Russian company Rosneft has discovered a new oilfield in Khatanga Bay in the Laptev Sea during drilling of one of the northernmost exploratory wells on the Eastern Arctic Shelf.
At the time of drilling the Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 well from the shore of the Khara-Tumus Peninsula, the company collected three core samples from depths of 2,305m to 2,363m.
The samples showed high oil saturation dominated with light oily fractions.
Primary studies indicated the presence of the new oilfield. Currently, core sampling at the site is underway.
Rosneft received the licence for Khatanga development in November 2015.
In April, the company received authorisation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to start drilling of the Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 well, which represents the first well to be drilled under the offshore area of the Laptev Sea.
The 17,217.5km² Khatanga licence area is located in the Khatanga bay, the Laptev Sea in the north of Krasnoyarsk Region.
Currently, Rosneft has 28 licence areas on the Arctic shelf with the total resources of 34 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.
The company has completed geoexploratory works in the Laptev Sea since 2014 and identified 114 promising oil and gas-bearing structures.
Preliminary estimates indicate that the Laptev Sea’s total potential geological resources can touch 9.5 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.
Image: Rosneft headquarters next to Moskva river. Photo: courtesy of NVO via Wikipedia.
