An important date for Sakhalin oil: 125 years ago exactly at the territory of present-day Okhinsky district geologic exploration was performed for the first time in Sakhalin oil and gas industry. Since that moment starts a rich history of Sakhalin hydrocarbons production.

Businesslike people knew about the presence of the “kerosene water”(this is the way local people called the liquid with kerosene smell) in some rivulets and gully pits already on the end of 19 century. In 1879, pursuant to instructions of their master, a merchant Alexey Ivanov, two clerks came here especially explore oil deposits and to stake claims. The very first exploration wells were drilled ten years later by Ivanov’s successor, a resigned marine officer from Saint-Petersburg Grigory Zotov. He bought four drilling rigs in Saint-Petersburg to start works and by the summer of 1889 organized an expedition to the north of Sakhalin, which was led by an experienced mining engineer Leopold Batsevich.

The history of hydrocarbons production at Sakhalin dates back to 1928, when on the 10th of August a state association of oil and gas industry was established as a trust of national importance named Sakhalinneft, now known as Sakhalinmorneftegaz, NC Rosneft subsidiary.

In more than eighty years Sakhalinmorneftegaz has risen from a small trust to a leading enterprise, using innovative methods of exploration. For instance, for the first time in the industry at Sakhalin fields the heat methods of influence on reservoirs were introduced on industrial scale, which gave the possibility to increase volumes of high-viscosity oil extraction. Also a gaslift oil extracting mechanism was developed, including the compressor one. As for the successful experience of Sakhalinmorneftegaz with controlled directional wells drilling under sea floor, it was later used during Sakhalin shelf projects development.

Since then the enterprise has produced about 130 mln tons of oil and more than 70 bln cubic meters of gas. At the moment the annual performance of Sakhalinmorneftegaz totals 1,2 mln tons of oil and more than 400 bln cubic meters of gas.

Sakhalinmorneftegaz is one of the oldest oil production enterprises. It performs operating functions at more than 30 development licenses of Sakhalin oil and gas deposits.