OAO Rosneft and Statoil ASA have begun shooting geophysical surveys on three blocks in the Sea of Okhotsk offshore the Russian Far East.
OJSC RN Shelf Far East, a Rosneft subsidiary, is using the Academik Fersman research vessel to collect 2D seismic and shipborne gravity and magnetic surveys. Planned scope is 5,300 line-km on the Lisyansky block, 2,000 line-km on the Kashevarovsky block, and 2,700 line-km on the Magadan-1 block.
Environmental and fishery research are to be carried out on all three blocks in 2013 by LLC Environmental Co. of Sakhalin, a contractor. Another planned environmental protection measure is a study of the subsea wellhead of the Khmitevskaya-2 well drilled on the Magadan-1 block in the 1990s.
Rosneft obtained licenses for geological study and hydrocarbon production on the three blocks in late 2011. Rosneft and DeGolyer & MacNaughton judge the total prospective recoverable resource on the blocks at 1,741 million tonnes of oil equivalent.