Rosneft Ups Gas Production by 6%
Russian state oil producer Rosneft said it increased 1Q gas production by 6% year-on-year.
It produced 16.72bn m3, 1% above the level of Q4 2015 but 6% above Q1 2015. In its operating results on May 16, it said one of the key factors in gas production growth was the start-up of the second stage of the Novo-Urengoi gas and condensate processing plant, in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district, in a comprehensive testing mode in 4Q 2015. This will enable the gas process plant to reach 11mn m3/d gas and 17,000 b/d condensate capacity.
Another reason was start-up of the third and fourth wells at the northern tip of the Chayvo field, on Sakhalin island in the Pacific, and commissioning of the gas processing plant at the Barsukovsky field (Yamal-Nenets) in December 2015.
Rosneft also said its associated gas utilisation rate improved to 91% in 1Q 2016, from 87% in 1Q 2015.
Overall hydrocarbon production however was 5.21mn barrels of oil equivalent/day, up just 0.2% against Q1 2015.
In 1Q 2016, Rosneft said it successfully completed, with Norway's Statoil, a pilot project on the selection of efficient technologies for reservoir development in the North-Komsomolsk field (Yamal-Nenets), whose total recoverable reserves (ABC1+C2) are 1.48bn barrels of oil and condensate and 197bn m3 gas. Average flow rate exceeded expectations, reaching over 548 b/d, with 730 b/d per well now seen as potential. The project was not affected by the introduction of EU-US-Norway sanctions after Russia’s occupation of parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
Mark Smedley