Gazprom accelerating coalbed methane project in Siberia
KEMEROVO. July 28 (Interfax) - LLC Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk, a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom , plans to achieve design capacity of 4 billion cubic meters annually for production coalbed methane in the Kuznetsk Coal Basin by 2020, the Kemerovo regional administration said in a statement.
It was previously reported that Gazprom planned to achieve this figure by 2025. The regional administration did not specify the reasons for the project's acceleration by five years. Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk officials were not available for comment.
The company plans to launch 14 new wells in 2015, the statement said. A source at the company told Interfax earlier that Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk now operates more than 30 coalbed methane wells.
It was reported earlier that Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk planned to start commercial gas production at the Taldinskoye deposit in 2016 and at the Naryksko-Ostashkinskaya field in 2018, and that production drilling at the Tutuyassko-Raspadskaya coalbed methane field in 2020 at the earliest.
Taldinskoye has C1+C2 category reserves of 74.2 bcm of methane, while Naryksko-Ostashkinskaya and Tutuyassko-Raspadskaya have forecast reserves estimated at 300 bcm and 250 bcm respectively.
Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk, founded in 2008, explores for and conducts non-commercial production of coalbed methane in the Kuznetsk Basin in Siberia.