Novatek Announces Major Offshore Gas Find in Russian Arctic

Russian gas and LNG firm Novatek announced Wednesday that it has found a major new gas field in the Gulf of Ob, just off the Yamal Peninsula in the Russian Arctic. 

The new North-Obskoye field has estimated reserves of more than 320 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, and its total resources are estimated at more than 900 bcm. These reserves estimates will be submitted to the Russian State Reserves commission for confirmation in November 2018.

"The discovery of significant hydrocarbon reserves at the North-Obskoye field is an important starting point for one of our future LNG projects in the Arctic region,” said Novatek chairman Leonid Mikhelson, in a statement. “Under the Russian reserve classification, the North-Obskoye field will be included into the 'unique' category in terms of reserves size. The favorable geographical location of the field, its huge resource base and our accumulated LNG experience are important prerequisites to successfully implement this new LNG project."

If the results are proven, the field will provide a major boost for Novatek's proposed Arctic LNG 2 export plant, which will be located just across the Gulf of Ob from the existing Yamal LNG site. French oil major Total has agreed to take a 10 percent interest in the new project, paralleling its early investment in Yamal. 

The current plan for Arctic LNG 2 calls for three "gravity-based structures" to be deployed in the Gulf of Ob, each of which will support one 6.6 mpta gas liquefaction train. If the plan receives a positive final investment decision and proceeds on schedule, it would begin production in late 2023. It will draw on the two trillion cubic meters of gas reserves available from the onshore Utrenneye gas field, but the North-Obskoye find greatly increases the site's potential.