INK – ITOCHU, INPEX and JOGMEC JV commences Ichyodinskoye Oil Field Pilot Production

The oil field is located within Zapadno-Yaraktinsky license block (Kirensk area of Irkutsk region).

The first prospecting well was drilled for six months (the drilling operations completed in January 2012). In 2013 and 2014, before the pipeline construction, production was carried out during the period from November till March and the produced hydrocarbons were transported to INK’s Yaraktinskoye oil and gas condensate field by the winter road.

In the second half of 2015, the company completed the construction of 48.3 km oil pipeline running from Ichyodinskoye oil field to the boosting pump station of Yaraktinskoye oil and gas condensate field. In August, after testing operations were completed, the pipeline started operating in performance testing mode and after a while it was converted to the pilot production testing.   

As of November 1, 2015, JSC “INK-Zapad” has drilled eight wells, including two prospecting wells, three explorations wells, and three production wells.

During the first 10 months of 2015, the field has produced 208 thousand tons of oil, which is 26% above the plan. With such performance, now Ichyodinskoye oil field is ranked number two in production rate, second only to Yaraktinskoye field, among the fields operated by INK. The maximum flow rate from one well reached 1,480 tons per day, which is the highest production rate among all wells in the fields and license blocks of INK.

The successful cooperation between Russian and Japanese companies was encouraged by the “Initiative for the Strengthening Japan-Russia cooperation in the Far East Russia and Eastern Siberia” introduced during the bilateral talks between the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in June 2007.

Following up the Initiative that was related to various areas of cooperation between both countries, INK and JOGMEC established the joint ventures of JSC “INK-Sever” (in 2007) and JSC “INK-Zapad” (in 2009), with participating interest of 51% INK and 49% JOGMEC.

 Since then, for the past eight years, the shareholders of both JVs have carried out a large volume of prospecting and exploration works, including drilling of 27 wells, and discovered four oil and gas fields (B.Sinyavsky oil field, Ichyodinskoye and Bolshetirskoye oil fields, Tokminskoye oil and gas field). Today, the exploration works within license blocks are being carried on. After treatment the crude oil produced at these fields is pumped into the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean pipeline system.