GOMEL, 18 January (BelTA) – OAO Oil Company Yangpur, a northern asset of the Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft, intends to increase natural gas extraction up to 1 billion m3 per annum. The amount would suffice to satisfy the domestic demand in Belarus, the Belorusneft press service told BelTA.
In 2020 OAO Oil Company Yangpur extracted 215,000 tonnes of oil and over 870 million m3 of associated gas and natural gas. The figures are the largest ones on record since the company's foundation. Despite the pandemic-related complications the company operated successfully in 2020. It intends to increase the record high figures even more.
According to Oil Company Yangpur Director Aleksandr Polyakov, the company scrupulously works with all the assets and areas starting with prospecting work and ending with development and selection of the necessary technologies. The combination produces the desired positive effect. In 2020 the company arranged the geological exploration of the Zapadno-Izvestinskaya area, geotechnical work at the Osenneye field and other fields.
Oil Company Yangpur's gas division demonstrated the fastest growth in 2020. Natural gas extraction tripled. The Metelnoye oil, gas and condensate field, which was discovered in 2015, accounts for the bulk of the output.
According to Aleksandr Polyakov, it usually takes about seven years to do geological exploration, reservoir testing, appraisal, drilling and well development, design documentation, land acquisition, gas field construction, and, finally, build a connection to a Gazprom pipeline. “We've accomplished a lot. We worked step by step and ahead of schedule. We promptly prepared and approved design documents. We took risks sometimes but it is difficult to produce commercial results otherwise,” he added.
Infrastructure was also built rapidly. A gas field was commissioned in 2019. The third natural gas treatment process line has already been built as well as a gas well condensate stabilization installation at the second line and infrastructure at the third well cluster. It is the third well cluster that produces the bulk of the output of the Metelnoye field. It allowed selling extra 1 million m3 of natural gas per day to the Gazprom system.
At present the Metelnoye oil, gas and condensate field operates 11 wells. The assets produce 3 million m3 of natural gas per day and over 240 tonnes of gas condensate. “While the main major gas and gas condensate deposits have already been successfully commissioned, it is the first time an oil deposit has been found at the Metelnoye field. It happened last year. It produces 20 tonnes of oil per day,” the Belorusneft press service explained. Specialists are busy selecting proper drilling-out and development technologies. Work on the feasibility study of infrastructure construction is in progress.
Aleksandr Polyakov clarified: “Our daily extraction potential is 3.5 million m3 of natural gas. Extraction is actually not a problem now but the throughput capacity of the gas pipelines is as well as access to the Gazprom system, which limits gas transportation volume. Our potential is being evaluated, by how much we can increase our share in the Gazprom system.”
OAO Oil Company Yangpur reported good sales in 2020 as well. “The company sells oil, gas condensate, gas, diesel fuel both via long-term direct contracts and via the Saint Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange. It is a new scheme for Belarusian oil companies but many aspects have already been tried and tested. Since 2016 the company has been participating in exchange trade as a trader to sell natural gas and oil products. Since then the company has sold over 1 billion m3 of its own natural gas. New forms of trade are being explored. The volume of gas sales grows steadily. It doubled in 2020. Oil Company Yangpur is becoming more and more noticeable on this market,” the source noted.
Specialists describe Oil Company Yangpur as the driver of growth of Belorusneft's daughter enterprises in Western Siberia. The northern company can already be compared to Belorusneft's oil and gas extracting enterprise Rechitsaneft in Belarus. “One of the strategic goals is to exceed the extraction of hydrocarbons in Belarus by 2026. Moreover, we are about to explore the Yuzhno-Tydeottinsky licensed site, which was bought one year ago. There are plans to buy other areas adjacent to Yangpur's assets,” the press service noted.
The public joint-stock company (OAO) Oil Company Yangpur has represented the Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft on the Russian market since 2013. Oil Company Yangpur performs geological surveying, exploration, and extraction of hydrocarbon resources from fields in the Izvestinsky licensed site and the Yuzhno-Tydeottinsky licensed site in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. The core business includes the extraction of oil, natural gas, gas condensate, sales of hydrocarbon resources and derivative products to companies in Russia and other countries.
