Russia's Rosneft says it has made a new oil discovery in the Laptev Sea, in the Russian Arctic.
Rosneft says the Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 well is the first in the Laptev Sea, and the northernmost exploratory well on the Eastern Arctic shelf, making the firm "a pioneer" in Eastern Arctic shelf oil exploration.
The well was drilled from shore from the Khara-Tumus Peninsula, in Khatanga Bay, in the the Laptev Sea. Three core samples, taken from depths of 2305-2363m, showed high oil saturation, with "light oily fractions," says Rosneft.
Rosneft was awarded the Khatanga license in November 2015. President Vladimir Putin gave the command to start drilling the well, the firm says.
The Khatanga license area is in the Khatanga Bay, in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Region. It covers 17,217.5sq km with water depth down to 32m.
Rosneft says it currently owns 28 license areas on the Arctic shelf with total resources of 34 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.
Since 2014, Rosneft says it has carried out seismic studies revealing 114 "promising" oil and gas-bearing structures, says the firm. It says preliminary estimates suggest that the Laptev Sea’s total potential geological resources could come to 9.5 billion tonne of oil equivalent.
Rosneft says estimates suggest that Arctic shelf could account for 20-30% of Russia's total oil production by 2050.
Rosneft says, between 2017-2021, it plans to spend up to US$4.3 billion (250 billion roubles) on Arctic shelf development, having spent $1.7 billion (100 billion roubles) from 2012-2017.
In 2016, Rosneft says it carried out more than 35,500km of 2D seismic and more than 5000sq km of 3D seismic studies. Aerogeophysical surveys also covered 207,000sq km. As a result, an area of over 0.8 million square kilmotres of the Russian shelf was explored, Rosneft says.
Subscribe
