Novatek subsidiary wins auction of Nyakhartinskiy licence area in Russia

Natural gas producer Novatek’s subsidiary OOO Novatek-Yurkharovneftegas has won an auction for exploration and production licence for the Nyakhartinskiy licence area.

The payment of the licence spans for a duration of 27 years and is $15.96m.

The Nyakhartinskiy licence area is located in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region close to the Yurkharovskoye field, which is being developed by OOO Novatek-Yurkharovneftegas.

The recoverable resources of the licence area under the Russian reserve classification methodology amount to 215 billion m3 of natural gas and more than 70 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons, as of 1 January.

Novatek management board chairman Leonid Mikhelson said: "The acquisition of this licence is consistent with our long-term development strategy aimed at efficiently expanding the company’s resource base in our core producing region.

"It is also important that a significant share of the licence area’s resource base comprises liquid hydrocarbons".

Last month, Novatek completed the sale of a 9.9% equity stake in the Yamal LNG project in Russia to China’s Silk Road Fund (SRF) for €1.8bn.