The company has started the drilling of its first well as the field located in the Yamal Peninsula about 30 km from the Ob Bay. Another four wells will be drilled in the course of the year, the company informs in a press release.
Gazprom Neft intends to export all the oil extracted at the Novoportskoye field through the Northern Sea Route. The company plans to build a new port at the Cape Kammeny in the Ob Bay. A test sailing mission with the nuclear-powered icebreaker Vaigach in late 2011 showed that the site can be used for the purpose. The Ob waters are in winter covered by ice with a thickness of up to two meters and the ice-free season lasts only about three months.
Gazprom Neft’s planned terminal at Cape Kammeny is located about 400 km south of the Sabetta Port, the site where Novatek is planning its Yamal LNG plant together with French energy major Total.
However, the company at the same time considers to build a railway connection to Gazprom’s Bovanenkovo-Ob railway, the line which was completed in 2011 in connection with the development of the huge Bovanenkovo field.
The new wells drilled by Gazprom Neft are far from the first at the Novoportskoye structure. Since the discovery of the field in 1964 – it was the first field discovered in the peninsula – a total of 146 wells have been drilled at the site.
The Novoportskoye field is with its about 222 million tons of oil reserves and 211 million tons of condensate reserves, one of the biggest oil fields in the Yamal Peninsula. Gazprom Neft, which recently took over the field license from Gazprom, intends to develop the field by 2014 and reach an annual peak production of up to nine million tons by year 2020.
