The fuel and energy sector of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area
The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area’s share in proven hydrocarbon deposits in Russia is 70% for natural gas and 18% for crude oil and gas condensate. The area currently produces 85% of Russian gas and accounts for 20% of global natural gas output. In all, 232 hydrocarbon deposits have been discovered in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, of which only 63 are currently being exploited, and another 19 have been prepared for exploitation. Initial total natural gas resources in the region are estimated at 125.3 trillion cubic metres, of which 14 trillion cu m have already been produced. This is just over 11% of the total volume of the estimated resource base and 30% of the area’s gas reserves in industrial categories.
Sixty oil and gas enterprises, including such companies as Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Lukoil, NOVATEK and others, currently operate in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area. In all, 214 licenses for the right to exploit local mineral deposits, including 176 licenses for the right to mine hydrocarbons and conduct prospecting operations and 38 prospecting licenses, have been issued to date. The total area of licensed deposits is 270,000 square kilometres.
The total length of gas pipelines in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area is 9,000 km and these pipelines have a total capacity of 600 billion cu m. In 2009, 170 billion cu m of gas was delivered to former Soviet republics and other countries.
In connection with the development of the Yamal Peninsula, Gazprom continues to build the 2,600-km Bovanenkovo–Ukhta–Torzhok gas pipeline, which includes 288 km in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area and another 72 km along the bottom of Baydaratskaya Bay. Gazprom plans to build the 2,666-km Altai pipeline for transporting gas to the People’s Republic of China, a 205-km section of which will pass through the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area.
The Purpe oil-pumping station is the centre of the operational oil-pipeline network and allows for the transport of oil from deposits in the southern districts of the region.
In 2009, Rosneft commissioned a 543-km oil pipeline linking the Vankorskoye deposit with the Purpe oil-pumping station. The pipeline’s 350-km section passes through the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area. The pipeline’s capacity will make it possible to annually transport 20-25 million tonnes of oil. Work is also continuing steadily on the construction of the Zapolyarnoye–Purpe–Samotlor oil pipeline which will make it possible to exploit the area’s largest oil deposits, including the Russkoye, Zapolyarnoye, East Messoyakhskoye, West Messoyakhskoye and other deposits.
The Yamal Peninsula and the adjacent territories are Russia’s main gas reserves. Thirty-two hydrocarbon deposits, including 26 ground deposits, four in the Gulf of Ob and two in the Kara Sea, have been discovered here to date. The known gas deposits provide for a total of 10.7 trillion cu m of gas. Long-term mineral deposit exploitation prospects are linked with the Gulf of Ob, the Tazovskaya Bay and the Kara Sea shelf where two trillion cu m of gas have already been prepared at the Leningradskoye and Rusanovskoye fields alone.
The exploitation of resources on the Yamal Peninsula is scheduled to begin in 2012. The Bovanenkovo deposit will be commissioned first. Considering the trends of gas production, the annual design capacity, which is 115 billion cu m, is to be attained in the eighth year of the deposit’s exploitation. Subsequent expansion of gas production will be attained by commissioning the Kharasavei and Kruzenshtern fields. The total uninterrupted annual gas output at the Bovanenkovo group of deposits is 220 billion cu m, and may be maintained for eight years.
The deposits of the Tambeiskaya and Southern groups will subsequently be commissioned. Annual gas output in the region may reach 360 billion cu m due to the commissioning of deposits on the Kara Sea shelf.
Under a government instruction , there are plans to build a liquefied gas production plant utilising the initial recoverable reserves of the Tambeiskaya group of deposits. In 2010-2011, NOVATEK is expected to conduct research making it possible to choose the construction site, to determine the location of the main production facilities and to assess liquefied gas transportation routes from the Yamal Peninsula. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2016-2018.
The Achimov strata of the Urengoy region, the identified resources of which compare with the largest Russian deposits, is a substantial production reserve in the extended infrastructure zone. The explored hydrocarbon reserves of the Achimov strata total two trillion cu m of gas, 36 million tonnes of oil and 290 million tonnes of gas condensate.
By 2030, there are plans to start exploiting gas deposits on the Gydansky Peninsula, only 30% of which have been studied to date. The initial recoverable gas and oil resources total about 10 trillion cu m and more than 900 million tonnes, respectively.
Four interstate gas pipeline projects, namely, Nord Stream, South Stream, the Bovanenkovo–Ukhta–Torzhok–Europe trunk pipeline for transporting gas from the Yamal Peninsula, and the Altai trunk pipeline for transporting gas to the People’s Republic of China, are being implemented in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area.
