Gazprom makes final investment decision on Chayanda - gas production in 2017
MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - OJSC Gazprom's management board has made a final investment decision regarding the Chayanda oil and gas condensate field - it will launch gas production in 2017 and oil production in 2014, the company said.
Under the previously confirmed version of the Eastern Gas Program, Gazprom was to launch gas output a year earlier, in 2016.
According to preliminary estimates, investments in the arrangement of the Chayanda field and the laying of a gas pipeline will total 430 billion rubles and 770 billion rubles, respectively.
The justification of investment will serve as the basis for crafting the design documentation for facilities at the field, for sections of the main gas pipeline stretching from Yakutia through Khabarovsk to Vladivostok, and for refining and gas chemicals facilities in the city of Belogorsk.
Gazprom's relevant subdivisions have been instructed to prepare the relevant design documentation.
Chayanda, which is the basis for the Yakutia gas production center, has 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves - almost double the amount produced in Russia last year. Recoverable oil and condensate reserves come to 79.1 million tonnes.
Gazprom will build a roughly 3,200-kilometer main gas pipeline from Yakutia through Khabarovsk to Vladivostok in order to export gas produced at the Chayanda field. This pipeline will pass along the route of the already existing Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) main oil pipeline, which will help optimize spending on infrastructure and energy supplies. The gas pipeline, which will have productivity of 61 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year, should be commissioned in its entirety at the end of 2017.
The formation of the Yakutia gas production center will serve as a springboard for large-scale gas processing development in Eastern Russia. In synch with the arrangement of the Chayanda field and the construction of the gas pipeline, Gazprom will create capacities to process gas and produce helium in the city of Belogorsk.
Companies with the relevant expertise will be able to invest in the establishment of gas chemical production facilities, which will utilize gas from the Chayanda field.
The next step will be the large-scale development of the Kovykta field, located in the Irkutsk region, as well as the construction of a roughly 800-kilometer-long gas pipeline between the Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centers. Gazprom will create a shared gas delivery system on the Pacific coast of Russia for the two centers.
In the future, it will be possible to join up the gas pipelines of the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk gas production centers and continue towards Novosibirsk and Omsk, with a total length of about 2,000 kilometers, thereby uniting them with the gas transport system of Western Siberia and the European part of Russia.
Therefore, Gazprom plans to form a unified gas supply system throughout the entire Russian territory, from West to East.
First and foremost, the establishment of the Yakutia gas production center is aimed at providing gas to Russian consumers. Gazprom will foster the conditions necessary for the stable and long-term development of gas supplies and the gasification of population centers in Yakutia and other Far Eastern regions.
In addition, the development of the Yakutia gas production center will serve as a crucial component in the creation of a new center for Russian gas exports in Eastern Russia. In connection with this, Gazprom plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vladivostok, for which it is currently putting together a justification of investment.
At Gazprom's management board meeting, the participants noted that given Eastern Russia's powerful resource base - 53 trillion cubic meters onland and 15 trillion cubic meters on the shelf - as well as the creation of the necessary export capacities in this region in the near future, Asian countries could become comparable to the European market for Russian gas and perhaps even surpass it.
