Company news in April 2004 | |||
TNK-BP Proceeding with Kovykta Development Alone
TNK-BP continues to announce plans to independently (without Gazprom) develop the Kovykta gas and condensate deposit. The other day, TNK-BP''s Vice President Alistair Fergusson said that his company intended to sign preliminary agreements to supply gas with Chinese National Oil and Gas Corporation (CNPC) and South Korean Gas Corporation (Kogaz) in mid-2005. During the same period, a feasibility study for constructing the Kovykta gas processing plant should be drafted. In his words, inter-governmental agreements on dispatch conditions, funding, and taxation mode for export supplies are under discussion. Experts are of the opinion that TNK-BP will not be able to independently implement this project, and the only company capable of assisting the latter in this is Gazprom. But the gas monopolist is slow to enter the project, considering a minority shareholder''s role unacceptable for itself. "We are accustomed to exercise absolute control over projects," Mr. A. Ryazanov, Deputy Board Chairman of Gazprom, says. Negotiations between the parties have continued for many months but have not yielded any tangible results yet. Gazprom''s Head Alexey Miller has even advanced a sort of ultimatum to TNK-BP''s Managing Director Victor Vekselberg, listing claims and demands to the Kovykta project. In this context, TNK-BP started taking active steps to independently start Kovykta''s development.
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta