OMV, Gazprom Neft Eye Iran Cooperation
Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Austrian OMV signed a memo of understanding June 2 to work together to develop Iran’s upstream at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (Spief), although there’s no obvious focus on gas projects.
The day before, the Gazprom oil subsidiary signed accords with Shell, Halliburton and IBM relating to oil and gas cooperation or technology.
OMV's statement said it and Gazprom Neft have outlined their interest in working together in Iran: “Preliminary possible spheres of cooperation include analysis, assessment and study of certain oil deposits located in Iran in cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).”
Specific fields are not cited but Gazprom Neft has two existing MoUs with Iran to study Cheshmeh Khosh and Changouleh oil fields with 3.74bn and 2.36bn barrels of in-situ reserves, whilst OMV has an MoU with Iran to study Cheshmeh Khosh, Zagros and Parsi oil fields in western or southern Iran.
“We speak about a general MoU and that specific fields are not defined at this stage,” OMV spokesman Robert Lechner spokesman told NGW. Asked about OMV’s earlier MoUs with Iran, Lechner added: “There is no news to report at this stage; activities are ongoing.”
“The Middle East is one of the priority regions in the long-term development strategy of Gazprom Neft,” said Vadim Yakovlev, first deputy general director of Gazprom Neft. “Our company is developing a large project on the Badra field in Iraq, continuing geological exploration in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of this country and it is studying the possibility of participating in the development of two blocks in Iran. According to the extensive experience of OMV in the Middle East and in Iran, joint geological assessment of blocks will be most effective.”
OMV upstream chief Johann Pleininger said: “Russia is developing as OMV’s new core area in the upstream business and we can look back on a long-lasting partnership with the country and with Russian oil and gas companies. It fits into our upstream strategy to link the activities and partnerships in Russia with possible new opportunities for OMV in the Middle East.”
Shell and Halliburton accords
Also at Spief but on June 1, Gazprom Neft and Shell signed an MoU confirming their intention of continuing negotiations to enter a range of non-shale oil deposits in eastern Siberia, including the Achimovsky deposits in the Yamalo-Nenets region, and also to undertake geological prospecting of licence blocks in the same region adjoining licence blocks owned by their existing production joint venture Salym Petroleum.
Gazprom Neft also June 1 concluded a technological cooperation agreement with Halliburton, setting out the key principles for joint operations in implementing new upstream technologies. It also signed a supplement to an existing memo of cooperation with IBM on use of IT in the upstream. These and other agreements indicate that Russian firms are finding ways to obtain western know-how, despite hurdles imposed in 2014 in the wake of Russia's annexation of parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
The Financial Times newspaper also reported that Gazprom Neft held advanced talks with Saudi Aramco about possible sharing of drilling technology.
Iran desk