10 millionth ton of oil has been produced: at LUKOIL oilfield in the Republik of Kazakhstan

The oilfield of North Buzachi is situated in the Western Kazakhstan, in Mangistau Region, 250 km away from the administrative centre Aktau. The oilfield was discovered in 1975, commercial production started in 1997, and LUKOIL joined the project in December 2005. Buzachi Operating Ltd. – which is a joint venture of LUKOIL Overseas, CNPC and Mittal Investments – conducts the field development. The proven reserves of oil by the end of 2009 amounted to 154 mln barrels (LUKOIL share – 38 mln barrels). About 700 operational and injection wells are located on the field. Total number of workers is about 500 people, 94% of them – Kazakhstan citizens.
In 2009 the production amounted to 1.92 mln tons of oil and 26.5 mln cubic meters of associated gas (LUKOIL share – 0.48 mln tons of oil and 6.8 mln cubic meters of gas). Taxes and budgetary payments in 2009 - 133 mln dollars, since LUKOIL’s ingoing the project – about 720 mln dollars. LUKOIL’s cumulative investment in the project is nearly 250 mln dollars. Moreover, during the next 10 years LUKOIL plans to invest 500 mln dollars in the further development of this oilfield. By 2016 maximum oil production is expected to amount to 2.2 mln tons.
Passing gas utilization system, which has been recently put into operation, is the largest technologic facility of the production field. It comprises gas-gathering nets made of fiberglass tubes and burners to dispose from the associated gas and to heat crude oil and water, which is injected into the oil reservoir in order to keep formation pressure. The total price of the system is 14 mln dollars.
A unique method of gel-polymer water flooding should be highlighted among the techniques implemented in the field. This technique has been used in order to retrieve high-viscosity oil for the first time in world practice. This method allowed to achieve essential economic effect and to provide an additional oil extraction in amount of 16,000 tons per year (380 tons of oil per 1 ton of injected polymer), which significantly exceeds the results of similar techniques’ implementation in world practice.