MOBIL BIDS FOR E&D ROLE OFF SAKHALIN ISLAND

More western upstream technology is headed for the Soviet Union, and still more is waiting in the wings. In the latest action: Mobil Corp. confirmed that its exploration and producing division has submitted to Soviet and local authorities an oil and gas production and development proposal off Sakhalin Island. Parker Drilling Co., Tulsa, disclosed that another land rig from its U.S. fleet will soon go to work in the Soviet Union.

Sept. 2, 1991

3 min read

More western upstream technology is headed for the Soviet Union, and still more is waiting in the wings.

In the latest action:

Mobil Corp. confirmed that its exploration and producing division has submitted to Soviet and local authorities an oil and gas production and development proposal off Sakhalin Island.
Parker Drilling Co., Tulsa, disclosed that another land rig from its U.S. fleet will soon go to work in the Soviet Union.
Anglo-Suisse Production (Cyprus) Ltd., a subsidiary of Anglo-Suisse LP, Houston, retained L.A. Martin & Associates Inc., also of Houston, to help assess oil and gas potential of four fields in western Siberia. Anglo-Suisse Cyprus and Varyeganneftegaz (VNG) are considering jointly developing the area through the proposed Golden Mammoth venture (OGJ, July 15, p. 34).

SAKHALIN ISLAND

Mobil's proposal responded to an invitation issued last June by a joint body from the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and the Russian Federation State Committee on Geology and Use of Energy and Mineral Resources.

The joint body asked western companies to bid on a plan to develop fields and continue exploration off the east coast of Sakhalin Island. The island lies in the eastern part of the Russian Republic, north of Japan (OGJ, Mar. 18, p. 33).

A Mobil spokesman confirmed that a representative from Mobil New Producing Ventures (MNPV) hand carried Russian language versions of its 250 page proposal to Soviet authorities Aug. 10.

The bid proposal contains Mobil's analysis of the development of Piltun-Astokhskoye and the Lunskoye fields off Sakhalin Island's northeast shore in the Sea of Okhotsk. Mobil and other bidders will learn in October the decision of authorities regarding further negotiations.

In confirming the Sakhalin Island bid, Mobil also disclosed that its representatives have been visiting the U.S.S.R. since October 1989 to gather technical data and establish contacts at all levels of government for areas of further study. To date, Mobil teams have studied the Timan Pechora, Komi, Offshore Arctic, western Siberia, Sakhalin Island, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan regions.

MNPV and local authorities have signed two documents to cover feasibility studies in western Siberia. A third has been signed by another Mobil unit, Mobil New Exploration Ventures (MNEV), to reprocess seismic data from an area in western Siberia.

MNEV also has signed an agreement with Irgirgi, a branch of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry Academy of Sciences, for an exchange of technical personnel. The Mobil unit also agreed to provide Irgirgi computer workstations to aid in data processing and analysis.

THIRD PARKER RIG

White Nights Joint Enterprise exercised a contract option with Parker Drilling Co. International Ltd. to operate a third Parker rig in western Siberian oil fields in the Russian Federation.

The latest SCR electric rig, being transferred from Parker's Rocky Mountain division, will drill along with another Parker rig in West Varyegan oil field.

Another Parker rig is operating in nearby Tagrinsk oil field.

The Soviet-bound rig was refurbished to an arctic pad development drilling configuration at Partech, Parker's research and development and manufacturing center in Odessa, Tex.

The rig will depart from Houston early this month and arrive in Leningrad by late September. First moved by rail to western Siberia, the rig will then be transferred by barges and trucks to its first location and begin development drilling operations late in October.