Gazprom to ramp up oil drilling to pre-Covid levels
Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of the Kremlin-backed fossil fuel giant, expects to restore oil drilling to pre-pandemic volumes this year.
The group’s exploration chief Yury Masalakin told reporters on Tuesday Gazprom will boost drilling through the help of new technologies and modelling.
The advancements will speed up the start of production from the time of oil discovery by 2-3 times at the company’s Zima project in West Siberia.
“The company has reached one of the highest rates of successful drilling in industry thanks to introduction of a new approach to complex geological modelling in Russia,” he explained.
Analysts and company sources told Reuters that Russia may miss its May target of reaching pre-crisis oil output levels, due to a lack of spare production capacity.
However, it could hit its output targets later in the year.
Gazprom Neft has revealed it plans to increase drilling activity this year by around 50 per cent.
It expects oil and gas condensate output to rise seven per cent in 2022.
The company remains under pressure in Europe, with the International Energy Agency accusing Gazprom of throttling gas supplies, while the EU is currently investigating its continental business.
Gazprom has consistently denied the accusations it is cutting down supplies and has said it has honoured all of its contracts in Europe.