Offshore staff
(Russia, Caspian Sea) - LUKOIL opened a major multilayer oil and gas condensate field in the Severny licensed area in the northern part of the Caspian Sea.
The field was discovered with the first exploration well in the Yuzhno-Rakushechnaya structure, 220 km from Astrakhan.
The primary well gave inflow of light, water-free low sulfur oil with over 800 tons per day flow rate at 0.2 MPa depression.
Such flow rates in Russia are found at only a few wells, according to LUKOIL (average flow rate in Russia is 10.5 tons per day).
The reserves of the new field under the "probable" and "possible" categories are estimated to be 600 MMbbl of oil and 1.2 tcf of gas.
Completion of exploration, preparation, and approval of the design documentation for the development of the field will allow the upgrade of the reserves to the "proved" category.
The new field is the first predominant oil field within the licensed areas of LUKOIL in the Northern Caspian.
Seventy-five percent of the total reserves of the field is oil, while all the other fields opened by the company in the Caspian region are mostly gas fields.
The oil reserves of the new field considerably exceed those of the adjacent field after Yu. Korchagin, which is prepared for development, and favorably differs from the latter in main geological parameters.
The new field surpasses the previously opened fields in the Caspian region in its oil production potential.
Preliminary calculations show that the maximum oil production rate at the new field will exceed 5 million tons and the accumulated production will be around 80 million tons (with the extraction ratio of 0.5).
The new field and the field after Yu. Korchagin are building the foundation for future vast offshore oil production infrastructure with reliable crude material base and annual production rate of around 8 million tons.
The new field is the most significant oil field opened in Russia for the last 10 years, according to the company.
LUKOIL says the new field was given the name of Vladimir Filanovsky, recognizing the contributions of a local oil man.
01/25/06
