OREANDA-NEWS. On 20 February 2008 during the meeting held in Lensk Yakutia’s president Vyatcheslav Shtyrov announced, that oil produced at the Srednebotuobinsk oilfield in Yakutia should fill the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean pipeline in 2010.

At present the geological exploration and the oil-gas condensate field development design works are under way. The Srednebotuobinsk field reserves amount to 122 million tons of oil according to the prompt estimations to be confirmed.

The commercial oil production shall be commenced at the oil-gas condensate field at the end of the year 2009 according to the project but in 2007 the semi-commercial plants has already extracted 20 thousand tons of oil. The present capacities allow to produce 500 thousand tons per year. 1,5 million tons of oil planned to be produced at the oil-gas condensate field in 2010 and in after years the annual extent of production shall be increased up to 4,5 million tons.
The construction of the oil refinery in Lensk with capacity of 1,5 million tons aligned to produce the oil-products for the needs of the republic is one of the main objectives determined by the license agreement.

Beyond that point the connection of the oilfield to the ESPO pipeline is one of the top-priority goals. The project shall be transferred for the state expertise in the second quarter of 2008. The engineering surveys are completed for the pipeline route, the site units along the route, the construction soil careers. The technical conditions for the tap-in into the ESPO in the region of Lensk are under consideration at present. The total volume of the investment on the first stage of the project amounted to 14 billion rubles.