Top Russian oil producer owned by the state Rosneft will start to produce in 2012 natural gas from the gigantic gas field Kharampurskoye, said an announcement of the Rosneft Purneftegaz.
This step is part of the company’s growth plan, as the Rosneft intends to increase its output of natural gas from 2009’s level of 13 cubic meters to 55 by 2020.
The deposit at Kharampurskoye holds reserves of gas as high as 400 billion cubic meters, which the company will start exploiting as they plan to get access to gas exports. This however will prove to be a challenging step, as they would have to close a deal with Gazprom, which holds monopoly on Russia’s gas exports, having exclusive rights for the operation.
In other news, Gazprom appears to have set its eyes on the Polish company that operates the oil refinery in Gdansk, Lotos. The company is to be privatized and it controls the second biggest oil refinery of Poland.
As such, the Russian oil and gas giant is in process of assessing the company’s value in order to make a final decision about participating in the auction. The Polish government is putting up for sale in 2012 53 percent of Lotos and, according to Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, Gazprom is not the only Russian company interested in acquiring the oil refinery operator.
Gazprom representatives said that Russia’s oil producing giant Rosneft has not initiated any proposals about joining forces in the auction, but that Gazprom has not made any steps either for teaming up with a potential future challenger to Gazprom’s monopoly in natural gas exports.