Novatek Starts Up New Gas Field

Russia’s leading private gas producer Novatek reported on July 24 the commercial launch of the South-Khadyryakhinskoye gas field in the prolific Yamalo-Nenets region in Western Siberia.

The  project is capable of flowing 1bn m³/yr of gas, Novatek said.

“The South-Khadyryakhinskoye field is near the company’s infrastructure, which allowed us to quickly start gas production and optimise the field’s capital costs,” Novatek’s chairman Leonid Mikhelson said, noting that the deposit's gas would be sold domestically, rather than be liquefied for export.

South-Khadyryakhinskoye was discovered in 1990 and was acquired by Novatek in late 2017 from a joint venture between Spain’s Repsol and Russia’s Neftegazholding. It held 28bn m³ of gas resources under Russian classifications at the end of last year, according to Novatek.

Novatek bought a number of small-sized gas fields in Yamalo-Nenets in 2017 to arrest production decline ahead of the launch of the Yamal LNG terminal at the end of that year. Yamal LNG was largely to thank for a 13.1% yr/yr climb in the company's hydrocarbon output in the second quarter.