FSUOGM: Novatek pushes for state support for hard-to-recover gas resources

Developing hard-to-recover natural gas reserves in Russia requires a special state support programme, Vladimir Kudrin, the deputy chairman of the board of the country’s top LNG exporter, Novatek, said at a forum in Tyumen on September 20.

The main base of Russian natural gas production is in the Nadym-Pur-Taz area of the Yamal region. But its upper Cenomanian layer has been depleted by 81%, Kudrin said, and so the focus is now turning to the development of deeper, harder-to-recover resources. Hard-to-recover gas resources in the area are estimated to be at least 5 trillion cubic metres – enough to support annual production of 70bn cubic metres or “much more,” he said.

Kudrin said the development of these resources should be prioritised over the exploitation of fields in new gas provinces, otherwise the former could be “irretrievably lost for the country’s economy.” He was referring to the decommissioning of field infrastructure in the Nadym-Pur-Taz area.

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