Gazprom may start production on the Yamal Peninsula north of the Arctic Circle earlier than planned, depending on demand, Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Ananenkov said Thursday.
Construction at Bovanenkovo, which will be the first field to start pumping gas, is advancing “at a fast rate,” Ananenkov said in an e-mailed statement. Seven out of nine drilling rigs delivered to the site are already operational, the company said.
Gazprom said in June that output from Bovanenkovo may be delayed by a year to the third quarter of 2012 as the global recession eroded demand. The company now expects gas consumption in Europe to pick up in two to three years, deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said in November.
Output from the Bovanenkovo deposit alone may eventually reach 140 billion cubic meters a year, equivalent to about 25 percent of Gazprom’s total output in 2008, the company estimates.
The International Energy Agency warned last month of an “acute glut” in gas supply worldwide in the next few years because of rising production in the U.S. and Canada. Supplies are set to outpace annual demand growth of 2.5 percent between 2010 and 2015, the IEA said in its annual World Energy Outlook. Total, Europe’s third-largest oil and gas company, said Dec. 8 that global demand for gas will recover to precrisis levels by 2015.
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