New Laptev Sea oil prospect a ‘unique’ find, Rosneft head tells Putin

By Atle Staalesen, The Independent Barents Observer - June 23, 2017
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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 20, 2017. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 20, 2017. (Sputnik / Alexei Nikolsky / Kremlin via Reuters)

As his company is exploring one of its northernmost ever wells, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin this week met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to report about “a major new discovery.”

“We can inform you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that we, based on preliminary analysis, are about to open a very serious field,” Sechin said as he handed the president a core sample from the drilling.

[Rosneft finds oil off Russia’s East Arctic coast]

The sample is taken from a depth of about 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet), Sechin said and added that drilling will proceed as deep as 5,000 meters (about 16,000 feet).

According to Sechin, preliminary technical studies from the company’s Laptev Sea zone indicate geological reserves of up to 9.5 billion tons.

“Our geologists are saying that this will be a unique field,” he underlined, a transcript from the meeting (an English version is here) published by the Kremlin reads.

Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin speaks during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin speaks during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. (Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters)

The Russian state oil company in early April started drilling at its Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 well, a part of the Khatanga license area by the Laptev Sea.

[Rosneft drills northernmost Arctic well]

In mid-June, the company said that preliminary results show significant resources.

Rosneft completed preparations for drilling at Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 in record-short time. The company obtained the license in 2015, whereupon extensive seismic mapping was started. As many as 114 prospective structures were identified.

During summer 2016, two ice-class ships loaded with more than 8,000 tons of equipment and technology, including the drilling rig, made it from Arkhangelsk to the remote Khatanga Bay.

The Gulf of Khatanga is among the least accessible places in the Russian Arctic. Located east of the Taymyr Peninsula by the ice-covered Laptev Sea, the license area is open for regular shipping only two months in the year. The nearest settlement is Khatanga, a town with a population of about 2,500 located about 350 kilometers (about 220 miles) to the southwest.