Drilling

Oil production is concentrated in the three most important oil and gas provinces, which together give more than 9/10 of all Russian oil, including the West Siberian province accounts for more than 2/3, and for the Volga-Ural region – about 1/4 of the total production.
Privatization of oil and gas facilities has previously fragmented a single centrally managed state system. Private oil companies seized production facilities and the country’s national wealth – oil fields and their reserves. There are 17 companies in the Russian oil complex. The largest among them are LUKOIL (18.7% of oil production in the Russian Federation), TNK (18.5%), Rosneft (15.6%), Surgutneftegaz (13.6%) and Sibneft ( 9.7%).

The advancement of production to the eastern regions and to the north of the European part poses the acute problem of transporting oil. The most effective means for this in Russia are pipelines. The development of the network of oil pipelines contributes to the further approximation of oil refining to the places of consumption of petroleum products.

Oil production and processing plays a key role in the development of many regions of the Russian Federation. On the territory of our country there are several areas with significant reserves of oil and gas, which are called oil and gas provinces (GGP). These include both traditional production regions: Western Siberia, the Volga region, the North Caucasus, and new oil and gas provinces: in the European North (Timan-Pechora region), in Eastern Siberia and in the Far East.

The fields of the West Siberian oil and gas province began to be developed in 1964. It includes the territory of the Tyumen, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous districts, as well as the adjacent shelf of the Kara Sea. The largest deposits of this province are Samotlor and Fedorovsk. The main advantages of production in this region are the favorable structure of proven reserves and the predominance of oil with low sulfur content and other impurities.

Prior to the discovery of deposits in Western Siberia, the Volga region occupied the first place in Russia in oil production. Due to its significant oil reserves, this region was named “Second Baku”. The Volga-Ural oil and gas province includes a number of republics and regions of the Urals, the Middle and Lower Volga regions. In these regions, oil has been extracted since the 20s of the last century. Since that time, more than 1,000 fields have been discovered in the Volga-Ural oil field, more than 6 billion tons of oil have been produced. This is almost half of the total volume mined in Russia. The largest deposit of the Volga-Ural province – Romashkinskoye, discovered in 1948.

The North Caucasus region is the oldest and most explored oil and gas province in Russia, with a history of industrial oil production dating back more than 150 years. This province includes deposits located in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, the Chechen Republic, the Rostov Region, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia and Dagestan. The main deposits of this oil and gas province are in a late stage of development, heavily developed and flooded.

The Komi Republic and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District are part of the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province. Targeted oil exploration and production is carried out here after the discovery in 1930 of the first oil field – Chibyusky. A distinctive feature of the Timan-Pechora NGP is a significant predominance of oil over gas. This region is considered promising from the point of view of hydrocarbon production, given the recently discovered large oil and gas fields in the coastal part of the Barents Sea.

The East Siberian oil and gas province, which so far has not been developed in the proper amount, is the main reserve for the future growth of reserves and the provision of oil and gas production in Russia. Remoteness, lack of population, lack of necessary infrastructure and severe weather and climatic conditions characteristic of these territories make it difficult to explore and extract oil. However, as deposits in traditional production areas are depleted, the development of the oil industry in Eastern Siberia is becoming a priority for oil workers. A huge role in its decision is given to the construction of the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, which will allow transporting the oil produced here to the ports of the Far East. The East Siberian oil and gas field is formed by the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Irkutsk Region. The largest deposit is Verkhnechonskoye, discovered in 1978.

The main proven reserves of oil and gas in the Far Eastern petroleum province are concentrated on Sakhalin Island and the adjacent shelf of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Despite the fact that oil has been extracted here since the 20s of the last century, active development began only 70 years after the discovery of large deposits on the northeast shelf of the island within the depths of the sea up to 50 meters. Compared with land deposits, they are distinguished by their large size, more favorable tectonic structure and higher concentration of reserves. Despite the fact that geologists see significant potential in this region, other territories included in the Far Eastern Oil Field are still poorly studied.