Arcticneftegaz, a subsidiary of Italian companies ENI and Enel, will probably not be able to start gas production at two Siberian gasfields in 2008 because gas monopoly Gazprom is understood to have denied access to export pipelines, according to Russian media reports. The Moscow-based business daily Kommersant has quoted officials from the Arctic Yamal-Nenets district as saying that the company will not be able to start gas production at Yevo-Yakhinskoye and at part of the giant Urengoi field from 1 January, and that production will start only when the unit solves the issue of pipeline access with Gazprom, which controls all Russian trunk gas pipelines.
Gazprom has repeatedly denied access to its trunk pipelines by independent producers and oil companies on grounds of lack of available transportation capacity, and has called on the independent companies to help it fund expansion of its pipeline network in consequence. Analysts point out that pipeline access will remain the main risk for independent producers in Russia, despite the sector's growing attractiveness as the government promises to fully liberalize domestic gas prices by 2011.
Articneftegaz bought two former gas units of bankrupt producer Yukos – Arcticgas and Urengoil – at a state-organized auction in April this year, and gave Gazprom an option to buy back 51% in each unit in the next two years. Arcticgas and Urengoil control five large gasfields with total reserves of 900bn cum, enough to meet Europe's gas demand for two years, as well as large liquids reserves.
As a result of the pipeline access impasse, Arcticneftegaz will continue production at only one of its fields, Samburgskoye, which can extract around 1bn cum/yr. The Russian media points out that while Gazprom has previously denied access to its pipelines to Lukoil, Rosneft , TNK-BP, and gas producers Novatek and Itera, tensions have always eased after Gazprom and the firms involved signed production or equity partnership agreements.
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