Gazprom Neft : Arctic oil accounts for more than 30% of Gazprom Neft’s total production

Arctic oil accounts for more than 30% of Gazprom Neft's total production

18 March 2021	Category: arctic

Gazprom Neft has maintained momentum in its development of the Arctic, with production at fields beyond the Arctic Circle comprising 31% of the company's total hydrocarbon production.

The company's most important Arctic asset is the Novoportovskoye field, on the Yamal Peninsula, where 14.87 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) were produced in 2020 - a 5% increase on 2019. As well as direct production growth, this increase is also down to greater use of associated petroleum gas (APG) - i.e., in using technologies to allow the gas produced to be directly reinjected into subsoil strata to maintain reservoir pressure. Pre-commissioning works on expanding the integrated gas treatment plant (GTP) are expected to start in 2021. Target capacity at this facility is 15.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year.

2020 production volumes were up 10% at the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field (under development by Gazprom Neft and Rosneft on the Yamalo- Nenets Autonomous Okrug's Gydan Peninsula), reaching 6.2 mtoe. This increase is the result of hard-to-recover reserves being brought into development through new wells being drilled, together with the digitalisation of key operational processes. Project operator Messoyakhaneftegaz is expected to continue prospecting for new promising reserves in the north of the Messoyakha group of fields throughout 2021.

2020 saw a unique project implemented on Messoyakha, involving APG produced at the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field being injected into an underground gas reservoirs at the Zapadno-Messoyakhskoye field. More than 700 million cubic metres of gas has already been injected into

Zapadno-Messoyakhskoye strata so far.

The Prirazlomnoye field in the Barents Sea saw 3.27 million tonnes of oil produced in 2020, a 3% increase on 2019. The "Arctichesky" heliport at the Varandey shift camp was commissioned in 2020, part of transport-logistics infrastructure on the Prirazlomnoye project. This facility, which connects the Prirazlomnoye platform with the mainland, is one of the best technologically-equipped heliports in the Arctic Circle. Going forward, the Arctichesky heliport is expected to become a convenient logistics base from which to develop other offshore projects in the Barents Sea.

Concurrently with developing its existing assets, Gazprom Neft is preparing to expand its Arctic cluster through fields currently operated

by Gazpromneft-Zapolyarye, under long-termrisk-operatorship agreements with Gazprom PJSC and its subsidiaries.* On which basis, the company plans to develop Neocomian-Jurassic deposits at the Bovanenkovskoye oil-and-gas-condensate field and the Kharasaveyskoye gas condensate field in the Yamal Peninsula, as well as Achimovsky and oil-rim deposits at the Urengoyskoye oil-and-gas-condensate field. The company's Arctic project portfolio also includes Achimovsky oil deposits in the Yamburgskoye field, and oil-rim deposits at the Petsovskoye, En-Yakhinskoye and Zapadno- Tarkosalinskoye fields, also being developed under long-termrisk-operatorship agreements.

Full-scale development of the Tazovsky field is expected to start in 2021 as part of the development of the Nadym-Pur-Tazovsky region in the Yamalo- Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

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"Fields located beyond the Arctic Circle contributed about a third of the company's total production. Over time, this can only grow, thanks to the development of existing assets, and our expanding our resource base in the Arctic. Developing gas condensate deposits at the giant Bovanenkovskoye, Kharasaveyskoye and Urengoyskoye fields in Yamal is going to prove a major growth point for us over the next decade. For that reason, the Arctic will remain a key production centre for us. We will continue looking for new development opportunities in this region, and deploying new technologies to increase efficiency in working under harsh conditions."

VADIM YAKOVLEV

Deputy CEO for Upstream, Gazprom Neft

production prirazlomnoye fieldprirazlomnoye field messoyakha novoportovskoye field