Rosneft and NOVATEK criticized the calculation of the tariff for gas transportation

According to Kommersant, independent gas producers – Rosneft and NOVATEK – are dissatisfied with the methodology developed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service for calculating the tariff for gas transportation through main gas pipelines, believing that it favors Gazprom. Companies believe that the methodology does not eliminate the chronic shortcomings of the tariff calculation system, and estimate their overpayment to Gazprom for gas transportation since 2015 at more than 400 billion rubles. and urged to lower the tariff. Kommersant’s interlocutors point out that Gazprom, due to the fact that the tariff for independent producers has not been indexed since 2015, received less than 800 billion rubles. revenue, and the issue needs to be considered more comprehensively.

Independent gas producers are not satisfied with the methodology developed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service and already submitted to the Ministry of Justice for calculating the tariff for gas transportation with the transition to the “input-output” scheme. The leaders of Rosneft Igor Sechin and NOVATEK Leonid Mikhelson sent a corresponding letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in early August, Kommersant sources familiar with its content say. Top managers believe that the FAS order should be canceled, and before the approval of the new methodology, consider reducing the tariff to an economically justified level. The gas transportation tariff for independent producers has not increased since 2015.

Gazprom is the sole owner of the main gas pipelines within the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS), so other gas producers, including its biggest competitors in the domestic market, NOVATEK and Rosneft, must pay the monopoly for transportation. At the same time, Gazprom does not disclose a large amount of information related to gas transportation, including the availability of free capacities in the system and the real cost of its operation, which raises a lot of questions from independent producers. In particular, they believe that the real level of the tariff for Gazprom is lower than that of independent producers, and the monopoly actually finances export gas pipelines at their expense, to which they do not have access. Now the disputes about the value of the pumping tariff and the peculiarities of its application may become aggravated, since due to the decrease in Gazprom’s exports to Europe, a significant surplus of capacities has formed and, at the same time, a deficit in tariff revenues.

Now the cost of gas transportation is calculated based on the established rates for pumping 1 thousand cubic meters of gas per 100 km: the entry point is either a UGS facility or a compressor station at the field (mainly located in Western Siberia and YaNAO), the exit point is the region of consumption. The FAS proposes a new “entry-exit” methodology, according to which the UGSS is divided into zones, each of which will contain entry/exit points. This system, according to the FAS, will make it possible to create a virtual balance point in each of the macrozones, where exchange and over-the-counter transactions could be made.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service sent a draft order to change the methodology for calculating tariffs to the Ministry of Justice, without taking into account the position of gas market participants, as well as the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economy, according to Sechin and Mikhelson. Top managers point out that the principle of calculating tariffs according to the “entry-output” scheme retains the old approaches to determining the costs of gas transportation for independent players, “which does not allow for fair tariff setting.” In particular, they indicate that when setting tariffs for independent producers, Gazprom’s capital investments in the development of the UGSS in the amount of 479 billion rubles were taken into account. per year, however, actual investments have been constantly decreasing since 2015 and in 2021 amounted to 161.9 billion rubles. This led to an increase in the gap between the actual investment component of tariff revenue and that taken into account in tariff regulation; the amount of deviations accumulated over seven years reaches 1.8 trillion rubles. As a result, according to the calculations of independent producers, they overpaid 431 billion rubles for Gazprom’s gas transportation services, which is twice as much as Gazprom’s annual revenue from providing such services.

NOVATEK and Rosneft criticize the FAS methodology for not correcting the approaches to determining the costs of transporting gas to the domestic market and for export, and also gives rise to double cost accounting: the tariff includes both Gazprom’s capital investments and the resulting him depreciation. In addition, the methodology, despite the transition to the “input-output” system, still remains tied to the routing of supplies (Gazprom is the one who determines whether it is possible to deliver gas to one or another point). This, according to independent producers, gives Gazprom, as the owner of the UGSS, a tool for indirect regulation of the domestic gas market by defining access zones for service users.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service told Kommersant that they had not received an appeal. Rosneft, Gazprom, and Mikhail Mishustin’s office did not respond to Kommersant.

NOVATEK said that they proceed “from the need to comply with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation on ensuring equal economic conditions for the operation of the owner of the UGSS and independent producers.” “Until now, this instruction of the head of state has not been fully implemented, including the adoption of a tariff calculation methodology that ensures fair tariff setting for gas transportation services,” the company noted. NOVATEK plans to build an LNG plant in Belokamenka, Murmansk Region, for which the company needs to build a 1.4 thousand km gas pipeline from Volkhov, and also connect it to the UGSS. NOVATEK explained to Kommersant that the Volkhov-Murmansk gas pipeline would have the status of a branch gas pipeline, and not a main gas pipeline (only Gazprom is allowed to own the latter). The company added that they expect the rules for technological connection to come into force from September 1, providing non-discriminatory access when connecting to main gas pipelines (approved by government decree No. 1898 of November 1, 2021). “The implementation of the above instructions of the president and the entry into force of the rules will make it possible to ensure that the Volkhov-Belokamenka gas pipeline branch under construction for the implementation of the LNG project is connected to the main gas pipeline in the amount of transport capacity necessary for the construction of the LNG plant,” the company concluded.

Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market believe that the fears of independent producers are partially justified. “In fact, the methodology offers a different way to increase tariffs instead of direct indexation. When transporting gas within one region, the new approach does not differ fundamentally from the previous one. At the same time, the methodology introduces the concept of a “macrozone”, and the total tariff (rate for entry, plus rate for crossing macrozones, plus rate for exit) is tied to regional netbacks, which, in turn, formally include regulated wholesale gas prices for industrial consumers in the region,” one of them explains.

However, there are still reasons for changing the methodology. Still, transport tariffs have not been revised since 2015, which led to the fact that Gazprom lost about 800 billion rubles during this period. tariff revenue compared to the situation if tariffs were indexed to inflation. Kommersant’s interlocutors fear that the reduction in transport tariffs, as desired by Rosneft and NOVATEK, will lead to an even greater drop in Gazprom’s income and the impossibility of fully implementing the investment program. They also believe that this discussion should take into account a number of other factors, including the fact that Gazprom carries out seasonal balancing of supplies to the Russian market, acts as a supplier of last resort, conducts expensive social gasification, and takes on the bulk of unprofitable supplies to the population .

Sergei Kondratiev of the Energy and Finance Institute notes that the new methodology lacks long-term tariff regulation, which would allow Gazprom, independent gas producers and consumers to plan their activities. There are also no incentives to improve the efficiency of Gazprom’s transport business, he said: “The formation of a tariff on the principle of” costs plus “remains the basic idea, which means that tariffs will grow, and probably above inflation.”

Tatyana Dyatel, Dmitry Kozlov