LUKOIL Group carries out exploration works with the purpose of expanding the resource base.
Exploration activities have been consistently delivering good results driven by the advanced exploration techniques and selection of the most promising areas based on research results.
KEY EXPLORATION PROJECTS IN 2019
One of the Company's priorities is further exploration works in the Caspian Sea given the potential synergies with the prior field discoveries in the region. In 2017, the Company completed the construction of Khazri-1, a 4,780-meter prospecting well in the southern part of the Central Caspian license area.
In 2019, field 3D seismic surveys of 644 square km were completed in the Severny license area, Zhemchuzhnaya structure, to explore for prospects and prepare them for deep drilling.
Based on 2018 3D seismic surveys results, the location of exploration well No. 2 at Khazri was adjusted for better positioning. The well was spudded in January 2020.
West Siberia historically accounts for approximately a half of LUKOIL's exploration activities. In 2019, 3D seismic surveys were conducted to update our geological models of field boundaries, and further hydrocarbon exploration was carried out to prepare sites for production drilling. Exploration well tests were conducted in the Bolshekhetskaya Depression.
Low permeability reservoirs were also explored in 2019. Exploration drilling at the Sredne-Nazymskoye field confirmed the presence of oil in preJurassic and Tyumen formations.
Six oil fields were discovered in the Volga region in 2019; two of those (the Yuzhno-Krasinskoye and the Zapadno-Klenovskoye) following the drilling of two prospecting wells within the Zhuravsky license area in the north of the Volgograd Region, and the other four – in the Samara Region.
Most of our international exploration activities were concentrated at Block 10 in Iraq (LUKOIL holding 60% as project operator and INPEX CORPORATION holding 40%). Appraisal of the previously discovered Eridu field continued under the approved exploration program. Two new appraisal wells were drilled, confirming the field's resource base. All 2D and 3D seismic surveys were completed within the contract area.
Significant exploration drilling was carried out offshore Ghana in West Africa (Tano DWT/CTP project, participants: LUKOIL – 38%; Aker Energy A.S. – 50%, project operator; GNPC – 10%; Fueltrade Limited – 2%). At the Pecan field and adjacent targets three appraisal wells and a sidetrack were drilled, resulting in new oil deposits discoveries and updated resource base estimate.
On the Gulf of Mexico shelf, Block 10 (LUKOIL – 20%; ENI – 80%, project operator), a well was drilled at the water depth of 340 meters, finding saturated light oil formations. Following well tests, the discovery of a field was confirmed in early 2020. Further field appraisal will be done in 2020.
