OREANDA-NEWS. Gazpromneft Khantos has acquired two new exploration and production (E&P) licences, for the Maloyugansk and Zapadno-Zimnee fields in the Khanty Mansiysk Autonomous Region. These new assets, acquired by auction, adjoin the currently developed Yuzhno-Kinyaminsk and Zimnee fields. The licences are valid for a period of 25 years, including five years for geological prospecting.

Geological prospecting and valuation of the new licence books are scheduled for 2015, as well as determination of the priority (and most viable) areas for development drilling, and the drafting of an infrastructure road map.

The 328-sqaure-kilometre Maloyugansk licence block covers the Nizhnevartovsky and Surgutsky districts of the Khanty Mansiysk Autonomous Region. Recoverable C1 and C2 reserves are estimated at 17.3 million tonnes, and category D reserves at eight million. Thanks to the presence of established C1 resources and proximity to the Yuzhno-Kinyaminsky field, first commercial production is expected as early as 2016.

The 1,240-square-kilometre Zapadno-Zimnee licence block is located in the Kondinsky district, part of the so-called “Tobolsk” group. The field’s recoverable reserves (category C3, reserves in place) amount to 2.4 million tonnes of oil, with category D (undiscovered potential resources) estimated at 74 million tonnes.

Gazpromneft Khantos CEO Sergey Doktor commented: “Acquisition of the Maloyugansk and Zapadno-Zimnee licence blocks is integral to the company’s strategy of expanding our resource base and increasing production volumes, allowing Gazpromneft Khantos to remain the fastest-developing company in the region.”

Gazpromneft-Khantos LLC was founded in 2005 and represents one of the key E&P enterprises of Gazprom Neft. The company is engaged in exploration and production throughout the Khanty Mansiysk Autonomous Region and the Tomsk Oblast, including the Priobskoye, Palyanovskoye, Zimnee, Zapadno-Zimnee, Tuzhniy, Orekhovo-Ermazovskoe, Yuzhno-Kinyaminskoe, and Maloyuganskoe fields. Year-end results show the company produced 14.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2014, an increase of 4.5 percent on the previous year. February 2015 saw the production of the 100-millionth tonne of oil since the commencement of commercial production at the company’s first oilfield assets, in 2005.