OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2009. The employees' conference of the OAO Tatneft labor collective was held in Almetyevsk (Republic of Tatarstan), which summarized the results of the Company's activity as well as fulfillment of the collective labor agreement terms for 2008 and also approved the plans for the current year, reported the press-centre of Tatneft.

OAO Tatneft produced 25 million 766 thousand tons of crude oil during 2008, which makes about 25 thousand tons surplus versus the previous year. About 45% of the total crude oil volume produced is accounted for by the application of various up-to-date methods of oil recovery enhancement.

The volume of about 300 thousand tons was produced in the licensed areas of Samara, Orenburg,   Ulyanovsk Districts and the Republic of Kalmykia, exploration works are in progress in the Nenetz Autonomous Okrug.

Outside the Russian Federation the Company drilled 3 exploratory wells in Syria identifying the oil productive horizon with crude oil flowing at the rate of 150 cubic meters per day. Geological exploration works are on the way in four areas in Libya.

19.7 thousand tons of extra heavy oil was produced from Ashalchinskoe bituminous field starting with the beginning of the pilot/commercial development with application of steam assisted gravity drainage. The average production rate for the area amounts to 35.6 tons per day.

Net revenues from sales of the products shipped for the year reported are expected to exceed 217 billion rubles, while the balance sheet profit will make about 49 billion rubles and profitability will be 30%, the amount of accrued taxes and payments to the budgets of all levels will equal to 243 billion rubles, which is almost 40% higher versus the level of the last year, 18.3 billion rubles are accrued into the consolidated budget of the Republic of Tatarstan.

As of today in accordance with the changes in the legislation the differentiated rate of the tax on natural resources production  is applied to the largest Romashkinskoye oil field of the Company, as well as to the depleting fields of the Prikamye area. Released funds are directed to the prolongation of the cost-effective life period of the fields.

OAO Tatneft was the first company in Russia to apply the technology of horizontal well bores drilling through application of hydraulic downhole motors; the technology of underbalanced drilling was introduced, as well as the technology and construction of drilling multilaterals wells and drilling and construction of small-diameter wells. Transition to drilling of the wells based on the individual cost estimates allowed saving about 300 million ruble of investments in 2008.

10 experts of the Company were nominated the "Engineer of the Year" in the annual All-Russian contest in 2008. OAO Tatneft was once again recognized as "Best Enterprise in the Area of Invention and Rationalization of the Republic of Tatarstan".

A group of authors from OAO TATNEFT was nominated as a laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan in the field of science and technology for their work of "Development and commercial introduction of the new technologies and equipment complex to improve the efficiency of extracting hard-to-recover crude oil reserves". Five TATNEFT's projects were recognized as winners in the Republican Contest named "Fifty best innovative ideas for the Republic of Tatarstan", etc.

The Company became the winner of the Ist degree of the Russian national award EcoMir and the winner of the National Environmental Prize of Russia in  2008, Tatneft was recognized an absolute winner in the national contest "Ekoleader" for the fifth year running. TATNEFT received international certification of the integrated environmental management system ISO 14001:2004 and the one of the management system in the field of labor safety, occupational health and industrial safety. The Company achieved the minimum level of total injuries for all the time of the Company's existence during the past year.

One of the traditional priorities of the company is taking care of the employees. All of the obligations stipulated in the Collective Labor Agreement of OAO Tatneft in 2008 have been implemented. The Management and the Trade Union Committee of OAO Tatneft agreed on maintaining the social benefits and guarantees level of the Collective Labor Agreement, social programs, the planned volume of mortgage housing in 2009.

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A multistage program of steps has been developed for structural divisions, subsidiaries and oil service enterprises to ensure financial sustainability and reduction of production costs in the Company. These steps are associated with operating activities as well as with optimization of the investment programs.

A resolution has been adopted providing that it is necessary to ensure crude oil production in the amount not less than the base amount of 25 million 400 tons in 2009. Introduction of innovative technologies into the crude oil production will be continued, as well as development of the extra viscous crude oil reserves and works on the licensed areas in the territory of the Russian Federation and beyond its borders. The first phase of ELOU-AWT-7 unit completion in the framework of the project for construction of the refineries and   petrochemical plants complex for in-depth processing of the high sulfur crude oil was scheduled for the end of 2009.

The work will continue to improve the corporate management, performance of activities aimed at further strengthening the financial and economic status of OAO Tatneft.