Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Dmitry Medvedev about the history of the field’s development and screened a short documentary for the Prime Minister. Then Mr Medvedev and Mr Miller went to the dispatch console, where the field staff reported that new units were ready to be brought on stream.

After hearing reports from technical experts, Mr Medvedev gave the order to bring the field to full capacity of 130 billion cubic metres of gas per year. After a few minutes, raw gas began to flow through the gas treatment plant and gas condensate ready for transport entered Russia’s unified gas supply system.

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Zapolyarnoye oil and gas condensate field opened in 1965 and is located 220 km from the town of Novy Urengoy. The size of the reserves in the Zapolyarnoye deposit is considered unique – about three trillion cubic metres of gas. Zapolyarnoye’s area is 8,745 hectares and it is 50 km long and 30 km wide. This enables development of the field using just three gas treatment plants.

Zapolyarnoye consists of several layers – Cenomanian, Valanginian and Achimovsky deposits. The Cenomanian deposits are rich in natural gas; the Valanginian deposits hold gas, oil and gas condensate; the Achimovsky deposits yield valuable gas condensate and oil.

The Cenomanian deposits at Zapolyarnoye are currently being further developed and additional wells have been built, increasing production to 115 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

Total gas production at Zapolyarnoye is expected to eventually reach 130 billion cubic metres per year.