Tengiz expansion project to be completed in late 2024 - Kazakh energy minister

The Future Expansion Project (FGP) and the Wellhead Pressure Management Project (WPMP) at the Tengiz oil and gas field in west Kazakhstan are scheduled for completion at the end of 2024, Kazakh Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev said, as per Interfax.

"The Future Expansion Project and the Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP-WPMP) at Tengiz are behind the original schedule. The reasons behind the delay in the project are objective and associated with the safety and quality of works. We expect the project to be completed at the end of this year "Satkaliyev said at a Tuesday briefing.

In January 2024, it was announced that the launch of the future expansion project (FGP) would be postponed until the second quarter of 2025, and the wellhead pressure management project (WPMP) until the second quarter of 2024.

"On December 15, 2023, Tengizchevroil LLP [the Tengiz field operator] sent an appeal to its partners for approval, requesting to postpone the launch of the WPMP facilities to the second quarter of 2024 from December 2023, and to postpone the future expansion project to the second quarter of 2025 from June 2024," the Energy Ministry told on January 18, 2024.

Satkaliyev told reporters in October 203 that the launch of the FGP-WPMP had been postponed for six months.

The Tengiz oil and gas field is one of the largest in Kazakhstan, with oil reserves amounting to 3.2 billion tonnes. The field is being developed by Tengizchevroil (TCO), which is implementing Future Growth Project (FGP) and Wellhead Pressure Management Project (WPMP) in Tengiz with a total cost of $46.7 billion (original cost was estimated at $45.2 billion). The project completion initially scheduled for the end of 2022, is now postponed until Q2 2025. The project will increase TCO annual production by 12 million tonnes.

The current partners of Tengizchevroil LLP are Chevron (50%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc (25%), Kazakhstan through KazMunayGas (20%) and Lukoil (5%).

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RussNeft had net profit of 20.441 billion rubles to International Financial Reporting Standards in 2023, the oil company said in a financial statement, as per Interfax.

This was practically level with the 20.446 billion rubles reported for 2022.

Sales revenue fell 17.9% to 238.7 billion rubles and cost of sales fell 26.2% to 172.2 billion rubles.

Revenues from domestic oil sales decreased by 25.1% to 160.6 billion rubles; revenues from exports abroad increased by 2% to 74.3 billion rubles.

The company's long-term liabilities as of December 31, 2023 increased to 74.485 billion rubles against 70.683 billion rubles on the same day last year. Short-term liabilities increased to 93.523 billion rubles from 71.491 billion rubles.

As was reported, RussNeft net profit to RAS in 2023 increased 3.8 times to 31.79 billion rubles. At the same time, revenue fell by 13.1% to 238.83 billion rubles. The cost of sales decreased by 21.7%, to 178.45 billion rubles.

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Gazprom will receive the rights to use the subsoil resources of the Pribaikalsky hydrocarbon block in the northern part of Irkutsk Region, near the Russian gas giant's Kovykta gas condensate field, as per Interfax.

Gazprom submitted the only bid to participate in the auction for the block, so the auction was declared void and the resource rights were granted to the sole bidder, the torgi.gov.ru website said.

Gazprom will pay 15.4 million rubles for the resource rights, which is equivalent to the starting price plus one bidding increment.

Pribaikalsky is located in the immediate vicinity of Gazprom's Kovykta field and Chikansky and Khandinsky blocks. The auction documentation stated that commercial gas and condensate flows have been struck at the latter.

The Pribaikalsky block had D1 category forecast resources of 2 million tonnes of oil, 44.1 billion cubic meters of gas and 5.7 million tonnes of condensate, and D2 category resources of 1.2 million tonnes, 37.1 bcm and 1 million tonnes, respectively, as of the beginning of 2017.

We remind, Gazprom is sticking to its goal of achieving 100% of the technically possible level of network gasification by 2030, and is actively working with the regions via five-year programs, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Oleg Aksyutin said in an article in the company's corporate magazine. "It is expected that due to gasification and post-gasification alone, the increase in demand in the domestic market could reach nearly 20 bcm by 2030," the article says.

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Chinese state-owned Sinopec and French oil major TotalEnergies have signed an agreement to produce SAF, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The companies will jointly build and operate a SAF unit at one of Sinopec's refineries in China, with an annual production capacity of 230,000 metric tons per year, the statement said.

Burning SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by around 80% versus traditional jet fuel, according to data cited by Airbus.

The European Union is set to introduce a blending mandate requiring airports to supply jet fuel at 2% SAF blends from 2025. In the U.S., the Biden administration has introduced tax credits for SAF production under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Total has announced a target of 1.5 million tons of annual SAF production by 2030. The SAF facility will run on used cooking oil (UCO) as feedstock. China is the world's largest producer of UCO, generating around 11.4 billion liters annually, according to data cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Sinopec currently operates a 100,000 ton per year SAF refinery in Zhenhai, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

However, Beijing has not rolled out policies - such as subsidies or blending mandates - to support SAF consumption in its domestic aviation market, and most feedstock and biofuel products are exported.

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Vietnam's largest refinery Nghi Son said it will boost its operating capacity by 15% to 20% in order to ensure stable supplies, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 200,000-bpd Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical is currently operating at 100% of its designed capacity, it said.

The "planned increase of 15 to 20% in the refinery's capacity will further ensure a stable supply of petroleum products," it said in a statement.

Nghi Son is one of two oil refineries in Vietnam, which meet around 70% of the country's needs for refined petroleum products.

Nghi Son is 35.1% owned by Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co 5019.T, 35.1% by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% by Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam and 4.7% by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

The company has delivered its first batch of 10ppm sulfur diesel oil cargo to the domestic market, it said, without elaborating.

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