Massive Gas Field Discovered Near Kovykta

Today Vedemosti broke a story about the discovery of a new field possibly containing more than 1.22 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Angara-Lena, which is located not far from the TNK-BP Kovytka project, is owned by the little-known private Russian firm Petromir. Kommersant reports that this company had recently tried to sell its assets to Gazprom and TNK-BP, but the deal fell through because a large portion of the Angara-Lena reserves are unproven. It will be interesting to see how the discovery of this field impacts BP’s problems with government interference at Kovykta.