CORRECT: Gazprom to cut investments in 2016 exploration in Russia by 21.3%

(Corrects headline, lede, third paragraph to say that Gazprom will in fact cut investments in geological exploration in Russia by 21.3% on year in 2016, not total spending on geological exploration by 32% on year in 2016)

MOSCOW, May 19 (PRIME) -- Gas giant Gazprom plans to cut its investments in geological exploration in Russia by 21.3% on the year to 80.4 billion rubles in 2016, Vsevolod Cherepanov, a member of Gazprom’s management board, told reporters Thursday.

“Gazprom Geologorazvedka envisages 65.5 billion rubles for this year, of which 35.5 billion rubles are to be spent on the shelf and 30 billion rubles are to be spent on land. Affiliates that mainly produce gas also envisage 14.9 billion rubles. Which means that 80.4 billion rubles is forecasted in total for the year,” he said.

It is less than investments in 2015, but it will not affect the growth of reserves, he said. The company invested a total of 118.4 billion rubles in geological exploration in 2015, of which 102.1 billion rubles were invested in exploration in Russia. Growth of Gazprom’s reserves amounted to 531.1 billion cubic meters of gas, 68.5 million tonnes of gas condensate, and 20.6 million tonnes of oil in the year.

Cherepanov also said Gazprom sees a possibility of finding new oil and gas deposits at the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field on the shelf of Sakhalin. “There is a possibility of new discoveries at this site,” he said, adding that the State Reserves Commission registered the field’s reserves of 711 billion cubic meters of gas, 111 million tonnes of condensate and 3 million tonnes of oil.

(65.0641 rubles – U.S. $1)

End