Gazprom’s Arctic reserves expected to grow

Over the next several years, Gazprom’s Arctic shelf reserves may more than double, the head of Gazprom’s department for offshore deposits, Vadim Petrenko, told the conference “The Russian Fuel and Energy Complex in the 21st Century” on Tuesday, April 22. It is expected that hydrocarbon reserves will grow by 130% after large-scale geological research which will be conducted mainly at new blocks. Deposits of the Kara Sea are likely to be especially promising.

Currently, Gazprom and its subsidiaries hold licenses to use 36 blocks in the seas of Kara, Barents, Okhotsk and Azov. Licenses for another three blocks should be received this year. After geological research at new licensed blocks and reserve assessment, it takes 8-10 years to develop a project, make equipment and carry out all construction and preparatory works before the launch of a deposit, said Petrenko. What’s more, there are no approved technologies to prepare production at 90% of the promising oil and gas fields, taking into account their climates and remoteness. “In these conditions, we have to pay special attention to diminishing risks and increasing the effectiveness of offshore projects, taking the best approaches at all levels of project implementation”, said Petrenko.

Last Friday, first oil was loaded from the Prirazlomnoye deposit, which is Russia’s first Arctic hydrocarbon project. The Prirazlomnaya platform can drill four to six well per annum, and it can produce and load up to 6mn tons of oil per annum.

For servicing offshore projects, Gazprom subsidiaries use the main base in Murmansk and the auxiliary bases in Yamburg and Varandeya. Currently a comprehensive plan to set up central and regional bases for offshore projects is being developed. Under the Barents-2020 project, Gazprom has prepared a list of 130 international normative documents for Arctic offshore projects.

Copyright: Oil&Gas Eurasia, 2014