PROSPECTS SLATED FOR ASSESSMENT ON SAKHALIN ISLAND

A 10 month study of onshore prospectivity of Sakhalin Island is to begin next month by Intera Information Technologies, Henley-on-Thames, U.K., in collaboration with regional authorities. Russian partners will be Sakhalin Island companies Sakhalinmorneftegas and Sakhalingeophysrazvedka, both based in Okha, and Vostokgeology of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk. The project will focus on generative potential of Sakhalin's sedimentary basins and their exploration possibilities. The island, 950 km long and

Oct. 4, 1993

2 min read

A 10 month study of onshore prospectivity of Sakhalin Island is to begin next month by Intera Information Technologies, Henley-on-Thames, U.K., in collaboration with regional authorities.

Russian partners will be Sakhalin Island companies Sakhalinmorneftegas and Sakhalingeophysrazvedka, both based in Okha, and Vostokgeology of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk.

The project will focus on generative potential of Sakhalin's sedimentary basins and their exploration possibilities. The island, 950 km long and less than 200 km wide, is said to hold about a dozen Tertiary basins with hydrocarbon potential.

"Sakhalin Island is ideally positioned to make an important contribution to the increasing energy requirements of the dynamic and expanding Pacific rim economies," said Chris Rowson, Intera's vice-president of exploration marketing.

"Sakhalin's outcrop geology and extensive well and seismic databases are a cost effective means of providing some of the answers necessary for the exploration of the offshore areas of Tatar Strait and the western parts of the Sea of Okhotsk."

From 1980 to 1993 Sakhalinmorneftegas and Vostokgeology acquired 35,000 line km of seismic survey data. This will be used in the study, Intera said. Similarly, data from a selection of more than 4,000 wells drilled on the island will be used.

"Known fields will be reviewed and an assessment of the remaining potential will be made," Rowson said. "New play concepts will be developed for each basin as appropriate."

Intera is seeking oil company sponsorship of the nonexclusive Study.

BACKGROUND

Exploration and development on North Sakhalin began in the 1920s. Since then about 50 discoveries have been made, of which about 30 were placed on production.

These fields provide 75% of Far East Russian oil production, Rowson said. Oil moves by pipeline to a refinery at Komsomol-Amure, about 550 km away on the mainland. There also are several gas discoveries in the Aniva basin in the south of the island, where the gas is used locally.

Small volumes of oil are exported from Okruznoye field in the Pogranichny graben on the island's east coast, Intera said. Development rights for nearby offshore discoveries, including Piltun Askokhskoye, Lunskoye, Chaivo, and Oduptu, are sought by international companies.