OREANDA-NEWS. December 31, 2009. The Russian-British company TNK-BP is going to increase its oil production in the framework of the Uvat project in 2010 by 37%, compared to 2008, up to 4 mln tons, the press service of the company quoted the words of Andrei Rublev, General Director of TNK-Uvat. Mr. Rublev said that commercial development of two new fields of the Uvat group – the Urnenskoe and Ust-Tegusskoe fields was started in early February 2009.“Thus, we added two more fields to the Kalchinskoe field, which so far was the only producing field in the Tyumen Region, and produced 2 mln tons of oil in these new fields. This is our main success in 2009,” he said.

According to Mr. Rublev, in 2010 the company will continue drilling works in the Urnenskoe and Ust-Tegusskoe fields and start drilling works and commercial development of the Tyamkinskoe field in the Uvat District.

“In 2009, we constructed a trunk oil pipeline connecting the eastern and western development centers of the Uvat project. Fields in the central part of the Uvat District will be put into development in the nearest years. In 2010, we are going to produce 4 mln tons of oil in the Uvat fields. In 2008 we produced 1.2 mln tons of oil, and in 2009 our oil production in the Ust-Tegussskoe, Urnenskoe, and Kalchinskoe fields is reaching 2.9 mln tons,” he said.

The overall investments into the Uvat project are expected to amount to USD 2.5 bln by the end of 2009. Mr. Rublev explained that the payback period of this project is approximately 6–7 years from the beginning of its implementation.

“Implementation of this project is scheduled until 2047 according to the current estimates of reserves, structure of formations, and capacity of reservoirs. The originally planned production rates turned out to be much higher in fact, which inspires optimism,” he added.

Mr. Rublev reminded that the company started implementation of the Uvat project in 2004 and mobilization of main drilling capacities in the fall of 2006.

“In 2007–2008, we were performing well pad construction works in two new areas – the Urnenskoe and Ust-Tegusskoe fields. In parallel, we were building an oil pipeline connecting these two fields with the Kalchinskoe field, the first and, until very recently, the only field in the southern Tyumen Region where TNK-BP was producing oil on a commercial scale. In early February 2009, construction of this 264-km—long oil pipeline was completed, and, on February 16, 2009, the Urnenskoe and Ust-Tegusskoe fields were put into full-scale development. All these events broke new grounds in oil production in the southern Tyumen Region,” he said.

According to the General Director of TNK-Uvat, the volume of oil production will grow every year. The oil pipeline was constructed so as to traverse all license areas of the Uvat project currently licensed to TNK-BP and transport up to 11 mln tons of oil a year. Mr. Rublev noted that the current economic crisis made changes in the initial project.

“Last year, for example, we explored a promising oil field in the central part of the Uvat project – the Tyamkinskoe field, built a well pad in it, drilled two development wells, and were going to put the field into full-scale development this year, but then decided to first launch the Urnenskoe and Ust-Tegusskoe fields, which were prepared to full-scale operation more than the Tyamkinskoe field. Now, we have resumed works in the Tyamkinskoe field and will start commercial production of oil in it in August 2010,” he said.

Mr. Rublev reminded that that the first investments made in the framework of the agreement on strategic cooperation between the Tyumen Region Administration and TNK-BP in 2004 were intended for prospecting and exploration drilling, further exploration of fields, and confirmation of predicted reserves.

“Since then, we were drilling 10 to 30 exploration wells every year. As a result, we have discovered 16 new fields, and now the oil reserves in the south part of the Tyumen Region exceed 1 bln tons. This year, the program of geological exploration works was somewhat adjusted. The investments were curtailed a little bit, and yet another promising field was discovered. Next year, the volume of geological exploration works will be 2 to 2.5 times larger than this year,” he said.

Talking about the prospects of associated petroleum gas utilization, Mr. Rublev noted that all the industrial and social infrastructure of the eastern group of Uvat project fields is powered by powerful diesel plants.

“We used up some 8,000 cubic meters of diesel fuel in the first year of field development, approximately 16,000–17,000 cubic meters in the following year, and so on until we realized that this is too expensive for us. Eventually, we opted for own power generation and started construction of a gas-turbine power plant. In October 2010, this power plant will be put into operation. This will solve two problems for us at the same time – utilization of associated petroleum gas and generation of power for our own needs,” he noted.

Earlier, Sergey Brezitsky, Executive Vice President of TNK-BP, said that TNK-BP will increase its oil production from the current 70 mln tons in 2009 up to 72 mln tons in 2010. The Executive Vice President noted that the oil production of the company increased by 2.2% in 2009, which is equal to 2.5% in oil equivalent. In particular, the oil production of the company grew by 7–9% in the Orenburg Region and dropped by 3–4% in West Siberia. Mr. Brezitsky pointed out that the growth of oil production influenced the implementation of the Verkhnechonsk and Uvat projects.

TNK-BP established in 2003 is one of the ten largest private oil companies in the world. The production assets of the company are located in Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, and the Volga-Ural region. TNK-BP owns five oil refineries in Russia and Ukraine and a network of 1.400 retail sites working under the brands of BP and TNK.

TNK-BP is the third largest oil company of Russia. 50% of the company is owned by BP, and the other 50% by the AAR Consortium (25% by Alfa Group of Mikhail Fridman, 12.5% by Renova of Viktor Vekselberg, and 12.5% by Access Industries of Len Blavatnik).