Gazprom To Ramp Up Kovykta Drilling
Gazprom aims to start development drilling of its east Siberian ‘Kovykta’ gas field next year.
The Russian gas giant said October 19 this is part of its plan to achieve full-scale production there; it intends to start feeding gas from Kovykta (or Kovyktinskoye) field into the Power of Siberia gas pipeline in late 2022. Gazprom said in 2018 that it had constructed four exploratory wells and performed 3D seismic surveys covering 2,460 km2. Geological exploration is in full swing, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller told the governor of the surrounding Irkutsk region, Sergey Levchenko.
In 2019, Gazprom intends to prepare sites for production wells and to start drilling, Miller added.
Gazprom’s Kovykta webpage says the field has 2.7 trillion m3 gas and 90.6mn metric tons condensate of recoverable reserves, and its design production capacity is 25bn m3/yr. It was discovered in 1987 by a subsidiary of independent TNK-BP, but ceded to Gazprom in 2011.
Miller and Levchenko also addressed issues related to gas infrastructure expansion, including the promotion of natural gas vehicles (NGVs), in the Irkutsk region. Natural gas penetration in that region is only 8.1% of the population, with one Gazprom-run CNG filling station located there in Bratsk.
Gazprom has said that mainly Russian technology will be used in the Amur gas process plant; the latter will receive gas from the Kovykta and Chayanda (Chayandinskoye) gas fields of eastern Siberia and feed it into the 38bn m3/yr Power of Siberia pipeline. It will however use German technology from Linde for a plant to refine helium from the gas stream, expected to be the world’s largest helium production facility, of up to 60mn m³/yr.
Map and banner photo of exploration drilling at Kovykta are courtesy of Gazprom