Rosneft has signed a contract for a feasibility study for the Khara-Tumus block in the Khatanga Bay of the Laptev Sea. The feasibility study and proposals are to be completed by April 20, says a statement on the government acquisitions website.

It also says that Rosneft made the transaction on March 22 and that a company official told RIA Novosti on March 21 that Rosneft had decided to complete the analysis of the Khara-Tumus oil and gas block ahead of the Khatangsky license area.

The 10.7 million ruble contract for a feasibility study and proposals has been placed with Rosneft subsidiary RN-Shelf Arktika. The protocol on the transaction was signed on March 30, and the information regarding it was posted on the government acquisitions website on April 3.

A representative of the Natural Resources Ministry earlier said that the tender for the Khara-Tumus block was not held because the only bidder, Rosneft, had not made the payment and had not submitted the feasibility study for the project.

According to RIA Novosti, Rosneft filed the bid for the Khara-Tumus block in February. The security payment was set at 656.4 million rubles.

The recoverable C1 reserves of the Khara-Tumus block are estimated at 225,000 tons, while C2 reserves stand at 26,745,000 tons. The contingent D1 reserves amount to 3.2 million tons of oil and 6.8 billion cubic meters of gas.

Rosneft has other projects on the Khara-Tumus Peninsula. While sinking the first exploratory well on the peninsula in June 2017, the company discovered the Centralno-Olginskoye field with recoverable (C1+C2) reserves estimated at over 80 million tons of oil equivalent. Part of the Centralno-Olginskoye field is located within the Khara-Tumus block.