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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Russia Investing in Oil and Gas in Kurdistan and Israel


Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom, has announced that it has obtained an 80 percent stake in the Halabja block of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The Halabja agreement is Gazprom Neft’s third production-sharing agreement in Kurdistan. (Hurriyet Daily News, 28 February)

Gazprom also announced today that it is in exclusive talks to buy liquefied natural gas from Israel. The LNG will come from Tamar, the offshore South Mediterranean facility. Gazprom’s purchase of LNG from Israel will strengthen Russia’s presence in the booming Asian LNG market. Tamar, as well as Leviathan, are two major gas fields recently located off the coast of Israel.

The deal with Israel will enable Gazprom, the world’s biggest conventional gas producer, to export directly to high-priced markets in Japan, South Korea, China and India. The project would aim to start LNG deliveries in 2017. Last week, Gazprom said it had decided to build an LNG plant near Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East to also supply the Asia-Pacific region.

File photo: A Kurdish peshmerga guarding Tawk oil fields. Kurdistan Regional Government. (slate.com)

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