Three independent Russian gas producers -- Novatek, Itera and Summa Capital -- have submitted bids for four tenders of oil and gas fields in Russia's northern Yamal Peninsula that hold gas reserves and resources of over 2 trillion cubic meters, spokesmen from the companies said Monday.
Novatek, Russia's largest independent, submitted bids for all four fields, while Itera and Summa Capital, which controls the Yakutsk Fuel and Energy Company, bid only for the Geofizicheskoye field.
Russian gas giant Gazprom declined to comment on its plans for the tenders, but a source close to the company said it would not participate in any of them.
In a government order signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on December 1, the four fields were designated as additions to the resource base for the planned Yamal LNG project, which is being developed by Novatek.
Novatek already has the license for the Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye field in the area, with reserves estimated at 1.3 Tcm of gas. Gazprom also has reserves in the region, with licenses for the 101 Bcm West Tambeiskoye and 724 Bcm North Tambeiskoye fields.
All four fields to be tendered have reserves that are considered federally significant, a designation for hydrocarbon fields with reserves of at least 70 million mt (511 million barrels) of oil or 50 billion cubic meters of gas, which by law means they can only be developed by Russian companies.
Geofizicheskoye, with C1 and C2 reserves of 211 billion cubic meters of gas according to the Russian classification system, has a starting price of Rb1.34 billion ($48 million). The Salmanovskoye (or Utrenny) field has C1 and C2 reserves of 767 Bcm and a starting price of Rb4.828 billion.
C1 and C2 together are roughly equivalent to possible reserves.
The other two fields are offshore and are less explored. The North-Obsky block has resources of 1.164 Bcm and a starting price of Rb635 million, and the East-Tambeisky block has resources of 598 Bcm and a starting price of Rb67 million.
The last day to submit bids was Friday and tenders will be held on June 23, according to Russian subsoil agency Rosnedra.
