The increase of production is associated with an intensive development of the Verkhnechonskoye field, an increase of number of production and injection wells as well as reservoir performance enhancement. According the Company's plans, oil production in the field in 2012 shall come to 6.95 mln tonnes, which is 1.3 times more than in 2011.
By the end of this year, it is planned to drill 64 wells in the field: 44 producers, 19 injectors, and 1 exploration well. The drilling is being implemented as per the schedule: as of the start of April, 11 wells are drilled.
In 1Q 2012, investments in the field development have also been increased by 29.5% to 3.8 bln roubles as compared to the same period of the last year. During 2012, the Company plans to invest more than 19 bln roubles in the field development.
In January-March 2012, OJSC VCNG has paid 3.3 bln roubles of taxes (4.5-fold increase). In 2012, OJSC VCNG are going to pay about 14 bln roubles of taxes (1.5-fold increase): 6 bln roubles to the federal budget, about 7 bln roubles to the budget of Irkutsk Oblast, and more than 1 bln roubles to the budget of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia).
Due to the expansion of production, the Company has enlarged the headcount of Environmental Specialists, who monitor the state of environment, as well as keep the facilities clean. Besides, this year OJSC VCNG is planning to implement the project of wastes collection and disposal amounting to 7.4 mln USD. This will provide an opportunity to dispose of production remains of all classes of hazard safely for environment.