Rosneft Wins Licence Trio in Remote Arctic
Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft has snapped up licences for three blocks on Russia’s remote and scarcely explored Taymyr peninsula, Interfax reported on December 12.
Rosneft won an auction for the licences after agreeing to pay the state rubles 6.1bn ($97mn), outbidding private firm Surgutneftegaz. The starting price for bids was only rubles 20mn, suggesting a fierce contest.
The Yandoksky block holds 1.4mn mt of oil and 27.6bn m3 of gas, according to Russia’s reserve classification system, while the Severo-Dzhangodsky area holds 1.5mn mt of oil and 20bn m3 of gas, and the Mezeninsky block 4.5mn mt of oil and 26bn m3 of gas.
Taymyr forms part of Russia’s northern Arctic coast, located east of the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas where many of Russia's largest greenfield projects are located . Several oil and gas deposits have been identified in Taymyr's western region, including the Baikalovskoye and Paiyakhskoye fields, where Rosneft is working with BP and Russian independent Neftegazholding respectively. But much of the peninsula remains unexplored.
Rosneft recently secured rights to another Taymyr block bordering Paiyakhskoye, while rival Gazprom Neft has received licences for a dozen more sites on the peninsula.