Irkutsk Oil Co. plans to start pumping associated gas into Danilovskoye deposit stratum in 2014
IRKUTSK. Dec 27 (Interfax) - LLC Irkutsk Oil Company (IOC) plans to start pumping associated petroleum gas into a stratum at the Danilovskoye deposit in 2014, chairman of the company's board of directors Nikolai Buinov said at a Thursday press conference.
"Preparation work [is being done] this [year] and we'll finish in 2013. The deposit is not large, capacity [of pumping equipment] amounts to several thousand cubic meters per hour," Buinov said, noting that the cost of building infrastructure for pumping gas into the stratum at the deposit is "a little less than one billion rubles."
IOC plans to start separating out liquefied technical propane-butane for delivery to the town of Ust-Kut.
"We are planning, beginning at the end of 2014, to make some income from this process. We plan to collect propane-butane from associated gas that will be pumped back into the stratum," Buinov said, adding that "we are preparing for this now. We are negotiating with the railroad, with energy companies. The loading station will be Ust-Kut," he said.
As to the market for liquefied technical propane-butane, Buinov said, "We are not having specific negotiations right now. This is a kind of commodity like gasoline. There are no problems selling it, there is a problem of price. We assume there will be a buyer."
This past July, the company began pumping associated petroleum gas into its main production asset - The Yaraktinskoye deposit in Irkutsk Region. The project is being carried out under the Kyoto Protocol.
For the utilization of associated gas, the company uses a cycling process. The point of the technology, designed in the United States back in the 1980s, is the continual pumping of dry gas into a deposit with special injection wells. Strata gas is saturated with condensate and raised to the surface by production wells. At installations for comprehensive gas-preparation, condensate is separated from gas and sent for processing. The stripped and dried gas is pumped back into the deposit.
Since the first of this year, Russia has had in effect a requirement that 95% of associated petroleum gas be utilized.
Irkutsk Oil Company was set up in 2000, and brings together production and service organizations. All the holding's enterprises are registered in Irkutsk Region. The company has nineteen license sections and deposits covering a total area of more than 27,000 square kilometers, including the Yaraktinskoye and Danilovskoye oil and gas condensate deposits. The company's confirmed oil reserves amount to more than 160 million tonnes, gas reserves to 150 billion cubic meters.
The company is owned by CJSC IOC-Capital, among whose shareholders is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with 8.15%.