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As we go forward into 2008, we continue to take a look at the state of the Russian oil and gas sector. A questionnaire was sent to senior executives from a range of oil and gas companies operating in the Russian market. The questions explored attitudes and expectations, with an intention to “take the temperature” of the industry, rather than just analyse dry statistics. Our respondents represented a wide variety of public, private and state-owned companies, consisting of not only small and medium sized upstream companies, but also a cross-section of major Russian and international vertically integrated companies.

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UK's Ninth Release in the Fallow Process
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has announced that 58 new Fallow Blocks and 11 new Fallow Discoveries have been added to the Fallow Process in the Ninth Release. 19 of the 40 Fallow B blocks in the Eighth Release have been “Rescued”, where a change of operator is in progress, or firm plans for significant activity that will result in a drill or drop decision within one year have been agreed between BERR and the licensees. Six of the Eighth Release blocks are now being totally relinquished and 15 are being partially relinquished back to existing fields or discovery areas.

Four layers have been added to the PetroView North West Europe January dataset update. These show the blocks and discoveries in the Ninth Release and the status of all the blocks and discoveries currently in the Fallow Process. Please look for the following layers in PetroView's catalogue:

• FALLOW_BLOCKS_9TH_RELEASE_JAN08

• FALLOW_DISCOVERIES_9TH_RELEASE_JAN08

• FALLOW_BLOCKS_STATUS_JAN08

• FALLOW_DISCOVERIES_STATUS_JAN08

For more information about the Fallow Process, please visit BERR's website.

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Norwegian 20th Licensing Round
The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has announced that it received nominations from 46 companies for blocks to be included in the 20th Licensing Round. A total of 301 blocks or part-blocks have been nominated across the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.

A list of the companies which have nominated blocks is included in the Weekly Service (issue 04/08) and a layer showing the blocks nominated, called NO_OFS_20RND_NOM, is included in the PetroView North West Europe January dataset update and is accessible through the catalogue.

For more information about the 20th Round, please visit the official Ministry of Petroleum and Energy website.

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Irish Porcupine Basin Licensing Round
On December 18th, 2007, following the closing date for applications in the Irish Porcupine Basin Licensing Round, the Minister for Communications Energy and Natural Resources (CENR) announced that four applications have been received. The applications were made by three consortia, consisting of a total of six companies.

The acreage applied for lies off the south-west coast of Ireland, includes 19 blocks and part-blocks, and covers a total area of approximately 4,460 square kilometres. Decisions on the applications are expected to be made by the end of January 2008. A layer, called IE_OFS_PORRND_APP, showing the location of the applications is available in the PetroView North West Europe January dataset update and accessible through its catalogue.

In 2007, the Minister announced that any licences granted as a result of the Porcupine Basin Round would be subject to revised terms including a profit resource tax. This will be applied in addition to the 25% corporate tax rate currently employed. It will operate on a graded basis of profitability and will result in a tax take of up to 40% in the case of more profitable discoveries. These changes will be reflected in the next updates of our modelling system, PetroScope, and PetroReports.

For more information about the Licensing Round, please visit the CENR website.

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