Lukoil ups Caspian gas reserves 46% to 1 bln boe
MOSCOW. Mar 1 (Interfax) - Lukoil has increased its proven gas reserves at the Sarmatskoye deposit in the Caspian Sea by 46% to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (160 billion cubic meters (bcm)), a company presentation says.
Gas condensate reserves increased 44% to 107 million barrels.
During a conference call, Lukoil Vice President Leonid Fedun said that, considering the neighboring West Sarmatskoye structure, the company in 2012 "hopes to increase the unified deposit's reserves by 30%-40%."
Lukoil operates in the Northern Caspian, where it has six deposits, Khvalynskoye, 170 km, Korchagin, Rakushechnoye, Sarmatskoye, and Filanovsky. The Korchagin deposit was the first, and the oil company began producing there in 2010.
According to the company, a new promising site - West Sarmatskaya - has been discovered 10-12 km to the north of the first well at the Sarmatskoye structure. A second well is to be drilled for the study of the geological formation and to find oil and gas-containing strata and an evaluation of their significance.