Putin launches production from Lukoil’s Vladimir Filanovsky field

Russian oil company Lukoil has informed that commercial production at the Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea was launched on Monday by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

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 7 to 11 meters.

According to the company, the V. Filanovsky field, discovered by Lukoil in 2005, is Russia’s largest oil discovery for the past twenty-five years and the second field commissioned by the company in the Russian offshore sector of the Caspian Sea. The field’s С1+С2 recoverable reserves under the Russian classification are estimated at 129 million tons of crude oil and 30 billion cubic meters of gas. The annual oil production at the plateau is estimated at 6 million tons.

Two horizontal production wells have been drilled to date, yielding a total daily flow rate of over 6 thousand tons (45 thousand barrels) of oil. Construction of a third well is underway. The sweet light crude oil lifted from the wells is transported via a subsea pipeline to the onshore storage facilities and subsequently fed into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system for further exports. The associated petroleum gas is transported to the gas processing unit at the company’s Stavrolen plant for further conversion into petrochemical products and supply to Lukoil’s power generating capacities, as well as Gazprom’s Unified Gas Supply System.

The following facilities have been built within the first stage of the field development: the ISP-1 (ice-resistant stationary platform-1), the LQP-1 (living quarters platform-1), the CTP (central treatment platform), the Riser Unit, the onshore storages, and the subsea and onshore oil and gas pipeline system with a total length of over 650 km. Domestic shipyards of the Astrakhan Region have been involved in the construction of the facilities.

Lukoil has invested approximately 150 billion rubles ($2.37 billion)to date into the construction of the facilities, the development of the field, the transportation infrastructure, the processing of gas, petrochemicals and power generation.

The company added that, in order to fully involve field’s reserves into production and achieve maximum duration of the plateau, the second stage of the field development is underway including construction of the ISP-2 (Ice-Resistant Stationary Platform-2) and the LQP-2 (Living Quarters Platform-2).