Lonely "Bovanenkovo"

Gazprom abandoned the comprehensive program for the development of Yamal

The overambitious and expensive program for the comprehensive development of gas fields on the Yamal Peninsula has never matured. Gazprom has been developing this document, which provided tax incentives for the development of a new gas province until 2030, for many years. At the end of last week, the monopolist announced that its board had decided to proceed to the investment stage of the project for the development of Bovanenkovskoye, the largest Yamal field. By October 2011, the field should provide Gazprom's portfolio with at least 15 billion cubic meters. m of gas. The company did not disclose the amount of capital investments in this project, and most importantly, the cost of creating a gas transportation system from the peninsula. Previously, the development of Bovanenkovskoye, taking into account the construction of a gas pipeline system to Ukhta, was estimated at $40 billion. Moreover, about 60% of the investments had to be made before the start of gas supplies. The decision to go to Yamal without a comprehensive program is due to the tough position of the government, which refused to provide tax breaks for it.

Production at Gazprom's main fields in the Nadym-Purtazovsky district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug continues to decline. For example, in the first half of 2006, according to the Ministry of Industry and Energy, the largest mining subsidiary of the concern, Yamburggazdobycha, showed a decline of 4.5% (about 10 billion cubic meters year on year). Meanwhile, back in early June, at the International Gas Congress in Amsterdam, Alexey Miller said that he knew exactly what volume and where the company would produce in order to meet domestic demand and export contracts until 2015. And without commissioning the Yamal fields, this is simply impossible to do (unless by reducing consumption in Russia several times).

The total reserves of the largest fields in Yamal - Bovanenkovskoye and Kharasaveyskoye, as well as Novoportovskoye, the development licenses for which belong to Nadymgazprom - amount to 5.9 trillion cubic meters. m of gas, 100.2 million tons of condensate and 227 million tons of oil. Bringing them to their designed capacity should allow Gazprom to produce 250 billion cubic meters. m of gas annually. The design capacity of Bovanenkovskoye is set at 115 billion cubic meters. m with the possibility of increasing the upper production level by another 25 billion cubic meters.

The company does not disclose the time frame for bringing production at the field to this volume. At the Zapolyarnoye field, which is comparable in size, it took four years from the start of production to reaching maximum capacity. However, at that time Gazprom did not need serious investments in the construction of gas pipelines. Now, in order to transfer the gas produced from this field to the Unified Gas Supply System, it is necessary to build a gas transportation system with a total length of 2,451 km, including a new corridor to Ukhta (1,100 km). The cost of just one string of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta pipe (taking into account the underwater passage through Baydaratskaya Bay) can be estimated at about $10 billion. That is, twice as expensive as the entire Nord Stream project along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Alexey GRIVACHS