More than 315 million cubic metres of gas were produced on the Shakhpakhty field in 2013

During 2013 the Gazprom International specialists completed the overhaul of seven wells and commissioned four new wells, thus increasing the active operating well stock at Shakhpakhty to 20 units. The average daily gas production on the field was (subject to adjustment of the production schedule) 940 thousand cubic metres.

The total volume of gas produced on the field since 2004 today amounts to 2.5 billion cubic metres.

Shakhpakhty is a gas field located in the south-eastern part of the Ustyurt plateau in the Kungrad district of the Republic of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan, and was opened in 1962. According to the results of geological exploration carried out here prior to 1968, initial commercial gas reserves were confirmed totalling 46.5 billion cubic metres.

Commercial production was started at Shakhpakhty in 1974 and amounted to 2.5 billion cubic metres per annum. In 1983 the Shakhpakhty booster compressor station (BCS) began operation, but it ceased in February 2002 due to insufficient capacity to provide the produced gas with the required supply pressure. At that time the operating organisation decided to shut down production at the field, and the wells were closed temporarily. Overall during the period of operation 36.5 billion cubic metres of gas were recovered from the field, which is approximately 78.5% of the initial confirmed reserves. Currently Shakhpakhty’s recoverable reserves are estimated at approximately 8 billion cubic metres.

The reconstruction and further development of Shakhpakhty is a pilot project of Gazprom International in the Republic of Uzbekistan, which is carried out under the terms of a Production-Sharing Agreement, signed in 2004 for a term of 15 years. In 2004 the operator Operating Company Zarubezhneftegaz – GPD Central Asia LLC was created to execute this project (and is currently one of the operational structures of Gazprom International).

Its goals and objectives are field surface construction and development, production and transportation of raw materials, construction of the necessary infrastructure; gas purification and storage, implementation of environmental protection measures, as well as carrying out other activities directly related to these works.

Gas production at the field resumed in August 2004. Commercial inflow was obtained from 10 wells. In 2006 the Operating Company completed reconstruction of the Shakhpakhty booster compressor station and gas pre-treatment unit; a modern base camp was also built at the field.  

The gas produced at Shakhpakhty is delivered to the Karakalpaksky compressor station, and then through the Central Asia-Centre gas pipeline to consumers.

Work on a major overhaul of the wells and production of raw materials has been carried out since 2004, as part of the licence to develop the four productive formations of the field. In 2010 the operator received a licence to develop three additional underlying productive formations.