Rosneft Eyes Arctic Gas Fields: Press
Rosneft has requested that the Russian government auction off rights to three gas fields in the Arctic that it wants to tie together with its Vostok Oil megaproject, Russia's RBC news agency reported on June 3. But the proposed bidding conditions would rule out all other companies.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin made the request in a letter to Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, a copy of which was seen by RBC. The fields, Ushakovskoye, Deryabinskoye and Kazantsevskoye, are situated in the north of the Krasnoyarsk region and hold 128bn m3 of gas, according to the news agency.
Vostok Oil brings together Rosneft's Vankor oilfields, private firm Neftegazholding's Paiyakha fields and deposits controlled by Yermak-Neftegaz, a joint venture between Rosneft and BP. While the project is primarily oil-focused, its fields also hold 0.5 trillion m3 in gas resources, according to subsoil agency Rosnedra.
Sechin proposed auction terms that require participants to already have production in northern Krasnoyarsk, which would limit candidates to Rosneft. The fields are far removed from Russia's national gas grid, and the Rosneft head suggested that offered licences require produced gas to be transported along the Northern Sea Route, the development of which has been listed as a national priority. This would bring Rosneft into competition with privately-held Novatek, if the former is able to develop LNG.