Arctic Oil in the Total Production of Gazprom Neft Exceeds 30%

In 2020, Gazprom Neft has maintained the pace of development in the Arctic. Production at fields beyond the Arctic Circle accounted for 31% of the company’s total hydrocarbon volume.

The company’s largest Arctic asset is the Novoportovskoye field on the Yamal Peninsula. Here, in 2020, 14.87 million tons of oil equivalent were produced, which is 5% higher than the result of 2019. The increase in production volumes was due to the increase in production and the use of associated petroleum gas – the use of the technology of pumping the produced gas back into the underground horizons to maintain reservoir pressure. In 2021, it is planned to start start-up and commissioning of the expansion of the integrated gas treatment unit (CTP). The capacity of the upgraded CGTP will be 15.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

At the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field, which Gazprom Neft is developing on the Gydan Peninsula of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug together with Rosneft, production in 2020 increased by more than 10% to 6.2 million toe. The increase was achieved due to the drilling of new wells involving the development of hard-to-recover reserves, as well as through the use of digitalization of key operational processes. In 2021, the operator of the field, Messoyakhaneftegaz, will continue to search for new promising reserves in the northern part of the Messoyakhskaya group of fields.

In 2020, Messoyakha implemented a unique project for injecting associated petroleum gas produced at the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field into an underground storage facility located in undeveloped gas reservoirs of the Zapadno-Messoyakhskoye field. To date, over 700 million m3 of gas has already been injected into the layers of Western Messoyakha.

The Prirazlomnoye field in the Barents Sea produced 3.27 million tons of oil in 2020, which is 3% more than in  2019. As part of the project for the development of the transport and logistics scheme of the Prirazlomnoye project, in 2020 Gazprom Neft commissioned the Arctic heliport in the Varandey shift camp. The facility connecting the Prirazlomnaya production platform with the mainland is currently one of the most technically equipped heliports in the Arctic Circle. In the future, Arctic may become a convenient logistics base for the development of other offshore projects in the Barents Sea.

In parallel with the development of existing assets, Gazprom Neft is preparing to expand the Arctic cluster at the expense of fields developed by Gazpromneft-Zapolyarye on the basis of long-term risk operator agreements * with PJSC Gazprom and its subsidiaries. Thus, the company plans to develop the Neocomian-Jurassic deposits of the Bovanenkovskoye oil and gas condensate field and the Kharasaveyskoye gas condensate field on the Yamal Peninsula, as well as the Achimov deposits and oil rims of the Urengoyskoye oil and gas condensate field. Additionally, the company’s portfolio of Arctic projects includes the Achimov oil deposits of the Yamburgskoye field, the oil rims of the Pestsovoye, En-Yakhinskoye and West Tarkosalinskoye fields, which are also developed on the basis of long-term risk operator agreements.

As part of the development of the Nadym-Pur-Taz region of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, full-scale development of the Tazovskoye field will begin in 2021.

“The fields located beyond the Arctic Circle brought the company about a third of the total production. Over time, this share will only grow both due to the development of existing fields and due to the expansion of the resource base in the Arctic. A significant point of growth in the new decade for us will be the development of gas condensate deposits in the giant fields of Yamal – Bovanenkovskoye, Kharasaveyskoye and Urengoyskoye. Therefore, the Arctic will continue to remain a key center of our production. We will continue to search for new development opportunities in the region and introduce technologies that increase efficiency in harsh conditions. “

Vadim Yakovlev Deputy General Director of Gazprom Neft for Exploration and Production