LNG

Gazprom, the Russian natural gas company, said it made a yet another new gas discovery on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia, close to the largest Russian LNG export plant run by rival operator Novatek.

Gazprom explained that the discovery was made as a result of drilling and testing of an exploratory well on Yamal and a commercial gas inflow was obtained with a flow rate of about 600,000 cubic metres per day.

“This proves that the new deposit contains substantial amounts of gas. Therefore, the field's commercial value is now much higher than before,” said the Russian company.

Novatek’s Yamal plant has three liquefaction Trains on stream, each with nameplate capacity of 5.5 million tonnes per annum.

A smaller fourth Train at Yamal is currently being completed and will produce 900,000 tonnes per annum, taking overall production to 17.4 MTPA.

Gazprom said that its latest discovery for future pipeline gas sales marked the fourth major discovery it had made on the shelf of the Yamal Peninsula in the Kara Sea over the last two years.

The company will calculate the newly-discovered reserves of the Leningradskoye field and present the findings to the State Reserves Commission in order to record them in the state register.

The Leningradskoye gas and condensate field is located in the Kara Sea within the Leningradsky licensed block .

The field's current recoverable gas reserves are estimated to total 1.9 trillion cubic metres and are classified as unique in size.

In 2019, Gazprom discovered the Dinkov and Nyarmeyskoye fields, also on the shelf of the Yamal Peninsula.

Then in 2020, the company discovered the “75 Years of Victory” field on the Yamal shelf.

The Dinkov field is situated within the Rusanovsky licensed block.

The field is unique in terms of gas reserves. Its recoverable reserves in the С1+С2 categories amount to 390.7 billion cubic metres.

The Nyarmeyskoye field is located within the Nyarmeysky licensed block.

In terms of gas reserves, it is a large field with the recoverable amount of 120.8 billion cubic metres in the С1+С2 categories.

The “75 Years of Victory” field is situated within the Skuratovskaya prospect.

From the point of view of gas reserves, the field is classified as large: its recoverable gas reserves in the С1+С2 categories total 202.4 billion cubic metres.

Gazprom also has a subsurface use license for the Rusanovskoye field on the Yamal shelf.

The number of gas field in the area amount to 32 discoveries.

Total reserves and resources of all fields in the Yamal Peninsula amount to over 26.5 trillion cubic metres of gas, 1.6 billion tons of gas condensate and 300 million tons of oil.

Gazprom’s pipeline natural gas production in Yamal in 2019 came to 96.3 billion cubic metres. The future prospects for Yamal pipeline gas output is up to 360 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

Gazprom said that overcoming Yamal’s harsh climate and environment, has made the shelf the launch pad for efficient, safe and innovative technologies and technical solutions.

“The Yamal mega-project is unparalleled in terms of complexity, as its hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in a hard-to-reach area with exceedingly difficult climatic conditions,” explained Gazprom.

The region is characterized by permafrost, long winters, and low mean temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius.

In summer, 80 percent of Yamal’s territory is covered by lakes, swamps and rivers, which considerably limits the possibilities for industrial construction.

Gazprom has been employing efficient, safe and innovative technologies and technical solutions in Yamal.

Many of those innovations were developed at the company’s request by leading Russian research institutions and companies.

Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping line with 16 LNG carriers and an overall fleet of 147 vessels, said its revenues rose by 5.7 percent in the third quarter amid expectations more newbuilds will be ordered to deliver cargoes from the second Arctic LNG export plant proposed by Novatek and its international partners.