"Our most successful achievement since we last reported to you is that Russia’s first LNG plant is up and running at its full rated capacity. We can say this in full confidence, for it is based on a solid track record of operation. We are now a reliable and fully-fledged energy supplier, commanding a 5% market share in the global LNG market.
In less than two years as a hydrocarbons producer, Sakhalin-2 has set an example in safety, state-of-the-art technology, and as a dependable supplier to energy markets in the Asia-Pacific.
But behind every achievement is the daily work of making this a reality. So I will turn my focus now to the current projects under way.
This year all offshore and onshore facilities have been running safely and in normal operations mode.
At the Piltun-Astokhskoye field crude oil is produced from 21 oil wells of the PA-A (Molikpaq) and PA-B platforms. This year no drilling took place on the Molikpaq platform, as we are preparing for the reservoir pressure maintenance project, a project that will allow us to construct new wells by the end of next year.
At the PA-B oil is now produced from eight oil wells. Apart from that, we finished construction of three water-injection wells on the platform. These so-called “smart” wells enable us to perform controlled injection into various layers. Smart wells reduce well development costs and raise crude oil production.
At the Lunskoye field we completed construction of seven gas-producing wells. These wells remain the largest in Russia: their overall production rate is 2,227 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (63 million cubic metres per day). Such well capacity ensures fair utilisation of all other facilities placed before we put the gas on the LNG trains – the Onshore Processing Facility and the TransSakhalin pipeline system.
Today Sakhalin-2 produces 406 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 51 thousand tonnes of oil equivalent.
2010 year will go down in world history, and in the annals of the oil and gas industry, as the year when the terrible accident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone must learn from it. Here at Sakhalin Energy, we have drawn some conclusions from the accident. Our objective is to assume maximum control of all potential risks at all levels. The Company’s system of protection and prevention in place includes three components: technical safety, a high-quality risk management system, and competent and responsible staff. We analyse technical issues continuously, optimise the risk management system, and brief the Company’s employees and contractors daily on occupational and production safety issues.
In this regard, I would like to highlight one of our most important projects of the year – a 4D seismic survey of the Astokh area of the Piltun-Astokhskoye field, the first time this survey has been performed in Russia.
The last time we did a seismic survey it was in 3D, 10 years ago at the Piltun-Astokhskoye field. Additional surveys are crucial, because they add another parameter – timing – to the three other parameters when studying a layer of geology. All studies were professionally done and delivered on schedule.
I should remind you we planned to survey the area as early as 2009. But at the time scientists from the independent Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, recommended we refrain from surveying because of the possible impact on the whale population. So we postponed our plans for a year. The delay allowed us to put in place the recommendations of the environmental experts and to start work at the field before the mass arrival of the whales.
Performance of a 4D seismic survey is important because the information obtained will allow us to optimise further development of the Astokh area and crude oil production. Preliminary figures already confirm the results from the seismic survey are top notch. Therefore, we expect to get the most complete and accurate information on the state of the Astokh area of the Piltun-Astokhskoye field after 10 years of development. Such data will allow us to optimise the performance of existing wells and improve the positioning accuracy of future wells.
For a second year, we have been operating the onshore pipeline and carefully monitoring the condition of the onshore pipeline route. The Company comprehensively and continuously surveys the right-of-way, to measure the success of the biological reclamation work, including reclamation of the grass cover.
Let me digress a little from the topic at hand and tell you a little about the pipeline route and our Biodiversity Action Plan for it. As part of the Plan we monitor the area alongside our facilities, including monitoring Red Book species of plants and animals.
The researchers monitoring the route keep making discoveries. This summer, a protected orchid – Pogonia japonica, an elegant grass with dainty, purple-pink flowers – was discovered along the pipeline route in the Dolinsk District. This species was found on Sakhalin for the first time ever! Nobody has ever seen it on the island before; it was believed it only grew on the Kunashir and Shikotan islands within the Oblast. This scientific discovery is far from being a single case.
This year we completed construction and began operation of Booster Station 2, located roughly in the middle of the pipeline route. This month we handed over the station to Gazprom Transgas Tomsk, our contractor for maintenance of the onshore pipelines and pipeline maintenance depots. Since 2008, when we handed over maintenance of the TranSakhalin pipeline system and pipeline maintenance depots to Gazprom Transgas Tomsk, the contractor’s scope of work has grown but the Company is coping successfully.
This December will be two years since crude oil exports began from the Prigorodnoye port. Since the start-up of exports, we have shipped 112 oil tankers. Since 1999 when Russia’s first offshore crude oil was produced by the Molikpaq platform, we have shipped 275 cargoes of crude oil to buyers under the project.
In late August, we shipped the hundredth standard cargo of liquefied natural gas this year. In a few days we expect to achieve another milestone: in the middle of October we will load the 200th LNG cargo since the start-up of operations of the LNG plant. Last year we exceeded our LNG shipment target by 47%. This year we are also running ahead of our LNG production target.
This is the most solid proof that Russia's first LNG plant is up and running at its rated capacity, and that the entire production chain – from offshore platforms in the north of the island to the LNG jetty in the south – operates safely and reliably.
We all know oil and gas now make up the largest share of exports from the Sakhalin Oblast. For the first half of this year Vityaz crude oil and LNG (products of the Sakhalin-2 project) represented more than 50% of exports from the Oblast.
Yes, we ship our products to foreign buyers. But at the same time, together with the government of the Sakhalin Oblast, we are building gas transfer terminals along the route of the TransSakhalin pipeline system, to supply gas domestically, to Sakhalin and possibly to the Russian mainland. Supplying local gas will be one of the most important benefits of the Sakhalin-2 project for the island and the Russian Federation.
Provisions are being made to build two gas transfer terminals – in the north and in the south of the island. The southern terminal is being constructed in Dalneye settlement, the initial point of the gas transfer system of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Power Plant No. 1, a coal-to-gas conversion programme.
At the turn of 2010-2011 we will finish construction in the south, and in late 2011 in the north. Gas from the Sakhalin-2 project will be used to the fullest extent for the economic development of the Sakhalin Oblast".
27 Ноября 2024 | среда | 10:36
