Rosgeo slightly revises investment program for 2022

MOSCOW. July 15 (Interfax) - Rosgeo has trimmed its investment program for 2022 to 6.5 billion rubles from 7 billion rubles, the Russian state exploration company's CEO, Sergei Gorkov told reporters.

"The budget for 2022 was passed in December. We did the revision in May. Understandably, some projects have been pushed back somewhat, but an investment program of 6.5 billion rubles is still significant for Rosgeo. The largest investment program in previous years was 3.9 billion rubles. Of course, we will do a quarterly adjustment so as to be mobile on making decisions," Gorkov said.

Commenting on postponed projects, he said "they are not fundamental, they primarily concern the [Federal Subsurface Resources Agency's] postponement of drilling of certain wells to 2023."

"As for commercial contracts, frankly we expected there to be a major revision, but so far companies are largely maintaining their plans. There have been changes for some companies, but there are no major changes that are critical for the market," Gorkov said.

He said the "geological exploration market has now slumped by about 10%, and this is more postponement rather than cancellation of contracts."

However, he did not venture to make forecasts. "Everything will depend on the price of oil, gold and polymetallic ores. It's pointless to forecast here right now. At this point we are not seeing a decrease in geological exploration, we're seeing more of a postponement of plans. This applies to both hydrocarbons and solid mineral resources. Perhaps the market will show itself in the second half of the year," Gorkov said.