Novatek may quadruple condensate output by 2015

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's second largest gas producer Novatek (NVTK.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is considering quadrupling its gas condensate output by 2015 to become one of the world's top players, a top executive told Reuters.

Mark Gyetvay, Novatek's Chief Financial Officer, said higher production might prompt the firm consider expanding the existing, or building a second, gas condensate processing plant in West Siberia.

"Post 2010, we have not started draw up the strategy yet, but if we go up to 8-9 million tonnes per year, correspondingly we will have to consider additional processing capabilities," Gyetvay said at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.

Russia's gas export monopoly and the world's largest gas producer Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is currently Russia's largest producer of condensate - a very light crude oil which trades at a substantial premium to all crude oil grades.

Gazprom extracts around 10 million tonnes of condensate, but does not export much of it, unlike Novatek.

Novatek, which produced 2.5 million tonnes of liquids last year processed 2.06 million tonnes of unstable gas condensate at its Purovsky plant, commissioned in June 2005.

It exports the volumes from the Vitino port on the White Sea to markets in Europe and North America.

Gyetvay said the firm would complete the ongoing expansion of the plant's capacity to 5 million tonnes per year in the fourth quarter of 2008 to match the expected rise in liquids output to 4.6 million tonnes per year.

"We will either consider further expansion of Purovsky or may look at other alternatives, potentially building some other facilities outside Purovsky," he said.

He added a certain surplus of processing capacities from the fourth quarter of 2008 will allow Novatek to refine condensate from other companies, such as LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) or TNK-BP

(TNBPI.RTS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Gyetvay said that although liquids account for only 10 percent of the firm's production in terms of volumes, their share in revenues represents almost 40 percent as gas prices in Russia as still capped by the state. But as gas prices are set to be liberalized by 2011, the ratio will change, he said.