Orenburgneft | |||
The history of oil production in the Orenburg region dates back to 1937 when commercial oil first gushed from a 285—meter-deep well to the east of the town of Buguruslan. Orenburgneft production association, established on February 19, 1963, was transformed into a joint stock company under the same name in 1993. In 1995 the Russian government issued a decree establishing the ONAKO oil company. Orenburgneft joined ONAKO as its key production subsidiary. In 2001, TNK (Tyumen Oil Company), a heritage company of TNK-BP, became the owner of the controlling stake in ONAKO. In April 2008, the exploration unit Orenburggeologiya acceded to Orenburgneft.
Orenburgneft is currently the biggest company in the region operating across 18 districts and towns of the Orenburg region. The company is also working at a number of license areas in the regions of Astrakhan (3 license areas), Samara (4 license areas) and Saratov (1 license area). Those license areas are managed by three oil production units (South, Center and North) originating from Orenburgneft’s production structures. Additionally, Zaikino Gas Processing Plant and Orenburgneft gas assets were incorporated in the production unit Gas.
TNK-BP’s production assets in the Orenburg region include 106 license areas and 88 fields. The remaining recoverable reserves amount to 324 million tons. In 2008, reserve additions of oil and condensate of commercial categories (ABC1) amounted to 74 million tons.
Since recently, Orenburgneft has been annually showing record-high production performance. The highest output of 13.1 million tons dating back to the Soviet times was beaten in 2004 by as much as 2 million tons at a time.In 2008, Orenburg subsidiaries of TNK-BP delivered yet another record — 17.3 million tons of crude. Growth in output is achieved through discoveries of new satellite structures and oil accumulations at the existing brownfields as well as application of new technologies for oil production and recovery.
Since 2005, TNK-BP has been implementing the program “Gas” in the Orenburg Region. The 50% level of associated gas utilization at the start of the program went up to 75% by early 2009. The program, primarily designed to improve the environmental situation in the region, envisages bringing the level of flared associated gas utilization up to as high as 95% by 2012. As part of the program, the company is currently revamping its existing gas pipelines and gas compression stations and building new facilities. Work proceeds at expansion of the Zaikino Gas Processing Plant and development of the so-called “small power generation” based on compact gas generators producing electric power for the company’s own use.
TNK-BP’s production subsidiaries are the major taxpayer in the Orenburg region. In 2008, Orenburgneft and Buguruslanneft paid 11.2 billion roubles in taxes to Orenburg’s consolidated budged which accounted for one quarter of its total tax revenues. The same year the company’s payments to the budgets of all levels exceeded 68 billion roubles.