Surgutneftegaz To Produce 47M Tons Of Oil In 2002

The Surgutneftegaz company will reach the level of production of 47 million tons of oil a year in 2002, and the volume of gas production will amount to 12 billion cubic meters. In 2003 the company will increase the volume of oil production to 50 million tons a year. During the next four years the company intends to put a number of new oil fields into operation, which will require over $2.5 billion in investments. This information was announced by Surgutneftegaz General Director Vladimir Bogdanov, the company's Press Service reports. Bogdanov pointed out that the Zapadno-Kamynskoye, Tonchinskoye, Severo-Aipimskoye and Chigorinskoye fields would be put into operation in 2001, and exploitation of the Zapadno-Maslikhovskoye, Saninskoye, Severo-Yuryevskoye, Tretyakovskoye and Ulyanovskoye fields would begin in 2002. Surgutneftegaz intends to increase its oil reserves by 500 million tons by 2010 by means of exploration. Exploration of one of the largest new oil fields, Rogozhnikovskoye, which was bought at an auction at the beginning of 2001, will commence soon. As it was reported earlier, Surgutneftegaz produced 21.242 million tons of oil in the first six months of 2001. The volume of gas production reached 5.553 billion cubic meters in the same period.