Gazprom Neft has begun its full-scale development of a major hydrocarbon cluster (with total potential resources estimated at 650 million tonnes of oil) covering license blocks in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Tyumen Oblast in Western Siberia.
One million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons have been produced at the project’s flagship asset—Alexander Zhagrin field, Yugra—in its first year under development. Peak production of 6.5 million tonnes of oil per year at the field is expected in 2024.
The new production cluster includes five license blocks—the Zapadno-Zimny, Severo-Vaysky, Karabashsky-84, and the Srednevaysky blocks, all in the Kondinsky district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, and the Yuzhno-Zimny block in the Uvatsky district of the Tyumen Oblast. Together, the blocks cover 5,000 sq km with reserves initially in place (RIIP) estimated at 650 million tonnes.
Reserves initially in place at Alexander Zhagrin, discovered in 2017, are estimated at 111 million tonnes of oil. Well pads, oil-gathering lines, a separation unit, an initial energy complex, power supply lines, and road-transport network facilities have been installed at the field. An oil processing facility is expected to be commissioned in 2022. Construction of the field’s already partially functioning oil transportation infrastructure is expected to be completed by end-2020. The infrastructure will connect future oil treatment facilities with the Demyanskoye crude oil delivery and acceptance point (CODAP), from where hydrocarbons will subsequently feed into the Transneft trunk pipeline system.
Fifty-four production wells have been drilled at Alexander Zhagrin field. By 2028, 920 are expected to have been drilled, with 70% being high-tech horizontal wells.
Resource potential at Severo-Vayskoye and Srednevayskoye fields is about 81 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons. Initial estimates suggest total RIIP at the Yuzhno-Zimny and Karabashsky blocks could exceed 180 million tonnes of oil, with reserves at the Zapadno-Zimny block estimated at 388 million tonnes of oil.
Geological prospecting is expected to be complete by 2027 at Severo-Vaysky, Srednevaysky and Zapadno-Zimny blocks, and by 2029 at Yuzhno-Zimny and Karabashsky-84 blocks. The outcomes of prospecting activities will make it possible to put a development programme in place for each of the blocks in Gazprom Neft’s new oil production cluster in Western Siberia. Development of these assets will be undertaken by Gazpromneft-Khantos.
“Thanks to modern geological prospecting technologies, the construction of highly reliable conceptual and integral models, and new approaches to working with and interpreting data, we have been able to speed up investigations at this cluster quite considerably. In the space of just a few years the licensing portfolio around the Alexander Zhagrin field has seen considerable expansion, the economic efficiency of development has been confirmed, and we have been able to move from initial geological prospecting to production, very fast,” said Yuri Masalkin, director for geological prospecting and resource base development.
