OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2007.  TNK-BP is planning to increase its oil production beginning from 2008 owing to development of new fields, said Robert Dudley, President of TNK-BP, in an interview to the Petroleum Information Agency (ANI) and the Russian TV information channel Vesti.

“We are going to resume oil production growth in 2008. The company is making considerable investments (approximately $1 billion every year – ANI) into exploration and development of new fields. This is a usual long-term investment cycle that will later have its effect on production growth,” explained he.

The Samotlor field will remain to be the main field of the company, stressed Mr. Dudley. “We are constantly trying to maintain the production level in this field, but we still have a number of other projects such as, for example, our projects in West Siberia and near the Vankor field, a total of 14 projects all over the country,” reminded he.

According to the President of TNK-BP, West Siberia still has considerable reserves of oil in spite of the fact that oil is being produced here for nearly 50 years now. “Development of these reserves is hard and requires latest state-of-the-art technologies, but nevertheless the future of West Siberia seems very good,” thinks Mr. Dudley.

Mr. Dudley noted that East Siberia is a new promising region of oil production in Russia. “We (TNK-BP – ANI) are implementing a major project here, in East Siberia, in the Verkhnechonsk oil field traversed by the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. We have high hopes associated with this field and will heavily invest into it in the next 5 years,” explained he and added that TNK-BP is currently not ready to take part in tenders for fields along the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline route.

“We are paying attention to these tenders and their prices, but we doubt that our bids can stand the competition. To take part in these tenders, companies have to make decisions on very long-term investments and assumptions on oil prices, future expenses, and taxes,” noted Mr. Dudley.

Apart from that, according to him, Russia has huge resources that are not even touched yet. “I do understand that much has to be done in the nearest 5–10 years to create mechanisms for maintaining oil production in Russia at the current high level. The Sakhalin and arctic projects have just been started,” said he.

The Russian TV information channel Vesti will broadcast the full version of Robert Dudley’s interview in the program Vest-TEK on Saturday and Sunday.