MOSCOW, August 26 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian government has given an order to grant to NOVATEK’s subsidiary, NOVATEK-Yurkharovneftegaz, licences for the development of four oil and gas deposits located in Yamal: Geophizicheskoye, Salmanovskoye (Utrenneye), Severo-Obskoye and Vostochno-Tambeiskoye fields.
The related instruction, which was posted in the bank of federal normative documents on Friday, was signed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The document envisages that the NOVATEK-Yurkharovneftegaz company will receive a right to develop the above-mentioned fields of federal importance for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons.
In June, the tender commission declared void the tenders for the aforesaid fields, thus deciding to grant licences to NOVATEK as the only participant in the tender under the company’s conditions.
NOVATEK is Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer, and second-largest in overall production after Gazprom. The company was is based in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area in West Siberia, and maintains sales office in Moscow.
The major shareholders of NOVATEK are Volga Resources, the Luxembourg-based fund controlled by oil trader Gennady Timchenko, with 20.77 percent of shares, and Gazprom with ten percent. A 9.4-percent stake is owned by Gazprombank.
The major gas field owned by NOVATEK is Yurkharovskoye deposit. On May 27, 2009, NOVATEK bought from Volga Resources 51 percent in Yamal LNG, which controls the giant Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye field.
On July 2, 2010, NOVATEK purchased Tambeineftegas, which holds the license to the arctic Malo-Yamalskoye field, which located on the Yamal Peninsula and holds 161 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 14.4 million tonnes of gas condensate.
NOVATEK and Gazprom plan to build a Yamal LNG plant. The third partner will be Total S.A. with 20-percent stake. Together with Total S.A., NOVATEK develops the Termokarstovoye field in Yamal.
In December 2010, NOVATEK bought 51 percent stake in Sibneftegaz from Gazprombank. In January 2011, it made a takeover offer to minority shareholders (the largest one being Itera) for the remaining 49 percent of shares.