150,000 tons of extra-viscous oil (EVO) has been produced at Ashalchinskoye field of OAO TATNEFT since the beginning of field development. The plans for 2012 assume production in the amount of 65 thousand tons of oil, which is 57 percent higher than the last year level. The total production since the beginning of field development will reach 170 thousand tons of EVO.

 

Commercial production of EVO at Ashalchi is performed by NGDU Nurlatneft, which is a structural division of the Company. To date, professionals from NGDU have drilled 14 pairs of horizontal wells and one huff-and-puff well. Drilling of the fifteenth pair is currently proceeding to completion and construction of a production well is in progress. Drilling of 30 more pairs of horizontal wells is envisaged for bringing the entire Ashalchinskoye field into development.

 

The target formation of EVO commercial development for the Company is Sheshminsky horizon of Ufa stratum of the Cheremshano-Bastrykskaya zone. The management of OAO TATNEFT pursues an ambitious goal of early development of EVO fields within the Cheremshano-Bastrykskayay zone. The scheduled activities include exploration operations intended for estimation of oil reserves and adding them to the state reserves.

 

The above-mentioned operations are planned to complete in the framework of a ten-year EVO development program being elaborated at OAO TATNEFT, which will ensure significant increase in oil production. The program implementation will require fulfillment of a wide range of technical measures, including establishment of gas and heat supply facilities as well as establishment of viscous oil production, treatment and transportation facilities with allocation of significant resources, including financial ones, for this purpose.

 

Pursuing, inter alia, the goal of supporting EVO fields development projects the Government of the Russian Federation issued Order No. 700r, which envisages preferential export duty rate for EVO with a viscosity value over 10,000 mPa*s at 10 percent of the full rate for oil over a 10 years period. This will allow for effective development of EVO fields that are one of the most promising sources of crude oil reserves growth against the background of depleting reserves of conventional easy-to-recover oil.