Gazprom Neft takes the lead in Russian hard-to-recover oil

More-challenging reserves are expected to account for an increasing share of the country’s production over the coming decades

Russian producers are under pressure to offset decline at many of the country’s largest Soviet-era fields. Gazprom Neft, Russia’s fourth-biggest oil producer, is alive to the dual solutions to the challenge. Operators have sought to resolve the problem by advancing new projects in frontier Arctic regions, but the remoteness of these fields and a lack of infrastructure drive up development costs considerably. They have also looked at existing fields in areas where much of the necessary infrastructure is already in place, but exploiting more challenging reservoirs. Look north Gazprom Neft operates several fields in Russia’s far north that are expected to drive its growth over the next decade.