Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee has convened at Gazprom’s Headquarters a meeting dedicated to the issue of enhancing drilling efficiency in the Gazprom Group of companies.

Attending the meeting were Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Head of the Financial & Economic Department, Vasily Podyuk, Member of the Management Committee, Head of the Gas, Condensate and Oil Production Department, Elena Karpel, Head of Economic Expertise and Pricing Department, top managers and specialists of Gazprom’s core business units, representatives of Burgaz, Gazkomplektimpex, Promgaz, TyumenNIIgiprogaz.

The meeting underscored that recent years had seen a trend towards larger scope of drilling, with fewer Cenomanian wells under construction and bigger amount of deeper Valanginian and exploratory wells.

To this end, in pursuing the objective of enhancing drilling quality & efficiency and reducing well construction & testing time, Gazprom approved in 2004 the Program for drilling efficiency and upgrading, geological exploration wells geophysical survey and testing. The Program encompasses acquiring state-of-the-art drilling equipment worth a total of some RUR 20 bln for Burgaz’s needs. As a result, over 2005 Burgaz purchased two mobile drilling units, three overhaul units and an Uralmash-5000/320 drilling unit.

The meeting pointed to the need of applying available reserves to improve Burgaz’s well drilling and testing activities as well as setting up specialized repair & maintenance units within a drilling company.

The meeting adopted a decision to update Burgaz’s business plans for 2006 to 2010.

Reference:

Burgaz constructs exploratory and development wells at areas, fields and underground gas storage facilities via five business outlets and a horizontal drilling centre. Burgaz operates in the Nadym-Pur-Taz region, Republic of Komi, Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk Territories, Rostov, Irkutsk, Astrakhan, Orenburg and Tyumen regions. Wells are constructed under a general contractor’s scheme both by Burgaz itself as well as drilling and repair & maintenance contractors.

Over 2005 the Gazprom Group have drilled 539,000 m of rocks and built 359 development and exploratory wells. Burgaz’s share in overall well construction within 2005 accounted for 65 per cent.