As part of the Sakhalin III project, Gazprom has launched construction of the production wells in the Kirinskoye gas and condensate field located on the Sakhalin Island shelf.
To date, one exploratory well is being switched to the production regime. In addition, the Company is planning to launch construction of a new production well this year. The Polyarnaya Zvezda (Polar Star) semi-submersible drilling rig is used to carry out operations in the field.
The Kirinskoye field is Gazprom’s top development priority offshore Sakhalin and will serve as a gas source for consumers in Russia’s Far Eastern regions. For the first time ever natural gas will be produced from the Russian continental shelf by a subsea production system.
Currently, the Company continues the Kirinskoye field pre-development. A gathering manifold to intake the gas mixture from wells has been installed at the field and a pipeline has been laid to the coast for conveying the produced feedstock. A pipeline conveying monoethylene glycol (MEG prevents hydrates formation in the wells and the gas mixture gathering system) from the coastline to the field and a control cable of the submerged production system have also been placed. Gas flowlines and control cables are being trenched and process equipment is being installed.
Construction of the onshore processing facility (OPF) for gas treatment is underway. Construction and installation operations have been completed and hydro tests have started at a 139 kilometer pipeline running from the OPF to the Sakhalin main compressor station at the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system (GTS). The OPF and the GTS are designed to receive gas not only from the Kirinskoye field, but from other fields developed as part of the Sakhalin III project.
[mappress] Press Release, August 6, 2012