OREANDA-NEWS. November 22, 2010. Vladimir Makeyev, General Director of ITERA Oil and Gas Company, LLC, summed up the preliminary production results for the nine months of 2010. The volume of gas supplied to consumers within the three past quarters of 2010 was 13 650 million cu m, an increase of 6.5%, if compared to a corresponding period of 2009. At that, the supply went up by 23% in the 3d quarter.

To expand the resource base for production, processing and marketing natural gas, ITERA is going to participate in auctions and tenders for license areas to be held by Rosnedra (the Russian Subsurface Resources), primarily in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. Also, ITERA offered Gazprom a Program to Develop Small and Medium-size Fields (of up to 50 billion cu m), on which fields Gazprom owned licenses.

“In our view establishing a JV with Gazprom’s controlling interest in it is an optimal form of cooperation. The company has all possibilities, both technical, and financial, to put new fields into operation quickly”, -Vladimir Makeyev pointed out.

As at the end of 2010, the planned investment in development of Sibneftegaz (the Siberian Oil and Gas) shall account for about Rub. 2 billion. The funds shall be allocated to exploit the Beregovoye field and Pyreinoye field, as well as preparation for commissioning the Khadyryakhinskiy field. A project in Turkmenistan remains among first priorities of the Company. This is development of block 21 in the Caspian Sea off-shore zone. The reserves of oil are 218 million tons, and that of associated gas exceed 92 billion cu m there. There is also a possibility of additional reserves of 100 billion cu m of free gas.

Non-payments for the supplied gas remain a limiting factor for ITERA to increase investment. As on October 31, 2010, the total aggregate indebtedness by gas consumers in the Sverdlovsk Region equaled Rub. 2 billion 680 million, including Rub.1 billion 850 million by enterprises of the housing and utilities infrastructure.