OAO Lukoil discovered a multipay oil and gas-condensate field on the Severny license in the Caspian Sea, calling it Russia’s largest discovery in a decade.
The discovery well on the Yuzhno-Rakushechnaya structure flowed at the rate of 800 tons/day (5,840 b/d) of light, low sulfur oil at a slight pressure drawdown, Lukoil said. No water was detected.
The field, 220 km south-southwest of Astrakhan, is likely to contain probable and possible recoverable volumes of 600 million bbl of oil and 1.2 tcf of gas.
“Completion of exploration, preparation and approval of the design documentation for the development of the field will allow to upgrade the reserves to the ‘proved’ category,” Lukoil said. It named the field after prominent Russian oil man Vladimir Filanovsky.
The company said 75% of the field’s reserves are oil, whereas most other fields it has discovered in the Caspian region are predominantly gas.
Filanovsky is just northwest of, larger than, and has more favorable geology than Lukoil’s Yu. Korchagin field, which is under development. Early data indicate that the new field should produce 100,000 b/d.
Meanwhile, Valkyries Petroleum Corp., Vancouver, BC, plans to spud its first exploration well on the Lagansky block in the North Caspian Sea off Russia’s Kalmykia Republic in mid-2006.
Valkyries identified several drillable prospects from new 2D seismic data on the 2,000 sq km block, which lies between shore and Lukoil’s Filanovsky discovery.
The company is converting shallow draft barges to drill the Morskoye prospect in 2 m of water to three main Cretaceous and Jurassic reservoirs at 800-1,600 m starting at the end of the second quarter.
Lukoil’s Severny record
Lukoil issued a status report on its Northern Caspian exploration at a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in mid-2004. The company said it hoped to begin production as early as 2008.
Exploratory drilling resulted in commercial hydrocarbon flows from multiple pays at five structures, said Anatoly Novikov, Lukoil’s vice-president in charge of geological exploration and field development. Novikov identified the structures as Khvalynskaya, ‘170-km’, Shirotnaya, Sarmatskaya, and Rakushechnaya.
Eight wells had been drilled on the five structures, in which oil and gas, gas, and gas-condensate were discovered.
The company gauged the largest gas flows, in excess of 35 MMcfd, at Khvalynskoye and Sarmatskoye fields. It tested the largest oil flows, 2,750 b/d, at ‘170-km’ field and Yu. Korchagin.
Lukoil’s long view is that production from fields in the Caspian will help Russia make up for the declines from its traditional Volga-Urals and Western Siberia areas.
