Russ Oil-Gas

07/06/2009 - PennEnergy - YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK -- Exploration drilling is under way on the Gazprom-operated Kirinskoye gas-condensate field offshore Sakhalin Island. Gazprom views this campaign as a key step towards creating a new gas production area offshore Sakhalin, serving Russia’s Eastern Gas program. It will also be the first project in the Sakhalin region performed solely by Russian companies. Gazprom plans to maximize resources of Russian shipbuilding and machine-building companies for the development. From 2014, Kirinskoye will provide gas for the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission trunkline system, under construction to supply consumers in the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais and Sakhalin Oblast regions. In 2007, Gazprom was designated program execution coordinator by the Russian government. Kirinskoye, discovered in 1992, is in the Kirinsky Block of the Sakhalin III license area in the Sea of Okhotsk. Gazprom was granted the subsurface license in May 2008. Reserves are currently estimated at 75.4 bcm of gas and 8.6 million tons (7.8 million metric tons) of gas condensate. The company holds 45 licenses for subsurface resources in eastern Russia, including parts of the Bering Sea. Its latest four awards were issued last month, including Kirinsky and two other Sakhalin III blocks, Vostochno-Odoptinksy and Ayashky.