The Russian gas monopoly appears to be the winner in the latest round of licenses issued by federal authorities. According to Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy, Gazprom has been granted the licenses to the Nevskoye, Obruchevskoye, Severo-Kharasaveyskoye, Amderminskoye, Zapadno-Sharapovskoye and Leningradskoye fields in the Kara Sea.
The biggest of the fields – the Leningradskoye – holds an estimated 1052 billion cubic meters of gas, RIA Novosti reports. Like in previous cases, the licenses are issued without a tender. Several of the fields, among them the Severo-Kharasaveyskoye, are located in the waters near the Yamal Peninsula, and could potentially be linked up with Gazprom’s existing land-based infrastructure in the area.
Gazprom also appears to be defeating Rosneft in a dispute over eight licenses in the Barents Sea. Rosneft earlier claimed license rights to the fields. However, the Ministry of Natural Resources wants it otherwise and is likely to grant the licenses to Gazprom instead, Vedomosti reports. The licenses to the Vernadskoye, Vasile-Zemelskoye, Luninskoye, Malyginskoye, Severo-Keldinskoye, Iyulitorskoye, Khatyrskoye and Shantarskoye will now most probably become part of Gazprom’s quickly growing Arctic field portifolio.
As previously reported, the two state companies – the only ones entitled to operate in Russian Arctic waters – have over the last year battled eachother over a number of Arctic licenses. Rosneft has openly contested Gazprom’s monopoly position in the field of LNG, while Gazprom is increasingly encroaching on Rosneft’s positions through its subsidiary Gazprom Neft.
According to Igor Sechin and Aleksey Miller, the presidents of Rosneft and Gazprom respectively, the two companies will share responsibilities for the development of several projects both in the Barents Sea and in Russian far eastern waters. According to Minister Donskoy, negotiations between the two companies are continuing. He also confirms that negotiations with the Russian Navy on harmonization of positions are taking place.
