNG market presents one of the opportunities for Rosneft’s gas reserves monetisation. Working with ExxonMobil, the company is studying feasibility of building a 5 million tonnes per annum LNG plant in the Russian Far East.

Rosneft is considering several gas sales options for the proposed plant. The Company has already signed LNG contracts with Japanese Marubeni and Sodeco. Stable LNG demand in Asia-Pacific countries guarantees Rosneft a sustainable market for that project.

Some of the future production volumes of the proposed plant have been contracted by one the world’s trading leader, the Vitol company, which allows Rosneft to diversify risks in the global LNG trading market.

At this time, Rosneft is successfully implementing its programme to bring its associated gas utilisation ratio to 95%

Rosneft is included in the list of strategic companies and organisations of Russia. The main company shareholder (69.50%) is OJSC ROSNEFTEGAZ, a 100% state-owned company. BP owns another 19.75%, and the remaining 10.75% of shares are publicly traded.