In Case You Missed It -- June 2, 2015

From FuelFix:

OAO Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia’s state-run gas exporter, said commercial production from its Bazhenov shale formations could start in three years amid U.S. sanctions limiting the transfer of fracking technology.

The company aims to produce about 40,000 barrels of crude a day from the deposits from 2018. That’s about 2.7 percent of Gazprom Neft’s daily first-quarter output of 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Russia’s efforts to replicate North Dakota’s Bakken shale boom are being hindered by the U.S. ban on exports of equipment and technology after Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the insurgency in Ukraine.

While that has stalled ventures involving Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia can still extract smaller volumes through hydraulic fracturing.

Bazhenov is a layer of ancient organic matter that’s the source rock for most of the crude pumped in West Siberia. That gives the formation the advantage of being close to pipelines serving Russia’s largest oil-producing region.

I occasionally track the Bazhenov at this post, which is also linked at the sidebar at the right, but you have to scroll down quite a ways to find it.