Novatek Wins Licence Pair in North Russia
Novatek has won development rights to two new oil and gas blocks in northern Russia, it reported on December 17.
The South Yamburg licence area is in the Yamalo-Nenets region of Western Siberia, near the North Urengoi field which Novatek operates through a joint venture with Gazprom Neft. It holds 506bn m3 of gas and 4.3bn boe of liquids, according to Russia’s resource classification system, Novatek said. Russia's system does not consider the cost of production.
The East Ladertoysky block lies further north on the Gydan Peninsula, bordering Novatek’s Ladertoysky, Nyavuyahsky, West Solpatinsky and Central Nadoyakhsky licence areas. Gydan is the site of Novatek’s next major LNG export project, Arctic LNG-2. East Ladertoysky contains 184bn m3 of gas and 1.5bn boe of liquids.
Both exploration and production licences are valid for 25 years. Novatek paid rubles 1.07bn ($17mn) for rights to South Yamburg, and rubles 81mn for East Ladertoysky.