Samotlor Field is the largest oil field

Oil field

An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...

 of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and the sixth largest in the world, owned and operated by TNK-BP

TNK-BP

TNK-BP is a major vertically integrated Russian oil company. It is Russia's third largest oil producer and among the ten largest private oil companies in the world. TNK-BP is Russia's third largest oil company in terms of reserves and crude oil production...

. The field is located at Lake Samotlor in Nizhnevartovsk district, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug , also known as Yugra, is a federal subject of Russia . Population: The people native to the region are the Khanty and the Mansi, known collectively as Ob Ugric people...

, Tyumen Oblast

Tyumen Oblast

Tyumen Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tyumen. The oblast has administrative jurisdiction over two autonomous okrugs—Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Tyumen is the largest city, with over half a million inhabitants...

. It covers 1752 square kilometres (676.5 sq mi).

History

The field was discovered in 1965. Development started in 1967 and first oil was produced in 1969. Discovery of this field had changed Nizhnevartovsk

Nizhnevartovsk

Nizhnevartovsk is the second largest city in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located along the right bank of the Ob River. Population: 251,860 ; 239,044 ;...

 from a small nearby village into a busy oil city as Samotlor used to be the most important oil production base of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Before forming TNK-BP, the field was developed by Samotlorneftgaz and TNK-Nizhnevartovsk. After creation of TNK-BP, these companies became subsidiaries of TNK-BP.

Over the all development period a total of 2,086 well clusters (containing more than 17,000 wells) have been built and about 2.6 billion tons of oil has been produced. The peak production

Peak oil

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, projected reserves and the combined production rate of a field...

occurred in 1980 when Samotlor produced 158.9 million tons of oil (7 Moilbbl/d). The production has been in decline ever since, although according to TNK-BP the field production has stabilized over the past last years after.

Reserves

The in-place oil reserves of the Samotlor field were equal to 55 Goilbbl and as of 2009 estimated at 1 Goilbbl. The proven reserves are approximately 44 Goilbbl. The field is 80% depleted with water-cut exceeding 90%.

At the end of 1990s, production rate dropped to 300000 oilbbl/d. However, through an aggressive exploration program and application of cutting-edge technologies TNK-BP had raised production up to 750000 oilbbl/d. Up to 2012, TNK-BP plans to invest US$1 billion per year for maintaining oil production in it at the level of 30 million tons per year.

Sources

• Kramer, Andrew E. "Mapmakers and Mythmakers: Russian Disinformation Practices Obscure Even Today's Oil Fields," New York Times (1 December 2005): C1.