The Yamal Peninsula is Gazprom’s treasure chamber. Here, the company might have up to 10 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.
The company is now working intensively to develop the area. A railway will link the biggest of the regional fields – the Bovanenkovskoe – with the Russian railway grid. The Bovanenkovskoe-Ob railway is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. The field is to be in production in 2011.
Railway, pipeline
In addition, a pipeline will link the field with the rest of the company’s pipeline grid. The 1,100 km long pipeline will stretch towards the west and connect with the pipeline grid in Ukhta (Komi Republic).
Gazprom only in 2008 invests more than 100 billion RUB in the Yamal projects, deputy governor in the Yamal-Nenets Okrug, Viktor Kazarin, says in an interview with Sever Press.
The way to the shelf
The Yamal is vital for Gazprom, which will need the resources in the region to meet its goals for increased gas production. When in operation, the fields in the region are planned to produc up to 250 billion cubic meters per year, and thus enable Gazprom to produce a total of up to 600 billion cubic meters by year before year 2020.
According to Deputy Governor Kazarin, the development of the Bovanenkovskoe field is unique also for its high focus on environmental issues. He says Gazprom is spending an unprecedented 17 percent of the project’s budget on environmental protection measures.
The Yamal will provide Gazprom with huge new resources. Furthermore, Yamal can also be seen as a major step towards the gas resources in the Barents and Kara Seas. Only in the waters around the peninsula several major fields have been discovered.
Together with the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea, the fields in Yamal also show a growing Russian focus on the energy resources in the High North. Today is only the start. In a few decades, a substantial part of Russian hydrocarbon production will take place north of the Arctic Circle.
Read more about developments at Yamal in BarentsObserver’s Yamal section
