Novatek Gas Output Climbs 3.6% in 2020
Natural gas production at Russia's Novatek increased 3.6% in 2020 to 77.4bn m3, the company reported on January 18, while its overall hydrocarbon output climbed 2.8% to 1.66mn barrels of oil equivalent/day.
The private gas supplier increased domestic gas sales by 1.6% last year to 66.7bn m3. But the volume it sold on international markets dropped 30.2% to 8.9bn m3. Rather than reflecting market developments last year, this decline can be explained by the fact that Novatek bought and re-sold more gas from the Yamal LNG project on a spot basis in 2019, as some long-term supply contracts had not yet come into force. These long-term contracts are directly between buyers and Yamal LNG, rather than its shareholders, and Novatek does not consolidate the project's sales results with its own.
Yamal LNG's other shareholders are France's Total and China's CNPC and Silk Road Fund. The plant has a nameplate capacity of 16.5mn metric tons/year, but actual output exceeds 17mn mt/yr.