RusEnergy

10-13-2006 Kommersant - South Korea is eyeing Sakhalin-3 project, Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu made clear yesterday. Russia’s Rosneft and Chinese Sinopec are developing all area licensed under the project, and South Korea will hardly join the alliance. But it may count on the area that hasn’t been distributed yet.
Chief of Russia’s Technical Oversight Service, Rostekhnadzor, Konstantin Pulikovsky (who is also in charge of Russia’s-Korean commission on economic, research and technological cooperation) held negotiations with South Korean Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu, Rostekhnadzor announced Thursday. During the talks, Kwon O-kyu made clear Korea’s interest towards developing fields of Sakhalin-3 project. In Rostekhnadzor, they were unable to specify what particular form of joining the project the minister had meant.
Sakhalin-3 project includes four areas – Vostochno-Odoptinsky, Ayashsky, Veninsky and Yuzhno-Kirinsky. The aggregate resources are estimated at 620 million tons of crude and 767 billion cu meters of gas. So far, the licenses have been released only for the Veninsky area, which resources are estimated at 168 million tons of crude and 258 billion cu meters of gas. Rosneft holds 49.8 percent in the project, Sakhalin Oil Co. (controlled by local authorities) and Chinese Sinopec have 25.1 percent each.
The Koreans will hardly see Veninsky area, while the other areas are yet in the undistributed fund and Russia has no intention to put them up for sale in the near future. Anyway, the reserves have been acknowledged strategic, so the foreigners cannot have more than 49 percent in the project. Rosneft itself expressed the desire to get a share, and Indian ONGC is willing to establish a consortium with it. Moreover, LUKOIL said it would fight for the areas in tandem with Gazprom.