Gazprom Announces Arctic Gas Find
Russia's Gazprom reported the discovery of a large gas field in the Kara Sea on May 8, estimating it to contain 200bn m3 of recoverable reserves.
The company drilled a well in 2019 at the Skuratov licence area off the coast of the Yamal Peninsula, achieving a flow rate of 746,000 m3/d. It submitted its results to Russia's minerals agency (Rosnedra) in March, it said in a statement.
The field has been named 75 Let Pobedy (75 Years of Victory), to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Germany on May 9 1945.
Gazprom has continued to drill on Russia's Arctic shelf over the recent years, resulting in several new gas discoveries, despite the fact that market conditions make launching new production in the area uneconomic. Even the Russian government has conceded that no new Arctic offshore projects are likely to come on stream before 2030.
One exception is the Kamennomysskoye-more field, which Gazprom aims to launch in 2025. But this field is in shallow waters, very close to shore in the Gulf of Ob.
The Skuratov block was subject to a 2D seismic campaign in the early 1990s. Gazprom went on to shoot 2,300 km² of 3D seismic work there between 2014 and 2018, in preparation for drilling. In mid-2019 Gazprom said it was planning to sink new wells at Skuratov and the nearby Leningrad blocks.