Pending a detailed assessment in mid-2018, Gazprom Neft PJSC has discovered a field that could contain as much as 255 million tonnes of oil equivalent.
Subsidiary Gazpromneft-Sakhalin reported that it has completed an appraisal well in the Ayashsky block on the Okhotsk Sea continental shelf. The block is part of the Sakhalin III project and is next to developed fields of the Sakhalin I and Sakhalin II projects (OGJ Online, June 23, 2017).
The operator collected 162 m of core from potentially productive strata encountered in the 2,700-m well. The company reported the discovery with no indication of the type and consistency of encountered hydrocarbons.
In addition to the Ayashsky block, Sakhalin III includes Kirinsky and Vostochno-Odoptinsky blocks where Gazprom is engaged in further exploration. Similarly, the company reported a “substantial gas and condensate inflow” from a well on the Kirinsky block in 2016 but with no further details (OGJ Online, Sept. 23, 2016).
