Uzbekistan cheers its largest ever oil find

Uzbekistan is celebrating what’s claimed to be nation’s largest ever crude discovery after oil producer Sanoat Energetika Guruhi (SEG) reported a significant new unconventional oil discover within the Zarafshan despair, between the cities of Samarkand and Navoy.

SEG mentioned the Yangi Uzbekistan discovery holds estimated in-place reserves of about 730 million barrels of heavy viscous oil, making it the biggest oil asset ever discovered within the nation, which hosts predominantly fuel reserves.

SEG mentioned the invention concerned drilling 50 shallow exploration wells and acknowledged sturdy technical help within the preliminary exploration part of the venture from its Russian contractor, non-public held geological enterprise Kontiki Exploration.

The venture launched in Could 2021 with the drilling of the primary exploration properly. Drilling depths have ranged from 400 to 750 meters, SEG mentioned.

Drillng outcomes confirmed layers of gravel and sandstone of the Albian, Cenomanian and Turonian durations, all of which have been saturated with viscous oil and bitumen, SEG added.

Kontiki deputy government director Alexander Astakhov mentioned the corporate is constant its exploration efforts with SEG within the Zarafshan despair, which he believes might turn out to be a brand new main oil and fuel province in Uzbekistan.

In line with Kontiki, there’s additionally likelihood of discovering standard oil reserves at higher depths within the play.

An SEG spokesperson instructed Upstream that improvement of the asset is anticipated to require steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) — a technique by no means beforehand utilized in Uzbekistan.

SAGD entails drilling pairs of wells — one to inject high-pressure vapour to heat up the formation, with the second properly beginning to function when the heavy oil has melted and could be pumped to the floor.

Within the preliminary improvement part, SEG expects to drill about 500 wells at Yangi Uzbekistan to realize manufacturing of 6000 barrels per day.

A number of Russian and Western contractors have been contacted about engaged on the event, the corporate mentioned.

SEG additionally expects new injection and improvement wells will must be drilled all through the primary 12 years of to keep up a manufacturing plateau of 20,000 bpd, which it hopes to realize by 2025.

In line with Uzbekistan authorities statistics, the nation produced about 15,500 bpd of oil final yr, of which SEG accounted for about 65%.

Beforehand generally known as Jizzakh Petroleum, SEG is owned by Uzbek businessman Bakhtiyer Fazylov.

The corporate began its operations in early 2021 after Uzbek authorities reportedly ordered state oil and fuel producer Uzbekneftegaz to switch most of its oil producing property to Jizzakh.