Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has awarded Gazprom Neft a licence to explore and evaluate natural resources at the Yuzhno-Novoportovsky and Surovy licence blocks, located on the Yamal Peninsula. The licences will run for a period of seven years. The blocks cover a total area of 4,350 square kilometres.

The company’s new assets abut the Novoportovskoye field, the largest in Yamal, as well as the Yuzhno-Kamennomyssky licence block, geological exploration and development of which is being undertaken by Gazprom Neft subsidiary Gazpromneft-Yamal. The Yuzhno-Novoportovsky and Surovy licence blocks have, hitherto, been subject to poor and inconsistent geological exploration; a range of geological exploration works will be undertaken to determine their potential resources.

Vadim Yakovlev, First Deputy CEO, Gazprom Neft, commented:
«This move into new exploration areas in Yamal marks the next stage in developing a major new production cluster in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and a major step forward in implementing the company’s long-term strategy. Utilising the resource potential of these new blocks will allow optimum utilisation (loading) of production and transportation infrastructure installed at the Novoportovskoye field, and enhance project viability through the synergistic effect of an integrated approach to developing assets in Yamal».

About Gazprom Neft

Gazprom Neft is a vertically integrated oil company, primarily involved in oil and gas exploration and production, refining, and the production and sale of oil products. The Gazprom Neft’s corporate structure comprises more than 70 production, refining and sales subsidiaries throughout Russia, the CIS, and abroad.

The company’s proved and probable reserves (SPE-PRMS) are estimated at 2.78 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (btoe), making Gazprom Neft one of the top-20 largest oil and gas companies in the world, and one of Russia’s top three largest companies in terms of production and refining volumes. Total production in 2017 reached 89.75 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe), with refining volumes of 40.1 million tonnes.

Gazprom Neft products are exported to more than 50 countries worldwide, and sold throughout the Russian Federation and abroad. The company’s filling station network totals more than 1,850 outlets throughout Russia, the CIS and Europe.

Gazprom Neft’s net profit in 2017 was RUB253 billion — a 26.5-percent increase year-on-year. The company is an industry market leader in terms of both financial growth and various efficiency metrics, including its internal rate of return (IRR).

The company’s main shareholder is Gazprom PJSC, which has a 95.68-percent interest, with the remaining shares in free circulation.

Registered in the Russian Federation on 14 September, 2004, Gazpromneft-Vostok LLC has been active in hydrocarbon production in the Tomsk and Omsk Oblasts since 2005, as operator of a group of fields located in a region with relatively limited potential for development.

The company holds subsoil usage licenses to the Shinginsky, Zapadno-Luginetsky, Yuzhno-Pudinsky, Archinskiy, Urmansky, and Krapivinskoye licence blocks, and was awarded a further subsoil usage licence for geological prospecting at the Parabelsky block in 2017.