OREANDA-NEWS. The establishment of Rechitsky consolidated oil-extracting enterprise was preceded by the discovery of commercial reserves of "black gold" in Belarus. After thirty years of exploration, on August 20, 1964 the drilling crew headed by foreman driller Valentin Zaitsev obtained the first Belarusian powerful oil flow at the R-8 well with a flow rate of 120 tons per day. The oil potential of Belarusian subsurface was confirmed two months later: on October 17, another oil flow with a flow rate of about 600 tons per day was obtained at the oilrig 6, where the drilling crew headed by Vladimir Galko was working. The newly discovered oilfield was named Rechitskoye, and Rechitsky consolidated oil-extracting enterprise was established for the purpose of its development.

It was built almost from scratch - the production facilities and then the social infrastructure had to be built from point zero. Nevertheless, only two months had passed after the Resolution on establishment of oil-extracting enterprise was adopted before it produced the first product - crude oil for the Druzhba international oil pipeline. The rich history of the Soviet oil industry has rarely seen similar cases. The importance of the Republic's incipient oil industry was confirmed by the fact that the first secretary of the CPB Central Committee Pyotr Masherov attended the start-up ceremony.

The initial production rates of Belarusian oil were fascinating - two years later, the first million tons of "black gold" was produced. By that time, the production base of the Rechitsky consolidated oil-extracting enterprise became the basis for establishment of the state Oil and Gas Production Association Belorusneft. In 1969, then-new automation and remote control systems are introduced, and crude oil treatment equipment are built and put into operation.

In the same year, the oil field receives its present name - OGPD Rechitsaneft. And having a new status, it reports to the country of 5 million tons of crude oil produced. In 1975, the company passed the level of 40 million tons and reached its peak annual production of nearly 8 million tons. However, Belarusian oil reserves were not confirmed as they had been declared by the scientists, and since the middle of the 1970s a dramatic decline in oil production began. For the past few years, production levels have been stabilized at approximately 1 million 645 thousand tons. In total, over 50 years of the Department's work in Belarusian oilfields, 129.1 million tons of oil and 14.5 billion cubic meters of associated gas have been produced.

OGDP Rechitsaneft today is a complex production facility fitted with the latest technical equipment and processing facilities. The Department comprises 3 oil & gas production units, 2 hire-and-repair shops, reservoir pressure maintenance shops, oil treatment and pumping shops, production automation unit, as well as laboratories and services. The Department team consists of 880 workers, of which 368 have higher education. The average age of workers is 40 years.

As far as the Department's operations area is concerned, today oil and gas are produced in 62 Belarusian fields. The operating well stock consists of 767 wells of both flush production and artificial lift.