Lukoil planning to drill first well at Tyuleniy site in Caspian Sea

MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) - Lukoil plans to drill the first well at the Severo-Tyuleniy structure in the Russian part of the Caspian Sea this year.

"Lukoil has not yet begun drilling the first exploratory well at the Severo-Tyuleniy structure of the Tyuleniy licensed area in the Caspian Sea. The start of drilling for the N1 Tyuleniy well is planned for 2025, bearing in mind the readiness of the drilling rig," the Natural Resources Ministry told Interfax.

The first exploratory well at the Severo-Tyuleniy structure is expected to have a depth of 3,500 m and the second, dependent exploratory and appraisal well a depth of 3,850 m.

Lukoil-Nizhnevolzhskneft bought the Tyuleniy oil and gas site at auction at the end of 2020. It paid 82.6 million rubles for the site. The starting price was 68.9 million rubles. It received the license for it on January 25, 2021. Projected recoverable category Dl oil resources at the site amount to 25 million tonnes and 65 billion cubic meters of gas. The depth of the sea within the site is 20 m. The company prepared the Severo-Tyuleniy structure in 2021 based on the results of seismic surveys in the Tyuleniy area.

Lukoil has discovered 10 fields in the Caspian Sea with total recoverable hydrocarbon reserves of 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The company is currently working at the Korchagin, Filanovsky, and Grayfer fields. Total production exceeds 7 million tonnes. The Kuvykin field, with recoverable reserves of 6.3 million tonnes of C1+C2 oil, 231 billion cubic meters of gas and 21 million tonnes of condensate, is expected to start production in 2029.