Russian oil and gas company Gazprom has found two offshore gas fields in the Russian Arctic containing a total of 500 billion cubic meters of gas.

Gazprom has said that the Federal Agency for Mineral Resources approved the expert opinions of the State Reserves Commission with regard to the discovery by Gazprom of new hydrocarbon fields on the shelf of the Yamal Peninsula, namely the Dinkov and Nyarmeyskoye fields.

The Dinkov field is situated within the Rusanovsky licensed block in the Kara Sea. Gazprom says the field is unique in terms of gas reserves as its recoverable reserves in the С1+С2 categories total 390.7 billion cubic meters.

The Nyarmeyskoye field is located in the Nyarmeysky licensed block, also int in the Kara Sea. In terms of gas reserves, it is a large field with the recoverable amount of 120.8 billion cubic meters in the С1+С2 categories.

The discoveries were made by COSL's Nan Hai Ba Hao semi-submersible drilling rig, Russian news websites have reported.

Gazprom secured the subsurface use licenses for the Rusanovsky and Nyarmeysky licensed blocks in 2013. Since then, 3D seismic surveys covering 5,790 square kilometers have been carried out within these blocks, with two exploration wells drilled in 2018. Gazprom also has subsurface use licenses for the Leningradskoye and Rusanovskoye fields on the Kara Sea shelf.

The region has been fruitful for the Russian oil and gas companies as Gazprom's compatriot Novatek last year made one of the world's biggest offshore discoveries of the year in the Ob Bay of the Kara Sea – the North-Obskoye field

Novatek, which is currently developing the Arctic LNG 2 project in the region, said the discovery of the North-Obskoye field was an important starting point for one of its future LNG projects in the Arctic region.