According to Kommersant, Gazprom Neft agreed with one of its key foreign partners, British-Dutch Shell, to set up a parity joint venture for the development of two underexplored deposits in Gydan: Leskinsky and Pukhutsyayakhsky. Their resource potential is estimated at 135 mln tons of oil equivalent. After an unsuccessful attempt at involving Shell in the development of five areas in Yamal at the facilities of Meretoyakhaneftegaz, the Gydan project could become the companies' first joint project in the Arctic. The joint venture will be managed on a fifty-fifty basis. It is planned to complete the transaction by the end of 2020.

Gazprom Neft already has experience in the development of the Novoportovsky deposit, where the company had to build an offshore loading terminal in the Gulf of Ob. A 2D seismic survey has already been carried out in the new areas; the companies plan to drill the first well in the Leskinsky area in 2020.

Vadim Yakovlev, the First Deputy CEO of Gazprom Neft, 'in case of geological success' expects the opening of a 'large hydrocarbon province'. Cederic Cremers, the head of Shell Russia, noted that 'despite economic uncertainty and pressure on the industry, Russia is a country of strategic focus'.

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