20 December 2013, News Wires – Russia’s Gazprom Neft has said it expects to end the year with production up 4.3% to around 435 million barrels of oil.The Moscow-headquartered state oil player said it expected to raise capital expenditure by 32% to 278 billion rubles ($8.44 billion) next year.
Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said that “modernisation of refineries, which will provide them with a leading position in the industry, as well as developing new regions, including the Arctic shelf, will be the key areas of the company’s further development”.
The explorer’s capital outlay for this year came in less than expected at 210 billion rubles in an underspend put down by the company to the delay in auctions for the fields of the undistributed subsoil fund.
A third of next year’s capital spend will go to upstream projects in traditional areas of operation, with a focus on maintaining output at mature fields, unlocking hard-to-reach reserves and developing projects in the Orenburg region, Gazprom Neft said.
Major new production projects due for commissioning in the next three years include the Novoportovskoye and Messoyakha in the northern part of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, and international projects.
Exploration will concentrate on Eastern Siberia and Iraqi Kurdistan.
The company also predicted that oil production at its Prirazlomnoye field – the site of the so-called Arctic 30’s high-profile protest in September – would begin before the end of the month.
– Upstream
