Igor Sechin's little oil

"Rosneft" claims to expand the Ergin cluster.
Rosneft wants more and more from the authorities: this time it asks to significantly expand one of its largest new deposits - the Ergin cluster. The company names him among the most promising projects, and the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin asked Premier Dmitry Medvedev to issue without a tender the South-Erginsky site "in the shortest possible time," which could increase the cluster's reserves by 78 million tons of oil and help the company implement aggressive plans on the growth of production.

The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, sent a letter on November 21 (a copy is from Kommersant) to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a request to expand the Ergin cluster (now includes five licensed sites) through the addition of another large area. The company has already significantly increased its presence in the region, having bought the ex-head of Rosneft Eduard Khudainatov from NNK in April from KNK for 40 billion rubles. Then in July she received an auction at the Erginsky site, bypassing Gazprom Neft.

Between the Kondinsk and West-Ergin sites, which is being developed by Kondaneft, there is an unallotted South-Erginsky area of ​​about 1 thousand square meters. km, "representing a significant interest for building up the resource base of the Ergin cluster," Igor Sechin writes. He believes that the company has a reason to obtain the South-Erginsky site without a tender, as it "meets all the criteria for granting geological exploration of the flanks of open fields for use in geological studies."

The head of Rosneft asked Dmitry Medvedev to entrust the Ministry of Natural Resources and Rosnedra to consider the application in "as soon as possible." On the document, the prime minister delivered a resolution instructing the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Sergei Donskoy "to prepare proposals." In Rosneft and the Ministry of Natural Resources said that they do not comment on official correspondence.

Igor Sechin estimates the oil reserves of the Ergin cluster at 259 million tons, which, in his opinion, will allow to produce 8.8 million tons per year. Investments of Rosneft are estimated at 390 billion rubles. Joining a new site can increase the forecasted resources by another 78 million tons, according to VNIGNI. Rosneft has very aggressive plans to increase production at the Ergin cluster, according to Sberbank CIB, by 2022 it will grow to 149,000 barrels per day (7.7 million tons), becoming the second largest source of production growth after the Yurubchen- Tohoma and Kouyumba. At the same time, only the Kondaneft plots should yield 4 million tons at a peak, which looks very optimistic, given that the NOC at the end of 2013, with oil at $ 100 per barrel, estimated the production potential there to not more than 1 million tons per year.

In this case, Igor Sechin appeals to the declarative principle of obtaining licenses for poorly researched sites, which came into force from this year, according to which companies can receive no more than three plots per year with an area of ​​not more than 500 sq. M. km, and for flanks - a single area of ​​not more than 1 thousand square meters. km. The Ministry of Natural Resources explained to Kommersant that the application of Rosneft can be satisfied, since it is possible to provide, on a declarative basis, subsoil plots to study the flanks of deposits for which there is no data on the availability of reserves in the state balance sheet.

The competitor of Rosneft in the struggle for the Ergin cluster was Gazprom Neft, which considered it to be a continuation of its part of the giant Priobskoye field (Rosneft is developing the northern blocks of the same field). However, Gazprom Neft lost auctions for the Ergin and Nazymi sites, although the struggle for them was for the company to be principled, one of the interlocutors of Kommersant says. Now Gazprom Neft can no longer apply for the South-Ergin section, because it is not flanking for it.

"The Ergin cluster can be successfully integrated into the well-equipped transport infrastructure of the Priobskoye field," the representative of one of the consulting companies believes. "In many respects, the possibility of such integration ensures the economic feasibility of developing the Ergin cluster, while 90% of the reserves there are hard to recover."