Lukoil kicks off first production well drilling at V. Filanovsky Phase 2

Lukoil, Russia’s largest privately-held oil company, has started drilling of the first production well at the Vladimir Filanovsky field Phase 2 development in the Caspian Sea.

Lukoil said on Thursday that the company finished most of the construction works at the field’s Phase 2 development facilities.

According to the company, the drilling is planned to be completed in early 2018. The Phase 2 facilities will allow Lukoil to reach a stable designed production plateau of 6 million tonnes per year at the field.

The V. Filanovsky Phase 2 development plan entails a fixed ice-resistant platform, the accommodation block platform, a connecting bridge, and a drilling complex added to the platform.

At the moment, there are six production and two injection wells operating at the Phase 1 facilities. The cumulative production from the field has surpassed 5 million tonnes of oil.

To remind, the drilling of its eighth well at the V. Filanovsky field was completed in late October this year. As a result, the project’s total production reached 16.5 thousand tonnes of oil per day.

As for the Vladimir Filanovsky field, it is considered the largest post-Soviet discovery in Russia. Commercial operation of the field, with C1+C2 reserves, equals 129 million tonnes of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of gas.

The field is located in the northern Caspian Sea, 220 km away from the city of Astrakhan. Water depth in the field’s area ranges from seven to 11 meters.