Russian hydrocarbon (Oil and Gas and Coal) Industry: News #4

Venzuela has bitumen deposits like the Kanadian tar sands.   They are bigger than those of Kanada.   Venezuela has been producing a product called
Orimulsion (from the Orinoco basin deposit) which can be burned by marine diesel engines.   It can't be used by smaller diesel engines found in trains,
trucks, etc.  Venezuela has not been upgrading its bitumen resource into synthetic crude on the scale of Kanada but it does have some projects:

https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/hamaca/

https://www.southportland.org/files/3713/9387/3165/Heavy_Oil_and_Tar_Sands.pdf

Russian LNG exports will be 60 BCM to Europe, (30BCM max capacity turk stream + LNG tanker supplies)

50+ BCM to China with increase flow in 2024 via Power of Siberia and tankers

And the rest of the supplies will go to 3rd countries via tankers and the new LNG ports

I do see that Russia must do something about TAP pipelines, and the houthis should be assisted as the red sea closure is favorable for Russia to force NSR as the only remaining ship route

Russia has many cards to play, and they are not even taking any advantage of the situation - this is all purely inertia and western mishaps

I do see that Russia must do something about TAP pipelines, and the houthis should be assisted as the red sea closure is favorable for Russia to force NSR as the only remaining ship route

Blocking or damaging access to the Suez canal is not in Russian interests, their North Sea Route is already 14 days faster and bypasses areas that struggle with piracy, so there is no reason to interfere with international shipping traffic anywhere.

The US and EU would love to be able to claim Russia is sabotaging this or that waterway so they could retaliate and try to sabotage Russian shipping in some form or another.

Accepting Argentina and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and other countries close to critical shipping lanes is not so BRICS can block access to major sea routes... it is to ensure the west doesn't try colour revolutions in those countries to try to deny those shipping lanes to BRICS countries.

It seems that petrol consumption is not falling after all.

Arkanghelsk wrote:Russian LNG exports will be 60 BCM to Europe, (30BCM max capacity turk stream + LNG tanker supplies)
50+ BCM to China with increase flow in 2024 via Power of Siberia and tankers
And the rest of the supplies will go to 3rd countries via tankers and the new LNG ports

You forgot the Blue Stream underwater gas pipeline to Turkey. That is capable of carrying 16 bcm/y.

There are also gas pipelines to the other ex-Soviet states. They seem to have inked deals to send gas to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan:
https://aze.media/how-azerbaijan-sold-russian-gas-to-europe/
https://kun.uz/en/news/2023/12/27/russian-gazprom-increases-gas-supplies-to-uzbekistan

Do we have any confirmation that Ukraine will actually stop gas transit in 3 days time when the contract expires?

JohninMK wrote:Do we have any confirmation that Ukraine will actually stop gas transit in 3 days time when the contract expires?

Even if they do this, I think the main impact will be on gas supply to Transnistria and Moldova.

Hungary, Serbia, Greece, North Macedonia, and Bosnia already have alternate supply going via TurkStream. Turkey no longer gets gas from Ukraine as well. Hasn't in years.

BTW, the global oil price is being manipulated. This is done by lies from the EIA and IEA about vanishing demand and by futures trading games.
So in the face of high demand and shipping risk we have "the market" responding to BS signals about lack of demand and expected US prime
rate reduction in the middle of next year.

lancelot wrote:

JohninMK wrote:Do we have any confirmation that Ukraine will actually stop gas transit in 3 days time when the contract expires?

Even if they do this, I think the main impact will be on gas supply to Transnistria and Moldova.

Hungary, Serbia, Greece, North Macedonia, and Bosnia already have alternate supply going via TurkStream. Turkey no longer gets gas from Ukraine as well. Hasn't in years.

The problem with Turkstream is the limited capacity of the onward pipeline through Bulgaria and Serbia. Around 10BCM?

The Ukraine pipeline the last time I saw a figure is still running 40BCM plus.

There is enough capacity for the Balkans but not for all of the EU. But the EU does not want any Russian gas, so its all fine.

kvs wrote:There is enough capacity for the Balkans but not for all of the EU. But the EU does not want any Russian gas, so its all fine.

If the EU really wanted Russian gas the overland Yamal pipeline can carry 33 bcm/y. It hasn't gone anywhere.

Russia stopped pumping gas though the Yamal pipeline because the EU stopped ordering gas and the Polish government seized Gazprom assets in Poland.

