Novatek acquires two hydrocarbon assets in Russia

Natural gas producer Novatek has acquired two hydrocarbon assets in Russia from AR Oil & Gas, a joint venture of AO Neftegazholding and Spain’s Repsol.

The transaction comprises the acquisition of two firms, AO South-Khadyryakhinskoye and AO Eurotek.

The acquisition of AO South-Khadyryakhinskoye will give Novatek the hydrocarbon exploration and production licence for the South-Khadyryakhinskiy licence area, close to the North-Khancheyskoye field developed by its subsidiary.

Based on the Russian resource classification as of 31 December last year, it is estimated that the licence contains hydrocarbon resources of around 228mmboe.

Novatek management board chairman Leonid Mikhelson said: “The acquisition of the new assets will make a contribution to the company’s total production and will increase the resource base in the core area of our operations.

“We continue to work actively to increase production volumes in the area of the unified gas supply system, which is one of Novatek’s strategic priorities.”

With the acquisition of AO Eurotek, the company will have ownership rights over the exploration and production licence for the Syskonsynyinskiy licence area located in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region, 120km to the north-west of the town of Nyagan.

The Syskonsynyinskiy licence, which comprises estimated resources of 48mmboe, produced 799 million cubic metres of natural gas and 6.6 thousand tonnes of gas condensate last year.

Novatek’s upstream activities are mainly based in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region of Russia.

In a separate event, the company reported that Yamal LNG has commenced producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the first LNG train, which has a nameplate capacity of 5.5 million tonnes per annum.