Rosneft Output Down in Q3
Russia’s Rosneft has suffered yr/yr declines in oil and gas production in the third quarter, according to a company statement published on November 5.
Overall hydrocarbon output averaged 5.74mn barrels of oil equivalent/day in the three months ending September 30, the state firm said, down 1.5% compared with the same period in 2018. Oil and gas condensate extraction fell 1.4%, to 57.88mn mt, while gas production slumped 1.9% to 16.3bn m3.
Rosneft’s results for the first nine months of this year were better, with hydrocarbon output inching up 0.6% to 5.783mn boe/day. It produced 49.73bn m3 of gas in the period, down 0.4%, and 172.2mn mt of liquids, up 0.9%.
The company attributed the growth in oil output to increased contributions from greenfield projects, including the Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye, Srednebotuobinskoye, Kondinskoye, Russkoye, East-Messoyakha fields, as well as growth at brownfield developments, notably Samaraneftegaz, RN-Nyaganneftegaz and Varyaganneftegaz.
Rosneft has set a goal of expanding its annual gas production to more than 100bn m3 by 2022, to challenge its rivals Gazprom and Novatek in the domestic gas market. This growth is set to come mainly from the Rospan and Kharampur gas projects in Russia. It also benefits from a 30% share in Zohr, Egypt’s largest gas field, which is currently ramping up to its full capacity of 3.2bn ft3/day (33bn m3/yr), reaching above 2.7bn ft3/day in August.
Rosneft still has some way to go before reaching its target, with its gas output last year totalling only 67.26bn m3, down 1.7% yr/yr.