Our Arctic Neighbors: TNK-BP continuing to invest in Yamalo-Nenets field

The oil output at TNK-BP’s Russkoe field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug was more than 183,250 barrels in the first quarter of 2010, double the figure in the same period last year, the company said in a release April 12. The crude oil is being transported from the field via an ice road until spring. TNK-BP is Russia’s third-largest oil company, owned by BP and a consortium of Russian companies.

The company invested $13.7 million in the Russkoe field in the first quarter of 2010, most of which was spent on new infrastructure and production drilling, according to the release. In 2010 it plans to drill a total of 10 wells at the field, to add 2 megawatts of capacity to the diesel-fired power station and to construct a number of facilities, including an artesian water supply site, a gas treatment unit, an equipment storage facility and a helicopter pad.

“We’re investing around $200 million in the development of Russkoe in 2010. The development of this field needs large investments,” said Sergei Brezitsky, TNK-BP’s executive vice president, upstream. “TNK-BP has started to build a 47-kilometer (29-mile) road to the Zapolyarnoe field this year, so that by the end of 2011 all the oil it produces under the pilot production scheme can be transported. We hope that the government will soon approve the integrated development program for fields in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and northern Krasnoyarsk Krai, which would resolve the issue of building long-distance pipeline infrastructure in the region and enable us to speed up the development of our fields.”

—Sarah Hurst