The New World of Tumult

Here's the news today: Russian security officers have again raided BP's offices in Moscow. Nigeria has ordered Exxon and Shell to pay up $1.9 billion of their oil revenues. Exxon's Rex Tillerson is under mounting pressure to give up one of his titles, that of company chairman. And oil futures brushed up against $140 a barrel.

Welcome to the new world of energy tumult.

Taken separately, these events don't necessarily seem new -- the petro-powers have been flexing their muscles for some time; Exxon has put down previous attempts to appoint an independent chairman; and the surge in oil prices has seemed inexorable.

Yet the last two items merit attention.

The pressure on Exxon -- renown for going its own way regardless of attempts to influence it -- can no longer be put down to fringe dissidents. The more serious situation began with a push by the Rockefellers for an independent chairman and more attention to research on renewable fuels. And now, a growing number of investors are supporting the Rockefellers publicly ahead of next week's annual shareholder meeting in Dallas. Here is a piece about British investors posted by my colleagues at Business Week.

But today's $9.50 rise in oil futures, to $139.50 a barrel, resembles a panic. It looks like a tipping point in market sentiment about so-called peak oil -- traders seem convinced that indeed the tightness in world supply is a chronic problem, and not something to be overcome by added exploration and drilling.

Among the men of Big Oil, one of the most reasonable assessments is delivered by Christophe de Margerie, the chairman of France's Total. De Margerie says that the world has plenty of oil, but not the financial and technical means to deliver much more than it currently does to the market.

So the tightness in world supplies -- the fundamental reason behind this year's incredible runup in prices, and by extension the emboldened behavior of petro-powers like Russia and Nigeria -- is not going to lift any time soon, short of some economic debacle, or a dramatic public shift to the bicycle.

Photo: pingnews
Rights: Creative Commons

Two Hours in Astana

My mother's lawyer boyfriend once offered up some legal advice when I was in a dispute with a contractor: It'll all be settled on the courthouse steps. In other words, even though logic says it's less stressful to resolve one's differences at once, and the final deal often doesn't differ much from what's offered along the way, the actual practice is that one or both parties simply won't walk over the line until the very last possible moment.

So it apparently was yesterday in a settlement of the months-long dispute over the supergiant Kashagan oilfield. Recall that new development of this 13-billion-barrel behemoth has been stalled since the summer over a five-year delay in first oil, and a huge cost overrun.

Take a look at the timeline of the weekend events. At the invitation of Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev, the chairmen of most of the world's biggest oil companies had readied to pile in to the capital of Astana for a resolution last Friday. They were put off for two days before meetings finally commenced. The trouble was already apparent when Christophe de Margerie, CEO of France's Total, met with the state oil company on Saturday, then simply left town; that's something that a CEO simply doesn't do when an important president has summoned you.

That left Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, Eni's Paolo Scaroni and Shell's Jeroen van der Veer meeting for nine full hours -- until midnight -- at a restaurant with Prime Minister Karim Masimov.

At 1:56 a.m. today local time, Bloomberg's Nariman Gizitdinov and Lucian Kim filed the following lead paragraphs in a story:

Eni and partners failed to reach an agreement with the Kazakhstan government over stakeholdings in the Kashagan oil field, Eni Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said, adding he doesn't expect to return to the central Asian nation ``for a long time.'' ``We haven't reached an agreement yet,'' Scaroni said in an interview early today in Astana, the Kazakh capital, after a nine-hour meeting with Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov and the chief executives of companies including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Less than two hours later, at 3:49 a.m. local time, Reuters filed the following:

Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas has reached a deal with an Eni-led consortium over developing the giant Kashagan oil field which will give it an equal share in the project with the largest shareholders. In a statement, the Kazakh company said all companies in the consortium … had agreed unanimously to the new terms.

What happened during those two hours?

The deal on the courthouse steps. Here is a pretty good Bloomberg piece on the deal. Here's Guy Chazan's from The Wall Street Journal.

By the look of things, Masimov and the state oil company pushed matters pretty far and seemed so unlikely to budge that, to put it bluntly, the CEOs of both Eni -- the field operator -- and Total threw up their hands.

