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Large Gas Field Discovered in Siberia
A new large gas field has been discovered in the Angara-Lena basin in Eastern Siberia. The deposit’s owner has already offered to sell it to TNK-BP and Gazprom. Industry expert give cautious estimates to the field’s size as the bulk of the reserves is still unproven.
The state natural resources commission has registered the Angara-Lena field with the reserves of over 1.2 trillion cu. meters of gas following an application of its owner, Petromir. The size of the reserves comes close to those in the Kovykta field, one of the largest onshore fields in Russia. The registration may be followed by an application to develop the field, which will make Petromir, an obscure company, a large independent gas producer.
Experts are cautious in valuing Petromir’s assets. Proven reserves of the Angara-Lena field are only 1.51 billion cu. meters of gas with 1.22 trillion cu. meters reserves registered as estimated. The region’s largest deposit, the Kovykta field contains 1.344 trillion cu. meters of proven gas reserves and 201.9 billion of estimated reserves.
If the estimated reserves of the Angara-Lena fields are proven after further drilling, Irkutsk Region could be used as a resource base for gas supplies to China, Valery Nesterov from the Troika Dialog investment company says. In this case, there will be no need to build a pipeline to China from Sakhalin and Yamal, the expert believes.
Gazprom confirmed Tuesday that “the Angara-Lena oil and gas basin is considered a resource base for developing the gas industry in Russia’s east.” An unofficial source told Kommersant that Petromir had tried to sell its assets to Gazprom and TNK-BP but the deal had broken down because the largest part of the reserves had been unproven.
Gas experts estimate the Angara-Lena field to worth from $700 million up to $1 billion. Various reports say that TNK-BP would like to sell the Kovykta to Gazprom for $1 to 2 billion.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 31, 2007
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