Rosneft Starts Production Drilling at West Epasskoye Field

Rosneft subsidiary Uvatneftegaz has started drilling production wells at the West Epasskoye development, part of the Uvat project, in Western Siberia, the company said in a press release.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — West Epasskoye is located in the Uvat project’s Eastern Development Center. Its recoverable reserves have been estimated at over 17 million metric tons of oil. Production at West Epasskoye is scheduled to begin in early 2016.

Set to enhance drilling efficiency, RN-Uvatneftegaz will use new methods and technology that have been tested on the other Uvat fields. The company said it plans to launch commercial production at nine new Uvat project developments in 2015-2020.

A train-type cluster well drilling rig has been delivered to the West Epasskoye development. The operation in the difficult marshy terrain of the Uvat province was conducted during the summer and lasted 35 days.

West Epasskoye is the fourth oilfield to be launched in 2015, after the Protozanovskoye, South Gavrikovskoye and Malyk fields.

RN-Uvatneftegaz is the operator of the priority Uvat project in the Tyumen Region in Western Siberia. In 2013-2014, it discovered four new fields there, including North Keumskoye, Kirilkinskoye, Rezvovskoye and Tavricheskoye. Two more license blocks – Yugansky 11 and Yugansky 12 – with 26 million tons of oil reserves were added to its list of acquisitions in 2014.