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Our Arctic Neighbors: TNK-BP spending more on Arctic field Russkoe onshore oil field is one of largest in Russia but development hampered by lack of transportation infrastructure Sarah Hurst For Petroleum News
Moscow-based joint venture TNK-BP plans to invest $180 million in the development of the Russkoe oil field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in 2010 and early 2011, the company said in a release Oct. 21. TNK-BP has already invested approximately $100 million in the Russkoe field and is operating 10 wells in it, including four producing wells.
In 2010 TNK-BP will test a thermal method of oil recovery enhancement based on the injection of hot water and steam into the formation at Russkoe. The company will also launch a new experimental setup for reducing oil viscosity immediately at the wellhead. If this proves to be efficient, the knowhow will be applied throughout the field, the release said.
Another project for next year is to build a gas-fired power plant at the Russkoe field and a road from the field to the federal highway that will be built in 2011. At present oil is only being produced in winter because ice roads are the only means of transporting it. Construction of the road will allow year-round production and export of oil.
New technologies needed At the current stage of the field’s development the essential goal is to find new technologies for the recovery of hard-to-extract oil, the head of the Russkoe project, Sergey Biryukov, told the media. The amount of oil being produced by the field is quite small, Biryukov said, amounting to an estimated 146,600 barrels in 2009 and 307,860-337,180 barrels in 2010.
TNK-BP expects to make a decision soon about building two pipelines that would carry oil from the Russkoe field and the company’s other fields across the country, Biryukov said. If the problem of transporting oil from the Russkoe field is solved it can be put into full operation by 2014 and be producing 55 million to 73 million barrels of oil per year in 2012-20, he added.
The in-place reserves of the Russkoe field are estimated at about 11 billion barrels of oil, and its recoverable reserves total about 3 billion barrels, TNK-BP said. Hydrocarbons occur 2,624-2,952 feet deep. The field is one of the largest in Russia. Its oil is characterized by high viscosity and can be used for the production of high-quality jet fuel, diesel fuel, Arctic low-cold-test low-sulfur lubricants, construction bitumen, road-building bitumen and electrode coke.
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