Fuel and Energy sector of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area
There are 229 deposits in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, including 27 natural gas, 44 gas condensate, 65 oil and condensate, 15 oil and gas, and 78 oil deposits. Eighteen of them are unique (there are only 25 such unique deposits in Russia).
The area is the richest oil and gas province in Russia and the world.
It accounts for 70% of proved hydrocarbon reserves and 18% of oil and condensate reserves in Russia. Original gas in place (including the offshore areas in the Kara Sea) is estimated at 125.3 trillion cubic metres. Only 14 trillion cu m of that amount has been produced, which is slightly more than 11% of the 30% of the region's commercial gas. It is believed that 630-650 billion cu m of gas can be produced on the Yamal Peninsula annually.
Yamal gas is exported to many countries in Europe and the CIS. In 2008, the region exported some 200 billion cu m of gas.
Yamal is second largest region after the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in terms of liquid hydrocarbons production. Its original oil in place is estimated at 16 billion metric tons, and of gas condensate at 7 billion metric tons. Since hydrocarbons production began in the region, it produced 738 million metric tons of oil and 123 million metric tons of gas condensate.
As many as 37 companies produce gas at 90 deposits on Yamal. Their total gas output in 2009 reached 547 billion cu m, with Gazprom subsidiaries producing the largest amount.
Other local gas producers include Novatek-Tarkosaleneftegaz and LUKoil-West Siberia.
The most promising oil and gas areas are the Achimov, Jurassic and Palaeozoic horizons, the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas with the adjacent offshore areas of the Kara Sea, as well as the unexplored western and eastern regions. Geologists claim that large oil and gas deposits can be discovered in the Lyapin mega-depression in the west of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, where original oil in place is estimated at 500 million metric tons and original gas in place at more than 300 billion cubic metres.
The Gydan Peninsula, which is among the least explored areas of the region, could become the next strategic province for increasing gas production in the long run, following a thorough exploration.
The industrial development of Yamal's deposits and adjacent offshore areas is crucial for ensuring the growth of natural gas production in the country after 2010. The development of the Yamal Peninsula began with the Bovanenkovskoye deposit, the largest natural gas field in the peninsula with reserves of 4.9 trillion cubic meters. Wells are being drilled there now, and the construction of a 1,100 km pipeline from Bovanenkovo to Ukhta began in 2008. The pipeline will have a throughput annual capacity of over 300 billion cubic metres on the Yamal-Ukhta leg and will have 27 modern compressor stations and additional units at existing stations with an aggregate capacity of 8600-11600 MW.
A total of 11 natural gas and 15 oil and condensate deposits have been discovered on the peninsula. Their prospected reserves total 10.4 trillion cubic metres of gas, 228.3 million metric tons of condensate, and 291.8 million metric tons of oil.
The aggregate reserves of the largest deposits of the peninsula - Bovanenkovskoye, Kharasaveiskoye and Novoportovskoye - amount to 5.9 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, 100.2 million metric tons of condensate, and 227 million metric tons of oil.
