OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2008. The Akpatlavuk field in the southwest of Turkmenistan has been developed for a long time. It is there that an exciting discovery that became a landmark event for oil industry workers, the sector, the country was made recently. The oil pools were discovered under the lower red oil-bearing strata. Exploration drilling proved the geologists’ assumptions. Well 40 uncovered the thick oil-bearing strata in the Miocene deposits at the depth of over 4,500 meters.

This discovery will enable to ensure a considerable increase in ‘black gold’ production in the region famous for abundant oil resources. Nowadays, the specialists evaluate the counters of this pool. For several days exploration drilling has been carried out at exploratory well 36.

The budgeted well depth is 4,600 metres and the drilling specialists are closer to this mark with every passing day. Up-to-date equipment and advanced technologies enable to drill at such depth and to considerably increase oil extraction. A part of the wells are shifted to gas lift when gas is injected in the productive strata inject and it pushes ‘black oil’ out on the surface.

It is important not only to extract and refine oil but also to deliver it to consumers. ‘Black oil’ extracted in Akpatlavuk and Keymir is shipped from the oil-loading terminal in the Ekerem settlement. The terminal has been recently modernized. The concrete mooring with the pipeline systems goes far away into the sea allowing servicing even the big tankers.

Another way to transport refined oil is the pipeline systems. The Korpeje-Balkanabat pipeline was laid in 2006. ‘Black gold’ produced in Korpeje, Southern Kamyshylja, Shatut, Nebitlije is piped to the Turkmenbashi complex of oil refineries to be refined. Local oil is remarkable for the high content of paraffin that’s why it is heated in winter so that it could not thicken in the pipes. The new pipeline-thermos has the required systems. Oil is heated at the heat exchanger units. This unit allows piping hydrocarbons promptly and reducing the relevant costs.