BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 29. Uzbek Sanoat Energetika Guruhi LLC together with the Russian Kontiki Exploration company announced their discovery of a field of super-viscous oil and bitumen in the Zarafshan depression, in an area between the cities of Samarkand and Navoi, Trend reports via the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan.
The field will require some of the most advanced oilfield technology in use in Central Asia.
The reserves of Yangi Uzbekistan field of bituminous oil are estimated at about 100 million tons.
The maximum level of bituminous oil production is projected at 1 million tons per annum by 2025. To ensure this level of production, there will be 1,500 wells drilled per year. Investments required for the field’s development are estimated at $2.5 billion over the next 12 years.
“Discovery of the Yangi Uzbekistan field is a part of Sanoat Energetika Guruhi’s strategy to increase oil production to 1.6 million tons by 2030. To implement projects of this scale, we will engage the best contractors who can work with bituminous oil. We have been able to increase production from 425,000 to 500,000 tons per year thus far. The development of the Yangi Uzbekistan field will secure a significant increase in this figure. In this way Uzbekistan will be able to reduce imported crude oil and produce processed products from its own raw materials in the near future,” SEG’s chief executive, Shokir Faizullaev said.
“We have discovered not only the largest field at shallow depths but also a new oil-bearing area, where, at a greater depth, we can find even more liquid oil. Besides, there are potentially interesting intermountain and foothill depressions in Uzbekistan, where it is necessary to search and discover hydrocarbons,” director of Kontiki Exploration Company LLC, Sergey Astakhov said.
The implementation of the project started in May 2021 with the drilling of a first exploration well. The drilling was carried out on the border between the Samarkand and Navoi regions.
Drilling depths ranged from 400 to 750 meters. During the drilling, layers of gravel and sandstone of the Albian, Cenomanian and Turonian layers were uncovered, all of which were saturated with viscous oil and bitumen.