Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer Novatek reported a 6.9 percent increase in production for the year 2018.
Novatek’s hydrocarbon production totaled 548.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), including 68.81 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas and 11,800 thousand tons of liquids (gas condensate and crude oil).
This is 35.1 million boe above the volumes in the twelve months of 2017, the company said in its report.
Preliminary natural gas sales volumes, including volumes of LNG sold, aggregated 72.12 bcm, representing an increase of 10.9 percent as compared with the twelve months of 2017.
The volumes of natural gas sold in the Russian Federation in 2018 were 66.08 bcm, Novatek said.
The volumes of LNG sold on international markets amounted to 6.04 bcm. Sales volumes of LNG in 2017 were 0.1 bcm as Yamal LNG commenced LNG shipments on December 8, 2017.
The company processed 11,017 thousand tons of unstable gas condensate at the Purovsky processing plant, representing a 3.7 percent decrease as compared with the corresponding volumes processed in the prior reporting period.
Novatek processed 6,949 thousand tons of stable gas condensate at the Ust-Luga complex, representing a 0.2 percent decrease in volumes processed at the facility in 2018.
Preliminary petroleum product sales volumes aggregated 6,682 thousand tons, including 4,185 thousand tons of naphtha, 1,082 thousand tons of jet fuel, and 1,415 thousand tons of fuel oil and gasoil.
As at December 31, 2018, Novatek had 2.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas, including LNG, and 854 thousand tons of stable gas condensate and petroleum products in storage or transit and recognized as inventory.