Caspian project

Stock Valuation

Until the late 1980s, it was believed that the main reserves of oil and gas in the Caspian Sea were concentrated between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, where most of the discovered fields were located. However, the discovery of a gas condensate field near Astrakhan in 1976 ^[2] and in Kazakhstan in 1979, the Tengiz field forced to reconsider plans. This led to the success and emergence of the “sea” twin of Tengiz - the Kashagan shelf field in 2000 (reserves from 1.1 to 6.9 billion tons, about a quarter of all explored reserves in the Caspian). In 2000-2005, large reserves were discovered in the Russian zone of the Caspian Sea, the largest of them is the oil and gas condensate field. V. Filanovsky ^[1] . The ratio of oil and gas in the Caspian is approximately 2: 1.

The total explored reserves of the region are determined by six sites, including the "land" Tengiz and Karachaganak, and located on the shelf Kashagan, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Shah-Deniz and the block of northern deposits of Russia, including Khvalynskoye , them. Yu. Korchagin , Sarmatian , Shell , them. V. Filanovsky, 170th km. So, Kashagan accounts for over 25 percent of the total reserves of these six fields. The potential of the second largest Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field (on the border of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan) is estimated at 700 million tons.

The Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan has reserves of a trillion cubic meters of gas and 400 million tons of condensate, but it is located at a great depth: a 132 m well was drilled in 1999, 348 m in 2000. Because of this, the industrial development of the field was postponed, since drilling at no deeper depths did not give a result.

Turkmenistan estimated the reserves of its economic zone in the Caspian Sea at 12 billion tons of oil equivalent (AD).

The reserves of the Russian block of offshore fields were estimated at 3 billion tons of oil equivalent. e., the Yalama-Samur field on the border of Azerbaijan with Dagestan - up to 730 million tons of oil equivalent. e. ^[1] The reserves of the largest developed Astrakhan gas condensate field amount to about 2.5 trillion cubic meters of gas and 400 million tons of condensate ^[2] and are extracted by about 10%, which is associated with difficulties in extracting raw materials from a depth of 4 km. On its basis, the Astrakhan gas complex was created, the main object of which is the Astrakhan gas processing plant with a capacity of 12 billion cubic meters of gas and 4 million tons of oil and gas condensate per year.

Intelligence and technology features

Exploration at sea requires special technology and equipment, which is problematic to deliver to the Caspian Sea as the inland sea and in many respects has to be assembled or produced locally. Since oil is located at a depth of up to 8 km, to evaluate promising sites in order to open its bed (the so-called “trap”, where hydrocarbons can accumulate under a cap of impermeable rocks up to 110 Rhnejur deposits with an age of more than 110 million years),), allows seismic exploration. By recording the reflected signals from explosions produced at certain intervals, it is possible to outline the profile of underground formations to a depth of 10 km and a length of 3 km. Having drawn the entire 160-kilometer strip of the shelf into strips of 10 km each, reconnaissance ships passed along them over 22 thousand km. These studies were launched in the Russian sector of the Caspian by the oil company Lukoil in 1995.

In 1999, she began exploratory drilling. It was carried out using a floating installation "Astra" measuring 53 × 53 m and weighing 5000 tons. A rig is installed on it. The platform has three 50-meter legs, which, when drilling, lower and rest against the bottom. The platform is equipped with a powerful power station, a helipad and accommodation facilities for a drilling crew of 60 people. "Astra" is designed for drilling at depths of 5 to 50 m. The second platform for drilling at depths of up to 700 m is designed for installation at anchors ^[1] . In 2000, the first industrial oil was obtained at the Khvalynskoye field. On this occasion, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Khristenko and the head of Lukoil Vagit Alekperov arrived in Astrakhan, who together with the governor of the Astrakhan region Anatoly Guzhvin proclaimed “the birth of a new oil and gas province in Russia” ^[2] .

The problem of Caspian oil is its high density (specific gravity - 0.95 g / cm ³ ), which makes it possible to classify it in accordance with GOST in 2002 as bituminous oil, which can be pumped out by a special installation, rather than a rocking machine. When oil is extracted from this oil, massive salt sediment remains, and the resulting bitumen contains a lot of paraffin . Work in the Volga delta led to strict environmental requirements - the principle of the so-called zero discharge involves the collection of all technological waste in containers and their removal to the mainland with further processing. All this explains what problems had to be solved when developing oil production technology in the Caspian and creating the necessary infrastructure for this ^[2] .

Gazprom

The main developer and operator of the Astrakhan gas condensate field is the Gazpromdobycha Astrakhan company (until February 2008 - AstrakhanGazprom).

In 1995, Astrakhangazprom, with the participation of Volgo-Caspian Joint-Stock Bank OJSC, Radon LLC and the Astrakhan oil and gas exploration expedition, established the Southern Oil Company to work with an authorized capital of 2 million rubles at the Verblyuzhye field with proven reserves of 17.5 million tons. the shareholder owned 79% of the shares of UNC, the rest - 7% each. In 1999, it was decided to attract the investments of the American billionaire Christopher Getty, for which the authorized capital of the Russian company was doubled by selling shares of additional issue owned by Getty JPM Partners LDC. From 2000 to 2007, the Americans spent $ 12.8 million on the development of Camel, having drilled 30 wells and produced 2 thousand tons of superheavy oil, for which the Americans could not find a buyer. However, they hoped to find more suitable raw materials, for which they planned to bring the investment to $ 40 million.

In 2006, an audit initiated by Astrakhangazprom found violations during the additional issue of UNK shares. In May 2007, Gazprom filed a lawsuit with the Federal Arbitration Court of the Volga Region to cancel the issue and subsequent transactions, which ended in a victory for Gazprom in August 2008 ^[2] .

Lukoil

The company has the largest proven reserves on the Russian shelf.

In November-December 2005, it acquired for $ 261 million a controlling stake in the rival Primorienneftegaz company (51% minus one share), which had previously obtained a license for exploration of the Floodplain in the Volga Delta. In May 2006, Lukoil completed the repurchase of this enterprise, exchanging 49% of its shares for 4.165 million of its own, provided to the former owners.

Since the 1970s, the United Kingdom has been carrying out large-scale development of oil on the shelf, annually receiving almost 140 million tons of raw materials in the North Sea. The industry employs 400 thousand people, the country exports a third of the oil produced.

Norway produces oil only in the offshore zone and exports 144 million tons, which at the beginning of the 2000s exceeded Russia's oil export (120 million tons with a total production of 310 million tons) ^[1] .

1. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4 5} A. Osadchiy, candidate of technical sciences. GREAT OIL CASPIAN (rus.) . Journal of Science and Life . www.nkj.ru (December 2002). Date of treatment August 14, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4 5} Olga Khvostunova, Elena Popova. Astrakhan oil and gas anomaly (Russian) . Kommersant-Power . www.kommersant.ru (September 29, 2008). Date of treatment August 14, 2019.