Rosneft has launched production at the Arkutun-Dagi field after painstaking preparatory works involving international players amid tough sanctions imposed by an alliance of countries over Russia’s alleged role in the Ukraine crisis.
The oil giant began first oil supplies from the Berkut platform. Production output from the field at planned capacity will reach 4.5 million tonnes a year, says Rosneft.
Rosneft owns a 20 percent stake in the project, along with ExxonMobil (30 percent), SODECO (30 percent), and ONGC Videsh Ltd. (20 percent).
According to a press release, the works have been carried out “in strict compliance with the approved schedule, determined technological specifications” and “all the industrial and ecological safety” regulations.
Rosneft also promised to channel extra tax revenues to the state and regional budgets worth around $9 billion over the next ten years.
“I congratulate the team for the safe and successful development of Sakhalin-1’s third field, Arkutun-Dagi. The start-up of this field will continue to add to the benefits the community is receiving through the development of the Sakhalin-1 project,” ExxonMobil Development Company Vice-President James. K. Flood was quoted as saying.
“The field, located off the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, will bring total daily production at Sakhalin-1 to more than 27 thousand tons The other two fields – Chayvo and Odoptu – began production in 2005 and 2010, respectively,” reads the official statement.
Production from Sakhalin-1’s Arkutun-Dagi field will be routed through the existing Chayvo onshore processing facility on Sakhalin Island and delivered through pipelines to the De-Kastri oil export terminal located in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia.
Arkutun-Dagi field is located about 25 km from the north-eastern shore of the Sakhalin island in the sea of Okhotsk. According to the development simulation model, the existing world's most powerful drilling platform provides for well drilling with horizontal displacement not less than 7 km. As a result, the platform virtually appears as a giant multiple well platform, which allows maximum efficient offshore development.
Sakhalin-1 is the first large-scale shelf project carried out in the Russian Federation on the PSA conditions (executed in 1996).
Rosneft has become the world's leading publicly traded oil producer after it took over BP's Russian venture TNK-BP for $55 billion in March 2013. Rosneft has a vast and high-quality reserve base, with total proved hydrocarbon reserves of 22.8 bln barrels of oil equivalent – among the best indicators for a global publicly traded oil and gas company. Moreover, Rosneft is second-to-none on an international scale in terms of total proved liquid hydrocarbon reserves. The company’s proved reserve-to-production ratio is 25 years.
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Sources: http://www.rosneft.com
Author: Mikhail Vesely