Russian tanker passaging Red Sea declaring to everyone but especially the Yemenis that it has not been to Israel. Expect that there are many more like this.

lancelot wrote:

kvs wrote:There is enough capacity for the Balkans but not for all of the EU. But the EU does not want any Russian gas, so its all fine.

If the EU really wanted Russian gas the overland Yamal pipeline can carry 33 bcm/y. It hasn't gone anywhere.

Russia stopped pumping gas though the Yamal pipeline because the EU stopped ordering gas and the Polish government seized Gazprom assets in Poland.

Baltic LNG at Ust Luga will see 45 BCM per annum, loaded at the port onto tankers and sent to Europe

It's a lie that Europe doesn't want gas, they say so in public, but Spain, Italy, Germany, all continue to purchase gas, but they won't report tanker sales as it's much easier to hide it from their own idiot politicians

Ust Luga will replace Nord Stream 2 completely, if the pipelines planned capacity was 55+ BCM, and Baltic LNG will produce 45 BCM, we talk a small difference

The residue of liquefied gas will be piped to Kaliningrad and it can be loaded onto other tankers for resale

It's very easy to utilize the existing transit system without the pipelines

Hell if europe did not want cheap piped gas, and would rather pay a premium on LNG by tanker thats fine

What I would do is repair Nord Stream 2 only and reroute it from the damaged section to Kaliningrad

That would mean Russia would see nearly 120 BCM alone passing through Ust Luga and NS2 to Kaliningrad

That would make up for the lost 110 BCM from damage to the NS system

Then I'd put all barrels at the port and let all willing shippers from all over the world come to Kaliningrad and load up and resell at premiums

Imagine a terminal which loads the barrels of gas onto trucks to go to all Europe, with Chinese trucks and truckers completely displacing the entire Soyuz, Druzhba, Yamal pipelines

Interesting idea but I would just send ships with enough gas and oil for Kaliningrads needs and perhaps some extra they can sell for a decent profit. The rest I would redirect to Asia where the potential market is actually rather bigger than the European market and where the countries that receive the energy Russia sells can trade in other goods and not want to lecture Russia as to how it behaves and who it trades with.

Let their industry suffer and diminish for lack of cheap energy and pump cheap energy into Asia and Africa and central and south america and let those countries develop and grow and live a better life for a nice change.

Arkanghelsk wrote:Ust Luga will replace Nord Stream 2 completely, if the pipelines planned capacity was 55+ BCM, and Baltic LNG will produce 45 BCM, we talk a small difference

Nord stream 2 capacity was about 55 BMC per year, but there was already Nord Stream 1 which was 59 BMC per year. 55+59=114

So the difference Is much larger.

Russian tanker passaging Red Sea

Yemen stated that all russian ships can pass.

GarryB wrote:Interesting idea but I would just send ships with enough gas and oil for Kaliningrads needs and perhaps some extra they can sell for a decent profit. The rest I would redirect to Asia where the potential market is actually rather bigger than the European market and where the countries that receive the energy Russia sells can trade in other goods and not want to lecture Russia as to how it behaves and who it trades with.

Let their industry suffer and diminish for lack of cheap energy and pump cheap energy into Asia and Africa and central and south america and let those countries develop and grow and live a better life for a nice change.

 Eventually the Nord stream 1 and 2 pipelines will be repaired (under cost of EU countries, unless they manage to get money from UK and US).

I believe that before the end of the decade both US and EU will change considerably, and poorer but now more independent European countries will be interested in getting cheaper energy and maybe they will finally try to get along with Russia.

Of course first we have to remove this abomination that is the EU. 

Razing to the ground Bruxelles, Amsterdam and Luxembourg would also help give the proper message.

I am really annoyed by the importance that these midget countries (I am talking about Bruxelles and the Netherlands, Luxembourg is just a small dot in the map which should be completed emptied and left as wild forest) have thanks to the EU and basing a large part of the political and financial institutions there.

Arkanghelsk wrote:Baltic LNG at Ust Luga will see 45 BCM per annum, loaded at the port onto tankers and sent to Europe
It's a lie that Europe doesn't want gas, they say so in public, but Spain, Italy, Germany, all continue to purchase gas, but they won't report tanker sales as it's much easier to hide it from their own idiot politicians
Ust Luga will replace Nord Stream 2 completely, if the pipelines planned capacity was 55+ BCM, and Baltic LNG will produce 45 BCM, we talk a small difference

Building huge LNG liquefaction capability in the Baltic is a mistake. The West is already talking about blockading Russia's access to the Baltic.
Existing liquefaction capability is more than enough for Kaliningrad.

