Novatek Output Up, Reports Well Success

Russian independent Novatek's hydrocarbons production of 402.2mn barrels of oil equivalent in the first nine months of the year was up by 4.9% on the same period last year, it said October 10. In the 9 months of 2018, it produced 50.31bn m³, up 6.3% compared with last year.

Preliminary natural gas sales volumes, including LNG, were 51bn m³, 8.5% up on 2017. The LNG sales volumes amounted to 3.43bn m³.

As of September 30, Novatek had 2.4bn m³ gas, including LNG, and 645,000 metric tons of gas condensate and petroleum products in storage or transit and recognised as inventory.

Novatek announced the same day that its wholly owned subsidiary Arctic LNG 3 has completed the testing of the first exploration well at the North Ob licence area in the shallow waters of the Ob Bay. The drilling and testing results confirmed that a new natural gas and gas condensate field was discovered, it said.

The North Ob field has estimated reserves of more than 320bn m³ gas under Russian reserve classification, and its total resources at the drilled well area are estimated at more than 900bn m³. The reserves estimates will be submitted to the government for confirmation in next month.

"The discovery of significant hydrocarbon reserves at the North Ob field is an important starting point for one of our future LNG projects in the Arctic region,” Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson noted.