The company of the youngest son of the head of the Security Council of Russia, Nikolai Patrushev, Aurora, will receive a new name and may become Gazprom's main offshore drilling contractor. To do this, Andrey Patrushev's Aurora will become Gazprom Shelfproekt, stylized under a single Gazprom brand and will lease the gas monopoly's drilling fleet, Kommersant reports citing sources.
Moreover, Patrushev's company may not stop at Gazprom's projects, the publication claims that it can also engage in drilling for Novatek's projects, which can turn Gazprom Shelf into a leader in the drilling market for gas companies. Gazprom Shelf is headed by Alexander Korobkov, who simultaneously manages Gazpromneft-Sakhalin, a joint venture between Gazprom and Novatek, which own 51% and 49% shares in the project, respectively.
The company itself says that they now expect to turn into a "specialized center of Russian engineering and technical competencies for performing work in offshore fields." “The Company will continue to expand its capabilities to provide a range of high-quality services in the interests of key customers, including Gazprom. The company's activities will contribute to the most efficient development of the hydrocarbon potential of the Russian continental shelf,” the company said.
The publication claims that Patrushev's company has already leased the Gazprom Flot vessels to start drilling. We are talking about the Polar Star, Northern Lights and Arctic drilling platforms, that is, three of the four platforms that were on the balance sheet of Gazprom's subsidiary. Last year, Aurora leased the Perro Negro 8 drilling platform from the Italian Saipem, work was carried out at the Novatek project in the South Tambeysky area in the Ob Bay. After the departure of the European company from Russia, Patrushev's enterprise will be able to resume work, the interlocutors of the publication note.
The Russian oilfield service faced problems after the departure of large foreign companies that helped Russian companies develop oil and gas fields. Now Russian companies are forced to look for alternative service providers in order to continue developing large oil and gas fields.