OREANDA-NEWS. July 04, 2012. The drilling of the first operating well at the Messoyakha field is underway. The well, which is due to be completed in July, will be 1,800 metres deep.

Gazprom Neft began preparation on the pilot development work at the Messoyakha site in May by drilling a well that will be used for water intake purposes. In addition to the four exploratory wells, a total of three operating wells and one water well will be drilled at each of the two cluster sites at Messoyakha in 2012.

Testing of the operating wells will commence in the summer of 2012, but full-scale development of the Messoyakha group will only be possible once construction of the Zapolyar’e-Purpe pipeline, which will carry some of the oil, is completed.

The results of the drilling will enable better understanding of the geological structure of the Messoyakha group and will be used to plan further exploitation of the oil field, as well as the pilot development of new sites and infrastructure.