At which point Nazarbayev probably stepped in and told his negotiators to agree more or less with the last deal on the table. This is conjecture, but seems likely in the context of how previous disputes in Kazakhstan have been settled.

“Now, a fair decision has been made,” the president’s official web site quoted him as saying in a meeting with company representatives today after the resolution was announced. He said, “After long and difficult negotiations, the Kazakhstani side has protected its interests. … We have prevented a breach of the contract, which was possible if we did not agree.”

Takeaways from the deal: According to The Wall Street Journal, the companies will make an immediate, good-faith payment of $300 million to Kazakhstan. Over the life of the contract, which expires in 2041, they will pay an additional $5 billion to the country, depending on the price of oil. And they will begin to pay the money earlier than previously agreed.

Kazakhstan will pay a sweetheart price of $1.78 billion for about 8% of Kashagan, raising its share of the field to 16.8%, the same as Total, Shell, Eni and Exxon.

After Kashagan comes on line in 2011, Eni will lose operatorship. Kazakhstan appear to have won the final say on how the field is run, with the four top shareholders divvying up duties for developing it.

Photo: jordigraells
Rights: Creative Commons

Finding An Honest Man in Big Oil

Those who follow oil seem forever doomed to be in a way like Diogenes, strolling with a lantern, looking for an honest man. There's always the nagging suspicion that one isn't getting the whole story about the state of global energy, and prices at the pump.

Christophe de Margerie, the walrus-mustached CEO of France's Total, champions himself as that singular candid man. A member of a select club that's traditionally delighted in its mysteriousness, De Margerie is the much-deplored, indiscreet fellow who spills the group's secret handshake to the world.

In this case, the whiskey-swilling Frenchman has been telling the world that the oil industry has or is about to reach a peak in the volume of oil it can produce. Furthermore, he's quoted in a piece posted today by the Economist, all his brother oil bosses “think the same. It's just a question of whether we say it.” The article is worth reading.

Where the fierce debate on peak oil gets mucked up is on the geology -- has the world used up half its available oil resources or not? De Margerie neatly ducks that labyrinth by saying it's irrelevant.

What matters isn't how much oil is there, but how much can be produced. He says there simply isn't sufficient skilled manpower, technical equipment and willingness in the petro-states to produce much more than current levels of about 85 million barrels per day.

De Margerie makes a lot of sense. If one extrapolates, there will be much more motivation for fuel economy technologies, the development of non-carbon fuels, and general demand reduction. That's because, even if the West's fuel appetite is more or less stagnant, the economies of India and China are becoming hungrier and hungrier for energy. So there's going to be more competition for that somewhat limited volume of oil.

Kazakhstan Wants Equal Ownership Status at Kashagan

The news today in one of the world's great oil disputes is that Kazakhstan has made public a demand for an equal share in the supergiant Kashagan oilfield. Bloomberg reports that six of the field's seven partners have agreed.

Work at Kashagan, the world's largest oilfield discovery in the last few decades, has been suspended while Kazakhstan and an Italian-led foreign oil consortium settle their differences. Kazakhstan is upset that, in a period of $90-a-barrel-oil, the field will be at least five years late coming to market; in addition, costs are nearly double what was originally estimated, and Kazakhstan will have to wait several more more years for some profit until those costs are paid off.

It's been clear that the Kazakhs want more control over the field, plus more money, and earlier receipt of it. The announcement today, however, is the first concrete statement that the country expects a full share of the field. That would approximately double Kazakhstan's current 8.3% holding.

What wasn't said is the terms: Does Kazakhstan intend to pay for the share? If so, are they talking cash? And if they are, how will the price be decided? Or will the companies carry the Kazakh interest?

And who is the holdout on agreeing? Given its record, a solid guess would be Exxon Mobil, which previously said it would consent only if the country extends the contract beyond its current 40-year life.

Kazakhstan is unlikely to agree to that condition when the dispute revolves around fault on the part of the foreign companies.

Exxon, which like Total, Eni and Shell has 18.5% of Kashagan, still behaves as though it's in the driver's seat. But the final settlement -- according to Kazakhstan it will be tomorrow; the companies say it will be later this month -- is likely to reflect a much stronger position for Kazakhstan.

