Russian Oil and Gas Industry: News

Russia holder of the world’s biggest natural-gas reserves, may have 2 1/2 times more unconventional resources than conventional supplies, according to OAO Gazprom. (OGZD)

The country may hold as much as 680 trillion cubic meters of unconventional resources, which include gas from shale, sandstones and coal beds, Viktor Skorobogatov, director of the gas resources center at Gazprom’s VNIIGAZ research unit, said in an interview in the company’s corporate magazine.

Gazprom, Russia’s gas exporter, has concentrated on conventional gas as traditional fields continue to pump out fuel from western Siberia to the country's Far East. That focus saw the nation overtaken by the U.S. as No. 1 gas producer in 2009 as advances in technology made shale drilling economically feasible in North America.

Still, Russia had 44.6 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves at the end of last year, compared with 8.5 trillion cubic meters in the U.S., according to BP Plc (BP/) data.

“No country in the world can compete with Russia in terms of the volume of natural-gas reserves and its vast resource potential in both traditional and unconventional,” Skorobogatov said in the interview, excerpts of which were distributed today by e-mail. Russia’s conventional gas resources total at least 250 trillion cubic meters, out of a global total of 600 trillion to 650 trillion cubic meters, he said.

President Vladimir Putin in April urged Russian energy producers to “rise to the challenge” of a changing market as the U.S. increased output of shale gas. In October, he ordered Gazprom to report on its export policies after acknowledging that U.S. shale-gas production had become profitable.

Extraction of shale gas, which Russia is now “actively studying,” involves blasting a mixture of sand, water and chemicals underground, fracturing the rock to release fuel.

Russia’s shale-gas resources are estimated at about 5 trillion to 20 trillion cubic meters, Skorobogatov said. Hydrates account for about 75 percent of all the nation’s unconventional resources, or 500 trillion cubic meters, followed by tight gas at 110 trillion cubic meters and coal-bed methane at 50 trillion cubic meters, he said.

As much as 90 percent of Russia’s unconventional resources are located in the east, mainly in the Urals and Siberia, according to Skorobogatov. Coal-bed methane and tight-gas ventures, already under development as pilot projects, may start producing after 2020, while development of hydrates and shale won’t start before 2025 or 2030, he said.

we are able to replace and increase reserves successfully through exploration. In 2009-2011, the reserves replacement ratio exceeded 200% per year; in 2012 we replaced 130% of reserves, a nd we did it with lower costs compared to those of our competitors. The data on reserves growth do not include our offshore projects a

Vankor the biggest new project in post-soviet Russia

We discovered 3.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent 3P reserves at Vankor, and today the stable level of oil production is more than 400 thousand barrels per day.Integration of TNK-BP assets allows us to increase the resource base of the region by 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Rosneft holds the largest license portfolio on the Russian offshore

Rosneft is the largest subsoil license holder at the Russian offshore. Total estimated recoverable resources under these licenses exceed 275 billion barrels of oil equivalent. { this is bigger than current Saudi Reserves }

Rosneft has already started full-scale operations in the Arctic

estimated resource base of this block alone is more than 35 billion barrels of oil equivalent and the total resources for the Kara sea are above 100 billion n barrels of oil equivalent

Slide 12. New production growth from development of tight oil in Russia ( Shale Oil )

Next is oil production from the non-conventional oil fields. We have a tremendous and still underestimated potential of hard -to-recover resources. I would like to mention only one kind of formation Bazhenov.

Estimated recoverable resources of this geological formation alone amount to over 22 billion barrels of oil, whic
h is equal to approximately half of the shale oil resources in the USA.

Compared to Saudi Oil Reserves
http://www.albawaba.com/business/saudi-arabia-proven-oil-reserves-443455

Aramco’s proven crude and condensate reserves fell by 400 million barrels versus the previous year to 259.7 billion barrels,

Austin wrote:It seems like Gazprom is in bad shape with constant loosing market value.

Gazprom’s Demise Could Topple Putin

Austin wrote:The title might be misleading and mischievous but the contents are sound and indeed very damaging for Gazprom.

Look at Gazprom Market Cap and Share value , in 2008 it was $338 and today it is $83 and going down

If companies didnt care about it share prices they wouldnt have listed in the first place a low share price would indicate loss of customer confidence who in turn will sell all the shares bring the prices much lower affecting company ability to raise finance from market.

Viktor wrote:Russia Clinches $270 Bln Oil Export Deal With China

Austin wrote:Venezeula has the largest Oil Reserves in the Worls specially tar oil and its conventional reserves are also very high.

So its in Russias interest to pursue these opportunities and make most of it as long as Maduro is in power , the other guy who got narrowly defeated does not appear to be friendly to Russia.