Lukoil started producing oil at Grayfer field in Caspian in 2023
MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - Lukoil put the oil field named after Valery Grayfer in the Caspian Sea on stream in 2023, the company said in a press release.
"Lukoil has again shown its ability to adapt to external challenges in the past year. The company has gained a foothold in new sales markets, built supply chains, put the conditions in place for all business segments to operate smoothly and achieved its key operating goals," CEO Vadim Vorobyov was quoted as saying in an address to company employees.
"The company's third project in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea, the Valery Grayfer field, has now gone on stream. Production continues to grow at the large Alexander Usoltsev and Sredne-Nazymskoye tight oil fields in Western Siberia," he said.
"We have found new partners to implement priority projects in oil refining and petrochemicals to help strengthen our technological leadership. Our international business is developing actively in Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Mexico and other countries," Vorobyov said.
The Grayfer field, formerly known as Rakushechnoye, was discovered in 2001 and is the company's third Caspian project. Recoverable reserves are 19.2 million tonne with production expected to plateau at 1.2 million tonnes. The field is located 160 km from the port of Astrakhan and 100 km from the west coast at a sea depth of 5 to 8 meters.
Lukoil also develops the Korchagin and Filanovsky fields in the Caspian. It produced 7.3 million tonnes of oil there in 2021.
Close proximity to the company's producing fields in the Caspian Sea made it possible to significantly optimize the field development project through the use of the existing infrastructure for treatment and transportation of hydrocarbons along with the power supply. The infrastructure includes a fixed offshore ice-resistant platform, a living quarters platform, a crossover bridge, as well as subsea inter-field pipelines and cable lines for the connection with the second fixed offshore ice-resistant platform at the Filanovsky field. It was envisaged that the field's oil would be sent for treatment to the Filanovsky central technological platform and then through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system for export.
Lukoil's Astrakhan-based subsidiary Lukoil-Nizhnevolzhskneft is developing the north Caspian fields.
Lukoil's Rakushechnoye field was renamed in November 2019 in honor of the former chairman of the company's board of directors, Valery Grayfer, ahead of his 90th birthday.