Oil production has started at the Sakhalin-1 project’s Arkutun-Dagi field, located off the north-east coast of Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.
The field, which is located around 25km from the north-eastern shore of the Sakhalin island in the sea of Okhotsk, will bring total daily production at Sakhalin-1 to more than 200,000 barrels.
Peak daily production from the Arkutun-Dagi field is estimated to reach 90,000 barrels.
The other two fields, Chayvo and Odoptu, commenced production in 2005 and 2010 respectively.
Production from the Arkutun-Dagi field will be routed via the existing Chayvo on-shore processing facility, Sakhalin Island.
Production will be delivered via pipelines to the De-Kastri oil export terminal located in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia.
ExxonMobil subsidiary Exxon Neftegas operates the Sakhalin-1 consortium with a 30% stake.
Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development and affiliates of Rosneft, RN-Astra hold 30% and 8.5% stakes, respectively, while Sakhalinmorneftegas-Shelf and ONGC Videsh hold 11.5% and 20% interests, respectively.
ExxonMobil development company vice-president James Flood said: "I congratulate the team for the safe and successful development of Sakhalin-1’s third field, Arkutun-Dagi.
"The start-up of this field will continue to add to the benefits the community is receiving through the development of the Sakhalin-1 project."
Rosneft said Sakhalin-1 is the first large-scale shelf project undertaken in the Russian Federation under production sharing agreement (PSA) conditions, executed in 1996.
Image: The Arkutun-Dagi field is located off the north-east coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia. Photo: courtesy of ROSNEFT.