courtesy ExxonMobil

U.K.-based Eastern Siberia producer Urals Energy said it posted a $13 million operating loss in first-half 2007, or about the value of oil not shipped due to late-breaking ice and June storms off eastern Russia.

Despite the delayed sales, company managers aid they were on-track for 12,000 barrels of oil per day by year-end and 15,000 bpd by the close of 2008. After paying down $60 million in debt, Goldman Sachs provided a $130 million project loan on the strengh of a swell of production nearly to ship from the Russian Far East.

While equipment is hired and company business Dulisma plans developments, the all-important Transneft oil pipeline — the Eastern Siberia to Pacific Ocean trunkline, or ESPO — is “progressing as planned” and will allow “full-scale production” near 30,000 bpd from early in 2009.

“Eastern Siberia has some of the best reserves in Russia and, when combined with 10-year tax breaks in the region and a direct export route … there is a clear rational for our focus there,” a company statement said.

Another Urals busines, Petrosakh, is processing seismic on Sakhalin Island and drilling a production well. Its Sakhalin flows now total 2,981 bpd. Urals production is set to increase elsewhere, including at Timan-Pechora, where seven new wells will be drilled in second-half 2007.

ws@scandoil.com