Novatek Wins New Yamal E&P License

Russia’s biggest independent producer Novatek has paid rubles 1.06bn (€14mn) for a 27-yr licence to develop oil and gas in the Nyakhartinskii area in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous region in the north of Russia. The company is well-known as Gazprom's rival in production and sales and has broken its export monopoly in principle by being allowed to sign LNG export deals, but in this case the liquids are the attraction.

The area is near to the Yurkharovskoye field, which Novatek is also developing. As of January 1 this year, recoverable resources of the licence area under the Russian reserve classification methodology amount to 215bn m³ of natural gas and more than 70mn metric tons of liquid hydrocarbons.

Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson noted: “The acquisition of this licence is consistent with our long-term development strategy aimed at efficiently expanding the company’s resource base in our core producing region. It is also important that a significant share of the licence area’s resource base comprises liquid hydrocarbons.”

.

William Powell