The Kovykta gas condensate field is one of the largest undeveloped
natural gas field
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
s in
Eastern Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. The field is located in the northern part of the
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and Nizh ...
, in the Zhigalovo and Kazachinsko-Lensk districts.
History
The field was discovered in 1987. In June 2007,
TNK-BP
TNK-BP (Tyumenskaya Neftyanaya Kompaniya, Tyumen Oil Company) was a major vertically integrated Russian oil company headquartered in Moscow. It was Russia's third-largest oil producer and among the ten largest private oil companies in the world. ...
agreed to sell its stake for US$ 700 million to US$ 900 million to
Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...
with option to buy back a 25% plus one share stake in the project.
[
] However, this deal never materialized. In June 2010, Rusia Petroleum, the developer of Kovykta field filed for bankruptcy.
[
] TNK-BP also tried to sell the field to state-owned Rosneftegaz, but failed.[ On 1 March 2011, Gazprom bought Rusia Petroleum's assets, including rights for the Kovykta field, for $711 million.][
]
Reserves
The reserves of Kovykta amount to 2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
and more than 83 million tons of gas condensate
Natural-gas condensate, also called natural gas liquids, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. Some gas species within the raw natur ...
. The period of active gas production in the Kovykta field is expected to be 30 years, and the period of field development about 50 years.[
]
Developer
The field was developed by Rusia Petroleum, 62.9% of which is owned by TNK-BP.OGK-3
OGK-3 (meaning: The Third Generation Company of the Wholesale Electricity Market – WGC-3) was a Russian power company. The stock was traded on the MICEX-RTS stock exchange.
History
OGK-3 was formed in 2004 by merger of six electricity generati ...
.[
][
]
Significance
The Kovykta field is considered to supply natural gas to China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
. According to these agreements signed by Rusia Petroleum with China National Petroleum Corporation and Kogas on 2 November 2000, the annual export of gas to China and Korea will be 20 billion cubic meters (bcm) and 10 bcm, respectively.[ The Kovykta field will contribute also to the gasification of Irkutsk Oblast, implemented by the OAO East Siberia Gas Company, a joint venture of Gazprom (originally TNK-BP) and the Irkutsk Oblast Administration.
]
See also
*Energy policy of Russia
Russia's energy policy which is set out in the government's ''Energy Strategy'' document, first approved in 2000, which sets out the government's policy to 2020 (later prolonged up to 2030). The Energy Strategy outlines several key priorities: ...
*Energy policy of China
Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949. The country is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and coal in China is a major cause of global warming. How ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovykta Field
Oil fields of Russia
Natural gas fields in Russia
Gazprom oil and gas fields