Page 9 - GLNG Week 16 2021

GLNG EUROPE GLNG

Novatek makes another bid

for Gazprom’s Tambey fields

INVESTMENT RUSSIA’S largest LNG producer Novatek is
once again in discussions with the Russian gov-
ernment to acquire the Tambey group of fields
on the Yamal Peninsula, currently belonging to
Gazprom. Novatek CEO and major shareholder
Leonid Mikhelson proposed the move in a meet-
ing with Russian President Vladimir Putin on
April 13, Kommersant reported last week citing
sources.
The undeveloped fields – Tambeyskoye,
Malyginskoye, Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye and Sya-
dorskoye – have been under Gazprom’s control
since 2008, when the company secured rights Novatek’s ambition is
to them without having to bid in a tender. But This said, the Moscow-based brokerage views to produce up to 70mn
the company is yet to sign off on a development it as unlikely that Novatek’s bid will succeed, tonnes per year of LNG
plan, and has spurned repeated requests from noting it was the second time that the company by 2030, all at projects
Novatek to form a partnership to use the gas had made such a proposal. “But the effort shows on the Yamal and
to underpin LNG exports. Gazprom instead that the company is still thinking very big,” its neighbouring Gydan
favours using the fields for pipeline gas exports, analysts said. peninsulas.
either to its main market Europe or to China via
the proposed Power of Siberia 2. Differing supply plans
The Tambey group holds 7.3 trillion cubic Novatek’s ambition is to produce up to 70mn
metres of gas, according to state estimates, tonnes per year of LNG by 2030, all at projects
including 2.5 tcm in C1 reserves and 4.8 tcm in on the Yamal and neighbouring Gydan penin-
C2 reserves. Gazprom head Alexei Miller has sulas. Its 17mn tpy Yamal LNG facility, online
described them as a world-class project, even since December 2017, will be joined in 2023 by
though the company apparently cannot settle the 19.8mn tpy Arctic LNG-2 plant. It is also
on a feasible means of developing them. hoping to launch the 5-6mn tpy Obsk LNG in
His rival Mikhelson managed to convince 2024, pending a final investment decision (FID),
Putin in their latest meeting that it is strategi- and also has plans for two more 20mn tpy pro-
cally more profitable for Russia that the assets jects in the region, known as Arctic LNG-1 and
are used for LNG rather than pipe exports, Arctic LNG-3.
Kommersant sources claimed. Previously the According to Russia’s LNG development
Russian billionaire had offered to pay for the roadmap, approved last month, the Tambey
fields partly in cash and partly in Novatek shares, cluster could support a further 20mn tpy of
According to of which nearly 10% are already controlled by LNG exports.
Gazprom. But Gazprom is still opposed to the
Gazprom has its own ambitions for the gas,
Russia’s LNG deal, according to Kommersant. however. Besides supplementing its existing
The Tambey fields contain significant supply to Europe, the company also wants to use
development amounts of so-called wet gas, with a high ethane the gas on Yamal to underpin 50bn cubic metres
roadmap, content. per year of exports to China via a second Power
“This presents a problem for pipeline use – of Siberia pipeline, through Mongolia.
approved last albeit not insurmountable – but separating out The company said on April 12 it had com-
these liquids and selling them separately is a pleted its pre-feasibility study for the project,
month, the relatively easy part of the gas liquefaction pro- determining the optimal route for the Mon-

Tambey cluster cess,” analysts at BCS Global Markets wrote in a golian section known as Soyuz Vostok. It will
research note this week.
stretch 1,000 km from eastern Mongolia, pass-
Russian petrochemicals group Sibur, which ing the capital city Ulaanbaatar.
could support a also counts Mikhelson as a shareholder, has also Gazprom’s first Power of Siberia pipeline
further 20mn tpy weighed in. In December, the company’s head, carries gas from the company’s fields in eastern
Dmitry Konov, proposed to Putin that ethane Siberia, which are separate from the rest of the
of LNG exports. in the Tambey fields be separated through gas national gas transport system. Power of Siberia
liquefaction. 2, on the other hand, will pump gas from the
“Novatek’s Yamal LNG project, developing company’s Yamal and other Western Siberia
the geologically separate South Tambey field, is fields, which are mostly used to meet European
nearby, giving the company a base from which demand. This will give Gazprom greater flexi-
to relatively efficiently develop the Tambey clus- bility to divert its output to wherever demand is
ter,” BCS GM said. stronger and prices are higher.™

Week 16 23•April•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9