OREANDA-NEWS. January 28, 2010. A conference of JSC TATNEFT’s (the "Company") employees held in Almetyevsk (Republic of Tatarstan) on January 25, 2010 summarized the results of the Company’s activities and fulfillment of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2009 and approved plans for 2010, reported the press-centre of TATNEFT.

TATNEFT produced 25 million 850 thousand tons of crude oil, an increase of 84 thousand tons over the previous year. Since 1994, during the period of the oil production stabilization TATNEFT’s crude oil production had increased by 9.3% or by 2.2 million tons in aggregate. In 2010 the total aggregate production of the TATNEFT Group, including oil production in the Samara and Orenburg regions, amounted to 26 million 106 thousand tons. Natural gas production was 292 thousand tons, the production of associated petroleum gas was 756 million cubic meters.

TATNEFT continued active work on implementing its strategic goals, i.e., increase of hydrocarbon reserves in 2009, including outside the Republic of Tatarstan and Russia. The Company discovered 16 new oil fields, including 10 fields in the Republic of Tatarstan, 3 fields in the Samara, and 2 fields in the Orenburg region. The Company discovered a new oil field in Syria and drilled 4 exploration wells, with debit of up to 150 m3 per day. Two exploration wells were drilled in Libya. Testing of the first well demonstrated the crude oil inflow in the amount of 103 m3 per day, while the second well development yielded 130 m3 per day.

Consistent implementation of geological exploration provides stable increase of recoverable reserves for TATNEFT in the amount that compensates current crude oil production. Increase in recoverable reserves of the crude oil and condensate totaled 62.6 million tons in 2009, including 44.4 million tons increase in the Republic of Tatarstan. According to an independent international petroleum engineers firm Miller and Lents the total proved, probable and possible crude oil reserves of TATNEFT amounted to 1.061 billion tons as of the beginning of 2009 without taking into account the reserves increase over the past year and the discovery of the South Kishma crude oil field in Syria.

In addition there are significant resources of extra-viscous oil in Tatarstan estimated from 1.5 to 7 billion tons. The program of works for the development of these reserves continued at Ashalchinskoye field during the past year. The volume of oil production from the three pairs of wells amounted to 18.4 thousand tons in 2010. In total the amount of 38 thousand tons of oil was produced from the beginning of the pilot area development with the average daily per well production rate of about 30 tons.

A large range of works was carried out in 2009 for the construction of the TANECO complex of refineries and petrochemical plants with erection of the main technological equipment, such as CDU/VDU-7 (ELOU-AVT-7) installation and the infrastructure facilities are at the final stages of construction. The first stage of the plant’s complex is scheduled to be commissioned in 2010.
The network of the Company’s petrol stations was developing in accordance with the strategy adopted with their total amount reaching 624 units by the end of the last year. In 2010 the volume of retail and small wholesale sales of oil and gas products in the Russian Federation reached 1.5 million tons.

TATNEFT together with its strategic partner, Germany-based Continental AG, completed construction of the steel cord tire factory in 2009. This project can be considered an innovative breakthrough for the whole country. The total amount of TATNEFT’s investments into major projects in the tire business over the 10 years accounted for 28 billion Rubles. This permitted to annually increase the pace of production levels and ensured an increase of 150% in tires production by the beginning of 2008 as compared to the 1999 level.

TATNEFT completed 2009 with good financial results, which demonstrated sustainable and stable development of the Company. Net revenues from sales of products are expected to total about 220 billion rubles. The Company expects to receive about 70 billion rubles of pre-tax profit. The amount of taxes and payments to the budget of all levels (including VAT and export tax) is expected to total about 170 billion rubles. TATNEFT will transfer over 20 billion rubles to the consolidated budget of the Republic of Tatarstan for the year 2009.

Innovative development and research and intangible assets are the basic platform for further growth of the corporate brand. In general, the activities of TATNEFT in this field received numerous awards in 2009. A team of the Company’s professionals was awarded the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan in the field of science and technology. TATNEFT was once again recognized as the "Best Company of the Republic of Tatarstan in the area of inventions and rationalization". Nine projects of the Company were awarded the first prize in the contest "50 Best Innovative Ideas for The Republic of Tatarstan". For the sixth consecutive time TATNEFT was recognized the absolute "ECOleader" in the Republic of Tatarstan for the targeted and effective environmental protection activities and for the fourth time the Company was named the winner of the Russia’s "EcoMir" national environmental award. TATNEFT ranks No. 1 among oil companies in the country and No. 4 among 100 largest Russian companies in the rating of social and environmental responsibility of business. The shares of TATNEFT were included into the portfolio of the NERAX-Eco stock index for 2010 complied from the most environmentally successful companies. TATNEFT was named a winner in three nominations of the eleventh All-Russia competition "Best Annual Report" in 2009.

In 2009, despite difficult economic situation, TATNEFT successfully continued implementation of the social development programs maintaining all social guarantees and the level of welfare for the Company’s employees.

The meeting summarized the fulfillment of the Collective Bargaining Agreement terms between TATNEFT’s management and the employees of in the past year and adopted a new agreement for 2010.