There is also the issue that building LNG liquefaction facilities requires huge compressors. In Arctic LNG these are supposed to be done with Western imported gas turbine engines. There aren't any Russian gas turbines of the required size and power yet. There is a project to make huge LNG liquefaction facilities near Murmansk using electricity from nuclear power to move the compressors. I think this is way more viable than making LNG facilities in the Baltic. If you place the facilities in Murmansk then you can move the LNG either to Europe or Asia as you want to without risk of blockade.

There is also the issue that Russia doesn't have enough LNG tankers and they were using French technology to make the LNG tanks in the tankers they were building at Zvezda shipyard. Further orders to build LNG tanker ships in South Korea, the main world builder of such ships right now, was also cancelled just in case they also decide to sanction those. With the Western embargo on sales of such technology to Russia, they will have to make their own technology to build such ships, and switch orders to Chinese shipyards.

While I think Russia's LNG export capacity will increase, I think most liquefaction capability will be built in ports in Northern Russia, and a massive effort to import substitute technologies must happen first.

The West is already talking about blockading Russia's access to the Baltic.

Which would be an act of war.
Anti-ship missiles will fly, followed by nuclear tipped missiles.

Hole wrote:
Which would be an act of war.
Anti-ship missiles will fly, followed by nuclear tipped missiles.

By the level of current European sock puppets leaders, I would not bet Anglos do not manage to get Balts and Finns to do that under their "own initiative"

If 404 is not enough, then setting on fire the whole of Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia should do...

https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/91010/

Russia's Gazprom builds pilot LNG plant using own Gazprom MR technology

MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - Gazprom has built a pilot plant to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) using its own Gazprom MR (GMR) technology, the Russian gas giant's flagship research center, VNIIGAZ reported.

"A number of important research and development projects were carried out in 2022 that make it possible to increase PJSC Gazprom's technological independence. A pilot plant to produce LNG using the domestic technology Gazprom MR was built at the trial facility," Gazprom VNIIGAZ LLC said in a report.

Gazprom deputy CEO Oleg Aksyutin said earlier in the company's in-house magazine that this project "opens up possibilities for the implementation of Gazprom LNG projects based on its own technology."

The process was developed at Gazprom VNIIGAZ and Gazprom secured the patent for the technology in 2014.

Distinguishing features of the technology is preliminary cooling and liquefaction of gas using a multicomponent cooling agent containing primarily light hydrocarbons; supercooling through a nitrogen gas circuit; and balanced distribution of compressor equipment capacity with the possibility of using generic gas turbine drives.

"The advantages are that the technology is aimed at medium- and large-scale LNG production, and can work in various outside temperatures with maximum energy efficiency. The more energy efficient we are, the more competitive we will be in LNG production," Gazprom VNIIGAZ deputy CEO for development, Leonty Eder said on TV channel Rossiya24.

GMR is an enhanced process worth a mixed cooling agent that has low per-unit energy costs comparable to the most cost effective cycles in the world. The GMR process was developed, optimized and is well suited for liquefying natural gas on a large scale. All of the elements of the process use domestic equipment.

https://polarjournal.ch/en/2023/06/02/chinese-technology-to-power-russian-arctic-lng-plant/

Chinese turbines are replacing NATzO sourced ones. NATzO is failing to engage any show stoppers. Just huffing and puffing like the losers they are.

lancelot wrote:

Arkanghelsk wrote:Baltic LNG at Ust Luga will see 45 BCM per annum, loaded at the port onto tankers and sent to Europe
It's a lie that Europe doesn't want gas, they say so in public, but Spain, Italy, Germany, all continue to purchase gas, but they won't report tanker sales as it's much easier to hide it from their own idiot politicians
Ust Luga will replace Nord Stream 2 completely, if the pipelines planned capacity was 55+ BCM, and Baltic LNG will produce 45 BCM, we talk a small difference

Building huge LNG liquefaction capability in the Baltic is a mistake. The West is already talking about blockading Russia's access to the Baltic.
Existing liquefaction capability is more than enough for Kaliningrad.

