OREANDA-NEWS. Gazprom Neft subsidiary Gazpromneft-Vostok has acquired the subsoil usage licence for the Parabelsky block, located in the Tomsk Oblast. The licence, for geological prospecting at the block, was awarded by the Subsoil Usage Department for the Central Siberian Okrug and runs to 10 May 2022. The total area of the block is 3,247.3 square kilometres.

Prepared oil reserves at this licence block, covering two areas of the Tomsk Oblast (the Parabelsky and Kargasoksky districts) are estimated at 1.2 million tonnes. Preliminary data, based on previously investigated neighbouring areas, suggests oil-bearing strata at the Parabelsky block are likely to be located in Cretaceous, Jurassic and Paleozoic deposits.

Alexei Vashkevich, Head of Geological Exploration and Resource Base Development, Gazprom Neft, commented: "Gazprom Neft continues to develop its resource base in those areas in which it has, traditionally, been active. Acquiring new licenses presents the company with technological challenges - which we are completely ready to address. We are, already, using cutting-edge technologies in geological prospecting, recruiting specialists able to work on new projects."

Gazpromneft-Vostok is one of the most important oil-producing businesses in the Tomsk Oblast. The company operates across 12 fields located throughout the Tomsk Oblast’s Parabelsky and Kargasoksky districts, as well as the Tarsky district (in the Omsk Oblast). The company’s activities are focussed on the Shinginsky, Yuzhno-Shinginsky, Vostochno-Myginsky, Urmansky, Archinsky, Yuzhno-Tabagansky, Smolyany, Kulginsky, Solonovsky, Zapadno-Luginetsky, Nizhneluginetsky fields, and the south-west section of the Krapivinsky field.