Russia's Gazprom has connected a gas pipeline from a major field in West Siberia, built by a joint venture between compatriot oil giant Rosneft and UK supermajor BP, to the country’s trunk network.
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Regional subsidiary Gazprom Transgaz Surgut said that the 156-kilometre link will enable joint venture Kharampurneftegaz to ship 10 billion cubic metres per annum of gas to customers in Russia, with annual throughput expected to rise to 25 Bcm after 2025.
Kharampurneftegaz — in which BP holds a 49% stake — has been working to bring online gas reservoirs at the Kharampurskoye oil and gas field in the Yamal-Nenets region for the past two years.
The field is estimated to hold close to 900 Bcm of recoverable gas reserves in two major layers — the shallow Senoman and deeper Turon — however, Rosneft has only been producing oil and condensate at the asset since 1990.
Until 2017, when BP became a partner in the project, the oil producer had been unsuccessfully trying to agree terms of the field connection to the trunk network with Gazprom, at one stage even proposing that the gas giant form a joint venture to tap into Kharampurskoye and other gas assets under Rosneft’s control in the region.
According to Rosneft, the first phase to commercialise gas from the shallow Senoman formations at the field involved the drilling of more than 60 development wells.
A trial well to assess the producing potential of the Turon formations has also been drilled, while works are ongoing at a major gas processing and treatment plant that will prepare gas before it enters the pipeline connector.
According to Rosneft, the field is expected to start first shipments of gas next year as the remaining construction and commissioning works on the pipeline connector and on the field’s facilities and infrastructure are completed.
Gazprom Transgaz Surgut expects to accept another incoming connection from Rosneft’s subsidiary, Kynsko-Chaselskoyeneftegaz, into the country’s trunk gas network after 2026, with annual throughput of about 15 Bcm of gas.
During the past decade, Rosneft repeatedly promised to reach annual gas production of 100 Bcm by end of 2020. The company recently pushed the target to 2022, with industry observers in Moscow expecting Rosneft to report total gas production of just over 60 Bcm this year.
