Business news

GOMEL, 11 September (BelTA) – The Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft will extract 91,000 tonnes of oil from new oil wells in Belarus in 2017. The amount will exceed last year’s by 3,000 tonnes, setting a new record for the last 20 years, Belorusneft representatives told BelTA.

Several factors contributed to the accomplishment. For instance, the Svetlogorsk drilling office has drilled 122,000m of wells, resulting in 41 wells. Apart from that, the quality of choosing drilling sites has been improved. The average daily yield of an oil well increased from 8.8 tonnes in 2012 to 14.8 tonnes in 2017, more than 65% up.

Belorusneft is taking measures to tackle the dwindling resource base. More seismic exploration operations are performed as well as follow-up exploration operations in existing oil fields, with more oil extracted from the reserves in place. In 2007-2016 the annual increase in the reserves varied from 560,000 tonnes to 1.36 million tonnes, compensating for oil extraction from 38% to 77% or by 58% per year on the average. There are plans to increase the reserves by 1.4 million tonnes (85% of the annual oil extraction) in 2017.

All these efforts are expected to culminate in an increase in this year’s oil extraction up to 1.65 million tonnes. It is a significant fact because most of the oil fields in Belarus are nearly depleted. Besides, ten years ago oil extraction in Belarus was projected to decrease every year.

In 1975 Belorusneft set an all-time high record by extracting nearly 8 million tonnes of oil. Oil extraction in Belarus started declining in 1976 to reach 1.82 million tonnes in 1997 due to the massive oil offtake, the worsening structure of the reserves (the main oil fields were nearly depleted).

The Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft was founded in 1966. The company specializes in the surveying, prospecting and development of oil fields, well drilling, oil and associated petroleum gas extraction in Belarus and a number of other countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Ecuador.