24 Mar 2022 14:23

Lukoil planning to launch drilling at offshore field in Caspian

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - Lukoil has been adhering to the schedule for commissioning of the third Grayfer offshore field in the Caspian, with drilling to start at the end of the year, company president Vagit Alekperov told reporters.

"Work today on the topsides [of the drilling platform] has been nearly completed. A residential block has already been loaded onto a barge. We plan to mount the residential block in May, and then send the operating site in June and start drilling work at the end of November, start of December. So far, everything is on schedule," Alekperov said.

"We are now analyzing our investment program [in the Astrakhan region], there are a number of restrictions that are affecting our development, for example, imported equipment supplies. So we are having a rethink. So far everything stands, the construction of the new Kuvykin field is underway," he said.

Lukoil produced more than 7 million tonnes of oil in the Caspian in 2020. The Grayfer field, discovered in 2020, lies 160 km from the city of Astrakhan and production there is expected to peak at 1.2 million tonnes per year. The Kuvykin field with 6.3 million tonnes of recoverable C1+C2 oil, 231 billion cubic meters of gas, and 21 million tonnes of condensate is expected to be commissioned in 2029.