Belorusneft mulls buying drilling equipment in China
MINSK. Aug 15 (Interfax) - Belarusian state oil company Belorusneft is considering acquiring oil production equipment for its modernization program from Chinese manufacturers.
"Belorusneft has drawn up a program for the long-term development of the drilling and service divisions that includes considerably replacement and modernization of equipment. This is the main investment block, without which further development and production of the planned amounts of oil is impossible," corporate publication Vestnik Belneftekhima said on its website after a company delegation visited the CIPPE-2023 international oil exhibition in China.
Given the "current global situation, as well as sanctions policy," the company has begun to look for alternatives to western suppliers, who are no longer accessible to Belarusian companies, and one of these alternatives is China, the publication said.
Belorusneft plans to find "high quality manufacturers and reliable partners [in China] for work in the difficult geological conditions of the Pripyat Depression," it said.
"We were foremost interested in heavy duty semi-skid-mounted drilling rigs, mobile drilling rigs for drilling sidetracks and for well workovers, telemetric equipment, including rotary steerable systems. Plus plugging equipment, equipment for fracking and coil tubing. This is all needed to carry out our substantial and promising program to develop hard-to-recover reserves well," Belorusneft head of well technology, Denis Zakruzhny was quoted as saying in the publication.
He said the company will compile a rating of Chinese companies that could become equipment suppliers.
"We also plan to develop an algorithm to control the manufacturing and acceptance of equipment at the production facilities of manufacturers. Our technical specialists, together with their colleagues from [Belorusneft Chinese subsidiary] Shandong BN International Company LLC, plan to go directly to the production facilities and monitor the manufacturing process," Zakruzhny said.
Commercial hydrocarbon production in Belarus began in 1965 and is concentrated in the area of the Pripyat Depression in Gomel and Mogilev regions. More than 142 million tonnes of oil and 16 billion cubic meters of associated gas have been produced since development began. Oil production peaked at 7.96 million tonnes in 1975, after which it began to decline, reaching a low of 1.65 million tonnes in 2013.
Belorusneft plans to increase oil production in Belarus by 2.2% to 1.85 million tonnes in 2023 from 1.81 million tonnes in 2022.
Most of the proven oil reserves in Belarus are hard-to-recover reserves. Most output comes from the largest fields: Rechitskoye, Ostashkovichskoye, Vishanskoye and Yuzhno-Ostashkovichskoye.
A total of 93 oil and gas condensate fields have been discovered in Belarus and 60 oil fields are being developed. Wells total more than 1,000, of which 826 are in operation.
Belorusneft includes over 40 oil production, oilfield services, engineering, design, gas processing and distribution divisions and companies in Belarus, Russia, Venezuela and Ecuador.