OREANDA-NEWS. Based on ongoing estimations undertaken throughout 2015, C1 reserves at the Messoyakha group of fields have been revised up to now total 14.8 million tonnes of oil and 8.8 billion cubic metres of gas: data which has subsequently been adopted by the Federal Reserves Commission.

This increase in recoverable reserves has been obtained as a result of geological and geophysical investigations of PK1-3 strata. Exploratory operations (3D seismic) covering an area of 420 square kilometres were undertaken in 2015, and two exploratory wells drilled and tested, with one of these — at the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field — generating free-flowing oil at a volume of around 60 cubic metres per day.

Last year (2015) saw work commence on the re-processing and reinterpretation of all available seismic data on the Vostochno- and Zapadno-Messoyakhskoye licence blocks, obtained over the course of the past 14 years, with the aim of establishing a single, comprehensive source of geophysical data. These results will form the basis for the next stage of reserves re-evaluation, planned for 2016.

Construction of the infrastructure necessary to allow production drilling to commence is currently ongoing at the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field. This includes, in particular, construction of cluster pads, an inter-field communications network, and ongoing work on the construction of a utilities network at the central oil gathering facility and crude oil delivery and acceptance point (CODAP). Construction of the generator room for a gas turbine power plant is nearing completion.

Two dormitories (hostels) have already been built at the shift-workers’ field camp, together with an office block. With snow cover now established, construction of a pressure pipeline connecting the field to the Zapolyarye-Purpe trunk pipeline has been resumed. The Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field is expected to be brought into production in 2016.

Alexei Vashkevich, Head of Geological Exploration and Resource Base Development at Gazprom Neft, commented: “We continue to improve the certainty and exactitude of geological data pertaining to the Messoyakha fields. The next few years will see a major part of our geological prospecting resources concentrated on the further and more detailed exploration of discovered reserves, the results of which will impact subsequent phases of development and strategies for optimising project viability.”

The Messoyakha group of fields include the Vostochno (Eastern) and Zapadno (Western) Messoyakhskoye acreages — the northernmost onshore oilfields in Russia. Licences for prospecting and development at both fields are held by Messoyakhaneftegaz, jointly owned by Rosneft and Gazprom Neft PJSC. Gazprom Neft is the operator on the project.

The fields, which were first discovered in the 1980s, are located in the Gydan Peninsula, in the Tazovsky district of the Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous Region, 340 kilometres north of Novy Urengoy, in Russia’s Arctic zone — a region of considerably underdeveloped infrastructure. As at 1 January 2016, C1 and C2 recoverable reserves at the Messoyakha fields are expected to total more than 470 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate, and 188 billion cubic metres of gas. Pilot operations at Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye saw the first oil from this field produced in October 2012. Full-scale production drilling at the field commenced in spring 2015.