RusEnergy

Mar 16 2009 – Finam News - Gazprom and Rosneft will fulfill their debt obligations to foreign creditors at any oil price on international markets, Vice PM Igor Sechin said on Sunday. In 2009, Gazprom has to repay USD7.3 bn of loans and Rosneft has to repay USD 3.1 bn by 2012. “The level of oil prices has almost no impact on the debt repayment abilities of our companies”, the Vice PM said. “These are large companies, and they will resolve their problems themselves”, he added. In addition, Sechin admitted that Russia’s largest hydrocarbon producers are concerned about international prices. “The price level should enable companies to reimburse development costs of greenfields”, he said. Sechin noted that the bulk of investments of oil companies go to maintain output. If a decline in prices results in lower output, at the next stage this will lead to lower supplies to the market and oil prices will climb, he said. “This is a two-way street and both consumers and producers need to coordinate their actions”, the Vice PM said.