Page 17 - FSUOGM Week 35 2020

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Gazprom Neft brings two remote

fields on stream

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Gazprom Neft has launched oil pro- adding more units.
duction at two remote gas fields in Western Output is expected to peak at 2mn tonnes
Using mobile Siberia ahead of schedule, attributing this to its per year (40,000 bpd) of liquid hydrocarbons
infrastructure helped success in using mobile field infrastructure. in 2022. Next year the company plans to build
cut the development The Pestsovoye and En-Yakhinskoye fields a central oil gather station, a compressor station
time, according to in the Yamalo-Nenets are operated by Gazprom with a gas treatment unit and a gas-fired power
Gazprom Neft. Neft’s parent company Gazprom, and already plant.
flow gas. But Gazprom Neft won a contract last Gazprom Neft is similarly using mobile treat-
year to exploit the deposits’ oil rims – thin layers ment units to develop oil at the Yamburgskoye
of oil covered by the main gas caps. and Tazovskoye fields, also in Yamalo-Nenets,
Gazprom Neft has finished the construc- and exploit oil rims at the Chayandinskoye field
tion of an oil gathering system and has installed in Eastern Siberia’s Yakutia region.
mobile oil treatment units at the sites. The use of “Modern technology is the key to the most
these mobile units had enabled the company to challenging and remote fields,” Gazprom Neft
double the speed of development, it said. said. “The use of mobile infrastructure allowed
Equipment delivery to commissioning took us to significantly reduce the time required for
only three months, the company said. The units field development.”
are capable of treating 3,400 tonnes (25,000 bar- This solution is particularly effective at
rels) per day of crude, though the fields currently smaller fields, and Gazprom Neft is using it to
produce only 22,000 bpd. Gazprom Neft will launch production at the West-Tarkosalinskoye
be able to boost treatment capacity further by field in Yamalo-Nenets next year. ™

Rosneft fully covered cost of Black

Sea drilling, not Eni

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Rosneft fully covered the cost of Furthermore, the latest financial report of
unsuccessful Black Sea drilling in 2018 itself, Shatskmorneftegaz, the joint venture Rosneft
Rosneft had earlier said Kommersant reported on August 31, despite the and Eni set up to explore the Black Sea, reveals
its partner Eni would national oil company (NOC) previously claim- that the Russian firm covered the project’s
foot the bill. ing that its Italian partner Eni would foot the bill. budget on its own, according to Kommersant. It
Rosneft and Eni formed a joint venture in did so as per the pair’s shareholders' agreement,
2012 to explore the Black Sea’s Zapadno-Cher- the newspaper said.
nomorsky block, along with partnerships to The revelation comes after Rosneft recently
search for oil in the northern Barents Sea. Ros- announced it had resumed drilling in the
neft took a 66.7% stake in the project, while Eni offshore Arctic, an even costlier region. The
held 33.3%. company has spudded two wells in the Kara
Rosneft had said Eni would fully fund the Sea near to where it made the Pobeda oil
planned exploration work, including a $128.6mn discovery with ExxonMobil six years ago,
well the pair drilled in 2018. The well was drilled its CEO Igor Sechin told Russian President
in waters over 6,000 metres deep, to a depth of Vladimir Putin earlier this month. According
more than 2,000 metres under the seabed. to Kommersant, it is using two Chinese rigs to
Rosneft had expressed high hopes that the do the work.
well could discover billions of barrels of oil. But Offshore Arctic drilling is very costly, because
results disappointed, with Eni confirming the of operational and logistical challenges. The 2014
hole as dry. well that discovered Pobeda is estimated to have
This was a major setback for Rosneft, which cost $600mn.
had hoped to open a new frontier for oil pro- Rosneft and Eni disbanded their Black Sea
duction in the Black Sea. The 2018 well was the joint venture two years ago. The pair remain
first to be drilled in Russia's Black Sea, although partners at two blocks in the Arctic Barents Sea,
Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey have all reported but these projects are effectively frozen because
large offshore discoveries in the region. of Western sanctions. ™

Week 35 02•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17