Russia’s Novatek, the developer of the giant Yamal LNG project, has obtained the right to explore a new area on the Gydan Peninsula in the Arctic.
Novatek’s unit Arctic LNG-1 won the bid for a geological survey, exploration and hydrocarbons production license for the Gydanskiy subsoil area for a term of 27 years.
The company said in a statement on Friday it made a one-time payment of 2.26 billion rubles ($39.7m) for the subsoil use.
Novatek already owns significant resources on the Gydan Peninsula including the Utrenneye, Geofizicheskoye and Ladertoyskoye fields, as well as the Trehbugorniy, Nyavuyahskiy, West-Solpatinskiy, Tanamskiy and North-Tanamskiy license areas.
The Gydanskiy license area is located in close proximity to Utrenneye field, the field that would serve as the resource base for Novatek’s second LNG project, Arctic LNG-2.
This new license area expands Novatek’s reserve base on the Gydan Peninsula as well as allowing the company to consider significant new long-term LNG projects, it said in the statement.
The license area contains about 4,740 mmboe of hydrocarbon resources, Novatek added.