Gazprom Beats Rivals in Siberian Licence Contest
Russia’s Gazprom has outbid rivals Novatek and Rosneft for development rights to a gas block in Western Siberia’s Yamalo-Nenets region, state subsoil agency Rosnedra said on January 20.
The 2,500-km2 Sopochny block holds 261bn m3 of gas and 9.8mn mt of condensate, according to Russia’s resource classification system.
Gazprom secured a 25-year exploration and production licence for the area after offering to pay rubles 12.14bn ($197mn) in a state auction. Competition with Novatek and Rosneft was fierce, driving up the price of the licence from an initial rubles 0.38bn.
Rosneft also won a separate auction this week to develop two other Yamalo-Nenets blocks, Mitikyakhsky-1 and West-Kharampursky, containing 19.6mn mt (144mn barrels) of oil.