Gazprom is considering developing gas fields in Siberia’s Irkutsk and Yakutia regions, deputy board chairman Bogdan Budzulyak has said. “Details are still confidential. We’ve signed confidentiality agreements with all the parties concerned but are not hiding our intentions,” Budzulyak said without naming individual gas fields. Budzulyak would give no details about the gas deposits, except to say that in Yakutia, in northern Siberia, reserves were around five trillion cubic metres. An April 2001 tender awarded the huge Talakansky oilfield to Russia’s Sakhaneftegaz, which paid a USD 501 million bonus, and other Russian companies. Proven reserves at the field are 120 million tonnes of oil and 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas, and the cost of its development has been estimated at USD 974 million.
