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Reserves and Exploration
As of 31.12.2006 Gazprom Neft’ holds the licenses for the rights to use subsurface mineral resources in 62 license areas located in eleven of Russia’s regions.
10 of these licenses grant the Company the right of geological prospecting for five years, and 52 others grant the rights to additional exploration of subsoil and extraction of oil and gas for 25 years. The total area of the Company’s licensed sites is 58,293 sq. km, including 20,895 sq. km in defined water areas.
Exploration
On the basis of comparable data for 2005 and 2006, Gazprom Neft’ has managed to substantially increase the total physical volume of exploration work. This increase was necessitated by the requirements to step up exploration activity in the Company’s new license areas and by Gazprom Neft’ liabilities arising from licensing terms and conditions relating to prospecting and exploring for new oil and gas fields. The bulk of recoverable reserves growth in 2006 was achieved through both exploration and production drilling at productive fields and enhanced the efficiency of their development. In 2006, the increase of C1 category reserved amounted to 35.5 million tonnes of oil, 139,000 tons of gas condensate and 3,237 billion m3 of natural gas. In terms of hydrocarbon equivalent, the aggregate increase in crude hydrocarbons reserves will produce 38.875 million tons of conventional fuel. The Company plans to maintain the same rate of reserves growth in 2007.
The Company’s Resource Base
The Gazprom Neft’ petroleum resources base was audited by Miller & Lents. As of 01.01.2007 the Company’s oil reserves, according to the SPE Classification system, were estimated at 953.0 million tonnes, including proven commercial reserves at 601.8 million tonnes and probable/possible reserves at 351.2 million tonnes.
The current reserves (categories B+C1)-to-production ratio of Gazprom Neft’ is over 23 years.
Gazprom Neft’ is actively engaged in the further development and expansion of its resource base. The Company participates in auctions conducted by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the RF for acquisition of the rights to use subsurface mineral resources in new areas. In 2006 Gazprom Neft’ won open auctions for the Doob and Novorossiisk areas in Krasnodar Territory. The reserves of the Doobskoye field make 1.5 bn m3 for category C1 and 6 bn m3 for category C3. Forecast gas reserves at the Novorossiisk site are estimated at 25 bn m3 for category D1.
It is also worth noting that the Company has acquired the license to survey and explore the South Toraveysk oil field located in Nenets Autonomous District, in the area bordering the continental shelf in the Barents Sea. The geological oil reserves of this field are 62.4 million tons, categories C1 and C2 combined. The retrievable part totals 12.3 million tons.
During 2005-2006 the Company acquired 8 license areas with C1+C2 category reserves in Tomsk Region, Krasnodar Territory, Khanty-Mansiysk AD, Yamalo-Nenets AD and Yakutia, as well as 7 license areas with C3+D1 category reserves in Khanty-Mansiysk AD and in the Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk Territories.
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