OREANDA-NEWS. October 09, 2008. Rosneft participated in the Sakhalin Oil & Gas international conference held in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which brought together approximately 250  participants, including Russian Government officials, politicians, and representatives of international petroleum majors and banks, reported the press-centre of Rosneft.

In his conference speech, Rosneft’s R&D Director Mars Khasanov said that the Company adopted a USD 30 bln. Russian shelf development program through 2030, which envisages shooting 190,000 liner km. and 45,000 sq. km. of 2D and 3D seismic, respectively, and drilling 75 exploration wells. According to Mr. Khasanov, Rosneft will engage 18 exploration vessels to ensure all these objectives are delivered.

 “To increase crude oil production in Russia, we will have to  focus on new and highly promising hydrocarbon regions, including the Russian shelf. Prospective recoverable resources of the continental shelf are currently estimated at 90–100 bln of oil-equivalent tonnes, approximately 25% of the world’s total. The Russian Far East accounts for some 40% of the aggregate continental shelf resources, and for almost 16% of the continental shelf oil resources, which makes this region strategically important for further expansion of Russia’s hydrocarbon resource base,” Mr. Khasanov commented.

Mars Khasanov also noted that Rosneft was among the first oil and gas companies to start developing the Okhotsk Sea shelf, which now  accounts for almost 10% of the Company’s total prospective resources, or  approximately 700 mln. t of liquid hydrocarbons. According to Mr Khasanov, over the last five years, Rosneft shot 25,000 linear km. and more than 11,000 sq. km. of 2D and 3D seismic, respectively, and drilled nine prospecting wells in the above region. The Company’s total investment in the Okhotsk Sea shelf development totaled approximately USD 1,2 bln.

 “Arctic shelf development is a major challenge for the 21st-century Russia. Considering the  region’s severe climatic conditions, rather immature national market for petroleum servicing and engineering, and technology gaps, this would require a great deal of time and effort on the part of everyone involved,” Mr. Khasanov said.

According to Mars Khasanov, use of cutting-edge technology in  offshore production, in onshore operations and in transport is central to  successful development of shelf fields, including those located in the Russian Arctic. “Yet there is another major hindrance that many industry experts are  concerned over. I mean the lack of qualified design engineers and other specialists. For instance, according to Rosneft’s shelf development plans, we  will have to hire 1,500 design engineers by 2020,” Mr. Khasanov pointed out.

During informal talks with the journalists that attended, Lev Brodsky, Head of Rosneft’s subsidiary Sakhalin Projects, said that successful well testing at the North-Veninskaya structure (Sakhalin-3) confirmed the  discovery of a new gas field whose comprehensive reserve analysis would be completed in a month’s time.

Expanding on the subject, Lev Brodsky said that the average pilot flow rate was within a range of 750–950 thousand cu. m of gas, however, more precise reserve estimates would be provided once all data were analyzed. Earlier in September, the North-Veninskaya structure’s total reserves were estimated by Rosneft’s Vice President Mikhail Stavsky as 100 bln. cu. m conservatively.