TNK-BP estimates its tight reserves at over 2.6 bln tonnes
TYUMEN. Feb 12 (Interfax) - TNK-BP's tight geological hydrocarbon reserves amount to 60% of total company reserves at upwards of 2.6 billion tonnes, the deputy general director for science at Tyumen Petroleum Research Center LLC, Alexander Timchuk, has told the press.
Timchuk said that 1.5 billion tonnes of those tight reserves are located in western Siberia.
TNK-BP considers to be such reserves highly viscous oil and Tyumen suite oil, Timchuk said. The government does not yet have a clear definition of the term 'tight reserves,' he said. "There is no classification of hard-to-recover reserves. And what our government understands is for now determined piecemeal. All oil companies say that this needs to be regularized somehow, so that economic conditions are understood by all beforehand," he said.
The company thinks it necessary to obtain a tax break for producing Tyumen suite oil, Timchuk said. Extracting such oil under the present tax system is not profitable, he said. "We have from four to five times less than needed. Tax breaks have to be set for the Tyumen suite, because flow is low," he said. If there are no tax breaks, the company will nevertheless continue its search for effective technology for producing tight oil, he said.
Tyumen Petroleum Research Center specialists are searching for such technology as will help TNK-BP efficiently produce hydrocarbons. Direct investment in the center's development amounted to $13 million last year, Timchuk said. Since the center's inception, more than $35 million has been invested in that development.