Photo: twoshortplanks
Rights: Creative Commons

Free Lunch at Kashagan

Kazakhstan has offered up another important piece to the jigsaw puzzle in terms of what it wants to allow development to proceed on the suspended supergiant Kashagan oilfield.

A free ride.

The Kazakhs, whose move on Kashagan has made some wonder whether the nation is aping Russia's oil nationalism, had already made it clear that they want at least joint control of the field, the largest oil discovery on the planet in more than three decades. Until they get it, plus a big cash payment, they are holding up field development.

Customarily, in order to be operator of an oilfield, one's share must at least match the largest stake held by any other partner. That's meant to ensure that the operator has at least as much investment at stake -- in other words as much to lose if things go wrong -- as anyone else involved. The current operator, Italy's Eni, has 16.6% of Kashagan, as do Exxon Mobil, Shell and France's Total.

So one apprehension regarding Kazakhstan's demands has been who would be called upon to sell part of their ownership in order to increase the state's current 8.3% share and make it equal to or greater than the rest.

That seemed one of the hardest likely nuts to crack in talks under way with the Kazakhs, since none of the foreigners was likely to want to give up some of their share. Then there was the matter of getting the state to pay a market price certainly exceeding $1 billion. (BG sold its 16.6% of the field for $1.8 million in March 2005, a time of much lower world crude oil prices.)

But in a statement Thursday, Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev raised the idea of the state obtaining joint control without increasing its stake.

"It's not essential for us to raise the share. That's not the main question," the minister said, quoted by Reuters. "What is essential is to approve or disapprove of Kashagan's development plan and budget." Read Reuters story

Kazakhstan seems not to be guilty of petro-state nationalism as much as trying to get the country's so-far horribly managed jewel in the crown to pay out.

But if Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas obtains an equal footing without sharing equally in investment and field development costs, that would seem to instantly and considerably raise the foreign partners' risk profile for Kashagan.

And one wonders how company lawyers would get that past their boards of directors and shareholders back home.

The Kazakhs Want Control

An article today in The Wall Street Journal advances the ball toward discovering Kazakhstan's wish list if it's to lift the suspension of work at the supergiant Kashagan oilfield. Its apparent aim: to take over.

It’s been evident for some time that Kazakhstan had high demands in mind of the Italian-led developers of Kashagan, particularly after the government halted development of the field last week. But it turns out that far larger and earlier payment of oil profit isn’t the only issue on Kazakhstan's list.

Greg White, my former colleague at the Journal, rang up the Kazakhs’ deputy finance minister, Daulet Ergozhin, who said that the country has its complaints about how Eni, the Italian oil major, is operating the field.

Here is the key paragraph from the piece: Kazakhstan isn't insisting that state oil company KazMunaiGaz become the operator of Kashagan, he noted, but said the government would "look positively" on a proposal to put a Kazakh company in control or jointly operate the project. Read story

Steve's comment: The Kazakhs are interested in operatorship out of pride and prestige, not to mention lucrative contracts for the actual work.

There is a noticeable pattern in how such assertiveness takes place. In Russia, Moscow acted after Shell got far over budget on its Sakhalin II project, and a bit presumptuous that the Russians would simply swallow it. The Russians used that wedge to force concessions from Total and BP.

Similarly, the Kazakhs moved after warning signs about Eni's competence -- a series of huge cost overruns, plus at least a seven-year postponement in first oil. Because of this, the demands of the Kashagan consortium do not say anything negative in my view about the Kazakhs -- the foreigners probably deserved it a long time ago. But they do suggest that similar action will take place in the much better-run supergiant Tengiz and Karachaganak fields.

There will be high tension during the designated 60-day talking period over Kashagan, because the foreigners won't voluntarily agree to cede control of development when they are putting in all the money. If they are forced to, one can imagine one or more of the companies heading for the exits.

One wonders separately about the future of President Nazarbayev's second son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, whom he has dismissed from his executive position with the state investment fund.

