"We do not have to search the market looking for an oil field," said Alexander Ryazanov, who is also Gazprom's deputy board chairman. "Our core shareholder has vast natural gas deposits rimmed with oil reserves."
Gazprom produces about 12 million metric tons of crude and condensate (240,986 bbl/d) a year, but clean oil only amounts to 1 million metric ton (44,424 bbl/d), Ryazanov said. He also said the gas giant and Gazprom Neft held development and production licenses for deposits still without geological survey results, including in the Kara and Okhotsk seas, in Russia's north and Far East, respectively.
But he said the company will have to buy assets beginning in 2017 to meet its output target, although it was not clear yet what fields could be acquired.
Earlier Thursday, Ryazanov said Gazprom Neft wanted to buy the embattled oil company Yukos' 20% stake in the company to increase the number of shares circulating on the free market.
"We believe the number of our shares circulating on the market is not sufficient, and we plan to increase it [from 4%] to 15% if we buy out a 20% block of our shares from Yukos [RTS: YUKO]," Ryazanov said.
Gazprom currently owns 75.7% of Gazprom Neft, formerly known as Sibneft. The giant has reportedly offered over $2.5 billion for Yukos' stake in the company. Yukos, which has been declared bankrupt and is in liquidation proceedings, earlier valued this stake at $4.2 billion.
Apparently responding to criticism that oil assets would only make Gazprom -- which produces 94% of the country's natural gas and supplies about 25% of the Western European market's demand -- more difficult to run, Ryazanov said Gazprom Neft's contribution to the giant's operations was crucial.
Ryazanov said it was important to produce oil along with natural gas. He said crude production becomes a more complicated process 10-15 years after gas extraction was launched, because reservoir pressure declined and oil spread out.
Ryazanov also said Gazprom planned to invest about $1.5 billion a year in oil production.
He said the company expects to earn $3 billion annually, with the business plan being based on a global price of oil at $40 per barrel.
