Sakhalin-3 to Commence Drilling Next Year

Chinese oil company Sinopec and state-owned Russian company Rosneft will start drilling Sakhalin-3 next year to meet increasing demands for domestic energy, Sinopec told US reporters.

Sinopec, who is the parent company of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, says it plans to complete 700km² of seismic survey in the Veninsky block in the second half of this year. Drilling is expected to begin in the second half of 2008.

Annual production is expected to reach 21 million tons of oil and 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2010.

In 2003 Rosneft and Sinopec embarked on a joint venture to pump oil from the seabed around the Pacific island of Sakhalin to develop the Veninsky block of fields.

Reported by staff writer