Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 19 2020

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Gazprom reports new Kara Sea find
RUSSIA
Despite low oil prices, Gazprom has continued exploring the offshore Russian Arctic.
RUSSIA’S Gazprom has announced the official discovery of a large gas field in the far north Kara Sea, naming it in commemoration of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War 2.
The company drilled a well at the Shuratovsky licence area off the coast of the Yamal Penin- sula last year, achieving a commercial flow rate of 746,000 cubic metres per day. It submitted the well results to Russia’s Federal Subsoil Use Agency (Rosnedra) in March 2020.
The field has been named 75 Let Pobedy, which translates as 75 Years of Victory, to mark the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surren- der to the allies on May 9. Its recoverable reserves are assessed at 200bn cubic metres.
Market conditions over the past six years have made it commercially unfeasible for Rus- sia to bring any new offshore Arctic production on stream. The government has conceded that it does not expect any new projects to be launched
before 2030.
Despite the weak outlook, Gazprom has con-
tinued to explore the region, chalking up several successes. In May last year it reported two new Kara Sea discoveries, Dinkov and Nyarmeiskoye, containing more than 510 bcm of gas combined. The company’s other major deposits include Leningradskoye and Rusanovskoye.
Gazprom is currently developing new onshore projects on the Yamal Peninsula, and it hopes to use their infrastructure to exploit offshore deposits near the shore in the future. Its first offshore target is the Kamennomys- skoye-more field, which it aims to bring on stream in 2025. The field is in shallow waters very close to the Yamal shore in the Gulf of Ob.
Gazprom shot a 3D seismic survey at the Shuratovsky block in 2014. It drilled the 2019 well using its Arkticheskaya jack-up rig. ™
Contractor halts work at Chayandinskoye field
RUSSIA
Chayandinskoye is due to ramp up production to 25 bcm per year by 2022-2023.
RUSSIA’S Gazprom has said that its main East- ern Siberian field continues to pump gas to China as planned, despite a worsening outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) that led its contrac- tor to suspend all work at the site last week.
The Chayandinskoye field in the Yakutia region has become a hotspot for COVID-19 cases in Russia, and a partial lockdown was imposed in mid-April. Earlier, health authori- ties warned that as many as 3,000 workers were thought to have contracted the disease.
Yakutia authorities said on May 5 that same number of shift personnel would be removed from the site by May 10. So far 917 have been evacuated, of which 168 have been hospitalised.
Stroytransneftegaz, Gazprom’s general con- tractor at Chayandinskoye, told Russia’s RBC news agency on May 6 that it had suspended work and would not resume operations until the lockdown had been lifted.
Chayandinskoye has been delivering gas to China via the Power of Siberia since December, when the pipeline was brought on stream. Gaz- prom is currently building new facilities to ramp up the field’s production to 25bn cubic metres per year by 2022-23.
“At present, the timeframe for commission- ing facilities at the Chayandinskoye field remains unchanged,” Gazprom told Russia’s TASS news
agency last week. “Gas is supplied to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline in accordance with the contract.”
That contract, signed in 2014 with China’s CNPC, calls for a growth in annual gas ship- ments to 38 bcm per year. The level is predicted to be reached in 2025. In addition to Chayandin- skoye, Gazprom is also preparing the Kovytkin- skoye field in the Irkutsk region to start flowing gas to China in 2023. It too will pump 25 bcm per year at full capacity.
Russia has confirmed almost 188,000 cases of COVID-19 and has recorded 1,723 deaths, as of May8.™
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Week 19 13•May•2020