Gazprom Neft Snaps up Arctic Gas Field
Russia’s Gazprom Neft has secured a 30-year licence for a gas and condensate field on the Yamal Peninsula, expanding its Arctic footprint.
The company announced in a statement on December 5 it had won an auction for exploration rights to a 340-km3 area containing the Khambateyskoye field. The deposit is situated on the eastern shore of Yamal, around 60-65 km north from Gazprom Neft’s Novoportovskoye oil project. Its recoverable reserves are assessed at 34bn m3 of gas and 2.6mn mt of condensate.
Gazprom Neft aims to continue exploration at the site until 2022 and is targeting first production in 2026.
To date, Gazprom Neft has focused mostly on oil development in the Arctic, but its focus is now shifting more towards gas. It plans to build a 115-km gas pipeline from Novoportovskoye across the Gulf of Ob, enabling it to pump the field’s gas into Russia’s national gas system.
Novoportovskoye holds 250mn mt of oil and condensate, producing around 160,000 b/day of liquids. But it also contains 320bn m3 of undeveloped gas.
In August Gazprom Neft was also awarded exploration rights to a dozen blocks on the remote and scarcely explored Taymyr Peninsula, situated further east from Yamal.