There is also the issue that building LNG liquefaction facilities requires huge compressors. In Arctic LNG these are supposed to be done with Western imported gas turbine engines. There aren't any Russian gas turbines of the required size and power yet. There is a project to make huge LNG liquefaction facilities near Murmansk using electricity from nuclear power to move the compressors. I think this is way more viable than making LNG facilities in the Baltic. If you place the facilities in Murmansk then you can move the LNG either to Europe or Asia as you want to without risk of blockade.

There is also the issue that Russia doesn't have enough LNG tankers and they were using French technology to make the LNG tanks in the tankers they were building at Zvezda shipyard. Further orders to build LNG tanker ships in South Korea, the main world builder of such ships right now, was also cancelled just in case they also decide to sanction those. With the Western embargo on sales of such technology to Russia, they will have to make their own technology to build such ships, and switch orders to Chinese shipyards.

While I think Russia's LNG export capacity will increase, I think most liquefaction capability will be built in ports in Northern Russia, and a massive effort to import substitute technologies must happen first.

Who will block? Which country? I think it's news planted by some idiot who doesn't accept the defeat in Ukraine and keeps releasing these fakes..... The Western navies can't deal with the ragamuffins in Yemen and will block Russia...

Eventually the Nord stream 1 and 2 pipelines will be repaired (under cost of EU countries, unless they manage to get money from UK and US).

I am not so sure. I don't think Russia is interested in helping Europe any more so Europe would have to pay for everything and it is not like Russia is going to go back to selling cheap gas to them... they funded Kiev to murder their men.

They want expensive US freedom gas... let them buy that.

Explaining behind closed doors that you had no choice simply does not cut it... man up.

The only reason Europe allows US forces to remain on their territory is to fight Russia. There is no other point in them being there.

No return to normal until US forces are gone from Europe, because until then you want to be enemies and why would Russia trade with an enemy that wants them dead?

I believe that before the end of the decade both US and EU will change considerably, and poorer but now more independent European countries will be interested in getting cheaper energy and maybe they will finally try to get along with Russia.

I agree that this will probably be the case... especially when the US dollar collapses and is no longer used in trade, but why would Russia want this?

Things are likely to get rather worse than better any time soon... I rather suspect Russia will close its embassies in Europe and European embassies in Russia because there is no value in them when they can't talk without clearing things with Washington first.

This conflict has cut Russia from the west and so Russia is having to replace the west with its own capacity and also the rest of the world... so 10 years down the track and the west wants to be, if not friends, then at least not enemies... why would Russia respond in a good way to that?

Russia does not need the west trying to control them or manipulating them or lecturing them about what they should or should not be doing.

The west needs a fundamental change in attitude and behaviour and I really can't see that happening even in 10 years.

Maybe a bit of poverty and hard times might create a bit of maturity, but I doubt it.

I am really annoyed by the importance that these midget countries (I am talking about Bruxelles and the Netherlands, Luxembourg is just a small dot in the map which should be completed emptied and left as wild forest) have thanks to the EU and basing a large part of the political and financial institutions there.

There is no accountability or democracy in the system so they are free to do what they please with no threat or even consequences.

I think Clare Daley from Ireland should be put in charge for a guaranteed 10 years... she would sort them out...

If you place the facilities in Murmansk then you can move the LNG either to Europe or Asia as you want to without risk of blockade.

Very much agree. They did have a new gravity based liquification process that uses less power and does not require large powerful gas turbines. It was said to be rather more fuel and energy efficient.

While I think Russia's LNG export capacity will increase, I think most liquefaction capability will be built in ports in Northern Russia, and a massive effort to import substitute technologies must happen first.

New membrane tank and pipe technology would be important moving forward anyway because at some stage they will be moving from fossil fuels to hydrogen pumping and storage.

It would be a useful technology.

Which would be an act of war.

The unilateral sanctions the west has imposed on Russia are already acts of war... cutting Russia out of SWIFT was an act of war etc etc etc.

Who will block? Which country? I think it's news planted by some idiot who doesn't accept the defeat in Ukraine and keeps releasing these fakes..... The Western navies can't deal with the ragamuffins in Yemen and will block Russia...

I would agree, none would have the balls to actually block them... especially with a couple of Lada class SSKs in the water there somewhere...

Besides Russia has been accused of cutting cables and pipes in that entire water way... I am sure there are lots of cables and pipes to be cut if they want to play dirty.