27 May 2004 00:00
US to lobby Russia to increase oil output
ByLine: Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow and Carola Hoyos in London
Spencer Abraham, the US energy secretary, arrives in Moscow on Thursday for a visit in which he will discuss world
oil supplies and is also expected to lobby on behalf of US oil companies in their disputes over exploration licences for
the Sakhalin 3 oilfield in the Russian Far East.
ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco won exploration rights for the offshore oil field 10 years ago but the Russian
government reneged on the tender earlier this year, indicating that it would hold a new bidding process. This followed a
decision that the field would not be one of the projects benefiting from the long-term tax-advantageous status of a
production sharing agreement (PSA).
"The Sakhalin 3 project and the ExxonMobil situation is something people are watching very closely. How it is
ultimately determined will influence how other people think about investing in Russia in the future," Mr Abraham
told the Financial Times ahead of his visit to Moscow.
He said that if the bidding was to be reopened and ExxonMobil's licence determined not to be valid, it would
have repercussions for Russia's investment climate.
ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco have already invested about $60m in the project and are vigorously appealing to the
decision.
Mr Abraham's visit to Moscow comes at a time of heightened interest from US energy companies in Russia oil. Both
ExxonMobil and Chevron had expressed interest in buying a stake in Yukos, Russia's flagship oil company. This plan
fell through after the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the largest single shareholder of the company.
The US energy companies are now appear to have been overtaken by Total of France which is in talks with Sibneft, a
smaller oil company, about a possible stake.
Mr Abraham is also likely to discuss the issue of increasing oil output by Russia.
In his speech of the nation address on Wednesday Russian president Vladimir Putin urged his ministers to speed up the
approval of new pipelines which would increase Russia's capacity to export oil. "The government has been
unable to determine its priorities for some time, while this issue should have been solved a long time ago," Putin
said.
[FT.com site] |
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