Russ Oil-Gas

April 19, 2008 - Russia Today - The gas fields of Yamalo-Nenets account for more than 90 per cent of Russia’s gas output and about 20 per cent of global production. The 200 fields in this western Siberian region are owned and operated by Gazprom and its subsidiaries. But Russia’s gas leviathan says it’s time to find fresh reserves of natural gas in the energy-rich region. The Yamal peninsula is at the edge of the Earth, according to locals. But despite the remote location, this automous Russian region is at the heart of the country’s strategic gas reserves. Layers of permafrost hide trillions of cubic metres of gas – both Russia’s and Europe’s energy lifeline for years to come. This makes the Yamal peninsula a strategic gas resource for Gazprom and one of the most promising gas-bearing regions in West Siberia. So far, 26 fields have been discovered in Yamal containing more than 10 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves. “Gazprom aims at increasing natural gas output to satisfy both domestic and foreign demand. That’s why the Yamal peninsula is of strategic importance for us,” the company’s representative, Igor Morozov, said. Gazprom teamed up with the government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous district to launch a sweeping development programme for the oil and gas fields of Yamal and its offshore areas until 2030. It starts with the exploration of the Bovanenkovskoye field - one of the peninsula’s largest gas deposits. “Our investment programme includes three stages - construction of field facilities at the Bovanenkovskoye gas deposit, construction of the pipeline of more than a thousand kilometers and a railway line of 500 kilometers,” Dmitry Boikov from the Yamal development department said. Gazprom plans to spend $US 40 billion building the necessary infrastructure. In the next decade, vast areas of wild tundra will turn into an industrial region with an LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant and even its own airport. Gas extraction is set to start in 2011. The potential capacity of the deposit is estimated at 140 billion cubic metres a year - enough to warm up both Russia and the West.