24 Jan 2011 13:51

Tatneft to boost bitumen oil output by 30% in 2011

ALMETEVSK. Jan 24 (Interfax) - OJSC Tatneft plans to produce 35,000 tonnes of bitumen oil in 2011, the company's first deputy general director, Nail Ibragimov, said at a conference for Tatneft employees on Monday. Ibragimov said that production of high-viscosity oil came to over 27,000 tonnes in 2010. Therefore, the company's planned bitumen production for this year would be an increase of 29.6%.

Since the start of test production of bitumen oil at the Ashalchinskoye field (since 2006), over 65,000 tonnes has been produced. The total flow rate came to over 100,000 tonnes at the end of 2010.

The company plans to drill 10 horizontal wells at the field in 2011.

"Production of high-viscosity oil is still very expensive. First of all, owing to the large share of costs on energy. Therefore, we need additional funds for developing this important and perspective area. We have already received the state support such as the zeroing of the resource extraction tax. However, these measures are not enough at this stage. Our specialists are working with the involved federal organs for setting a zeroed rate on the export tariffs, which will help secure non-loss bearing production," Ibragimov said.

Tatneft is carrying out test production of bitumen oil at the Mordovo-Karmalskoye and Ashalchinskoye fields. A special focus is being made on the development of the latter field where new steam gravity train technologies. The company hopes to boost bitumen oil output to 300,000 tonnes by 2014.

Tatarstan has around 450 fields where bitumen oil has been discovered, of which 150 are under Tatneft's jurisdiction. Total natural bitumen reserves in the republic come between 1.5 billion and 7 billion rubles at average depths between 80 and 250 meters.