Kulibayev, a billionaire who as Nazarbayev's representative in the oil industry dominates the sphere in Kazakhstan, will definitely be re-appointed to an important government post; Nazarbayev needs him.

One wonders whether that new position will be linked with the crucial operatorship of Kashagan.

The Biggest New (Suspended) Oilfield in the World

Kazakhstan eliminated any uncertainty today about where foreign oil companies stand in the country: on the defensive.

After weeks of salvos regarding work on the Kashagan oil field, Kazakhstan forced a three-month halt to development of the supergiant. The field is the largest found anywhere on the planet in three decades. But Ecology Minister Nurlan Iskakov says it has unresolved environmental problems. As Reuters stated: The dispute is reminiscent of Russia's row with Royal Dutch Shell, which ended up with the multinational oil firm losing control of the giant Sakhalin-2 oil project to Russia's Gazprom.

Here is Reuters' quote from Iskakov: “In 2003-2005 we specified a number of offshore sites and we put forward our demands. As of today, these ecological requirements have not been fulfilled. That's why we decided to carry out such an unprecedented step. I think you will hear in the nearest future what will happen next." Read story

Steve's comment: It's been clear that Kazakhstan has tough demands in store for the foreign consortium developing Kashagan. The companies, led by Italy's Eni, look to be about six or seven years behind schedule in producing first oil, plus they are far over budget.

That alone put Kazakhstan in the driver's seat in terms of changing the 1997 contract negotiated on Kazakhstan's behalf by the country's then-oil adviser James Giffen. But other objective factors have now also conspired in Kazakhstan's favor: the world crude oil supply shortage, expected to last at least through 2012; the shortage of fresh oil reserves for the major oil companies to exploit; and Russia's new, tough approach to the oil companies.

The last item on the list -- Russia -- may be the most influential at the moment. Like Russia, Kazakhstan seems to have taken off the gloves.

Before today's escalation of combat, Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni publicly conceded that the contract would have to change. In another soothing move, the company has arranged for Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to visit Kazakhstan on Eni's behalf.

But the field suspension shows that Kazakhstan isn't ready to be soothed.

So what does Kazakhstan want? For starters, a lot more money, and much earlier than the companies had planned.

Like most such deals, the Kashagan contract calls for most of the expenses to be paid out of initial oil production before the partners and government begin to take their big profit. But now look for the companies to be forced to cough up larger profit from virtually the first oil to come out of the ground, probably around 2012.

Another reason why the Kazakhs will play especially tough is that whatever ultimately happens will be a model for a probable follow-on challenge to the contracts governing production at the country's other two supergiants -- Tengiz and Karachaganak.

Kazakhs Threaten to Expel Italians as Operator

Guy Chazan of The Wall Street Journal has a
scoop today that Kazakhstan is exasperated with progress in developing its Kashagan oilfield, the largest discovery on the planet in more than three decades. The upshot - Italy's ENI may lose the prestigious operatorship of the field.

The first part of Chazan's story:
ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Ratcheting up the rhetoric over a cost-overrun dispute at one of the world's largest oil fields, the prime minister of Kazakhstan said his government might remove Italy's Eni SpA as operator of the project. "We are very disappointed with the execution of this project," Karim Masimov said in an interview in the Kazakh capital, Astana. "If the operator can't resolve these problems, then we don't exclude their possible replacement." Mr. Masimov's comments signify intensifying brinkmanship ahead of a face-off this week between the government and the Eni-led consortium developing the strategically important Kashagan field. Oil-industry observers and regional insiders have said Kazakh authorities aren't likely to take the extreme step of firing Eni as operator because of the project's complexities. But they will probably demand a bigger and possibly earlier take from revenue.

Steve's comment: It is probably true that Masimov's remarks amount to brinksmanship. But Kazakhstan is not the only party exasperated with ENI's performance -- its partners in the supergiant field are also fed up with what now looks like a seven-year delay in first oil, until 2012.

To get the partnership, ENI had to fend off rivals Exxon Mobil and Total. So, quite apart from the Kazakhs' sentiments, there is reason to expect some change in the operatorship, starting with greater formal involvement of ENI's partners. Expect Exxon Mobil to lead the charge.