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FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Norilsk Nickel eyes

Taymyr gas field

RUSSIA RUSSIAN mining giant Norilsk Nickel has asked more gas.
authorities to set aside a gas field on Russia’s far Ushakovskoye is one of three Taymyr gas
Ushakovskoye is one of northern Taymyr Peninsula to generate extra fields that Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin asked the
three fields that Rosneft power for its facilities in the region, Vedomosti government last month to auction off to support
wants for its Vostok Oil reported on July 19. its Vostok Oil megaproject. Vostok Oil consists
project. The Ushakovskoye field is situated in the of the Paiyakhskoye field and several other large
north-west of the Krasnoyarsk region, some oil deposits, which Rosneft estimates could one
100 km from where Rosneft wants to develop a day flow up to 2mn barrels per day (bpd) of
major hub for oil and gas production, known as crude.
the Vostok project. In a letter seen by Vedomosti, In his own letter last month, however, Sechin
the CEO of Norilsk Nickel subsidiary Norilsk- urged the government to offer up rights to the
gazprom, Andrey Chistov, asked Russia’s energy Ushakovskoye, Deryabinskoye and Kazant-
ministry not to auction off rights to the deposit, sevskoye gas fields, in order to establish LNG
to ensure that its gas is used locally. production in the region as well.
The Norilsk industrial area is currently Sechin proposed auction terms that would
supplied with gas from the Pelyatkinskoye, prevent companies that do not have production
South-Soleninskoye, North-Soleninskoye and assets from participating, and that would stipu-
Messoyakhskoye fields, which contain 247bn late that the gas should be used to produce LNG
cubic metres of gas. They produce around 3 bcm for export. This would make Rosneft the only
of gas per year. eligible candidate.
In the letter, though, Chistov warns that gas Alexander Frolov, deputy director of Russia’s
demand in the area will reach 4.5 bcm per year National Energy Institute, disputed Chistov’s
by 2030, and that there could be shortages in claim that gas demand in the Norilsk area would
the late 2030s. Norilsk lacks any connection to grow, estimating that it would instead contract.
Russia’s national grid. The CEO says that Ush- This is largely owing to an expansion in hydroe-
akovskoye’s development could help avoid this lectric power generation.
outcome. Norilsk Nickel has been attracting a lot of
Norilskgazprom also asked subsoil licensing negative attention over the last two months, after
agency Rosnedra in June to expand the areas one of the largest Arctic diesel spills on record
covered by its licences for the North-Solenin- occurred at one of its facilities. The company is
skoye and Pelyatkinskoye fields, to help recover contesting a RUB148bn ($2.1bn) fine. ™

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