Izvestia: “Retrospective”
Production startup at Vankor.
One of the oil and gas industry's most noticeable events this year was the commissioning of the Vankorskoye field in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Rosneft oil company commenced industrial hydrocarbons production there. The symbolic ‘button' commissioning the field was pressed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in late August. "The Vankor project is the first step, and consequently a very important one, in implementing the strategic program of developing the fields of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region. New Russia's oil and gas province will emerge here within the next few years," Vladimir Putin said. The field's production is 18,000 tons of oil per day and is slated to reach 30,000 tons by the end of the year.
The field's production may total 3 million tons in 2009 and its peak annual capacity is estimated at 25.5 million tons. The reserves are estimated at 520 million tons of oil and 95 billion cubic meters of gas. The field will be the main oil source for the Eastern Siberia -- Pacific Ocean pipeline and the planned Primorye refinery. With oil at $60 per barrel, the Vankor project will generate a tax revenue of 4.5 trillion roubles.
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Public utilities charges to rise
Public utilities charges will rise by 10% to 25% in Moscow on January 1, 2010. Metro and ground transport fares will grow by 18% and 20% respectively. Electric energy tariffs will rise by 14%. Muscovites who use electric cookers will pay 2.42 roubles for 1 kWh instead of the current 2.11 roubles. For those who do not have electric cookers, the tariff will go up from the current 3.01 roubles to 3.45 roubles.
There will be a substantial increase in tariffs on water supply and central heating. Hot water supply in households that have no metering devices will cost 444.06 roubles per one person instead of the current 353.3 roubles. Those who have metering devices will be paying 93.58 roubles per 1 cubic meter instead of the current 74.67 roubles. Cold water supply will surge by more than 30 roubles from 107.15 to 137.66 roubles per one person. Households without metering devices will be paying 19.4 roubles for central heating instead of the current 15.3 roubles.
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Information society to be financed
The Russian Presidential Council on the Development of the Information Society adopted a plan in late 2009 to implement the respective Strategy in 2010 and 2011. It provides for 56.7 billion roubles from the federal budget and another 14.5 billion roubles to be earmarked from regional budgets in 2010. The lion's share of the funds will be spent on building a national telecommunications infrastructure without which an information society is simply unthinkable. The federal and regional budgets will spend 4.3 and 3.8 billion roubles respectively on implementing information and communication technologies in education and science. The allocations for ensuring the population's technological security will total 6.9 billion and 3.2 billion roubles, respectively.
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Frustrated hopes
A new tendency has emerged in Russia's insurance market this year - foreign companies started losing their ground. Two major foreign insurance companies have withdrawn from the Russian market - ING and Fortis. The understanding that they will not earn as much as they originally anticipated could have contributed to this difficult decision. Russian insurance companies can wait through the downturn without considerable losses, freezing their business if needed, whereas foreign companies' subsidiaries cannot do so due to fixed expenditures, mainly on maintaining their branch offices, which has caused many to withdraw from the market. The tendency may increase in 2010.
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Russia fails to buy Opel
After six months of negotiating with General Motors, the Sberbank-Magna consortium failed to agree with the American company on acquiring Opel. The GM Board of Directors decided on November 4 to keep the Opel trademark, saying that the economic situation had stabilized and eliminating the necessity to sell. It added that Opel was the holding's strategic asset and that GM would develop it itself. The negotiations stumbled upon granting the Russian-Canadian consortium access to Opel's intellectual property. The Russian party did not demonstrate any resentment when the deal termination was announced. Later, the Canadian Magna demanded that General Motors reimburse the funds that the Canadian company had spent in relation to the possible acquisition of Opel. Russian Sberbank suggested that General Motors should voluntary remunerate the funds that the bank had spent preparing the Opel deal. Otherwise Sberbank will go to court. The claim may reach almost 100 million Euros.
