Russian oil producer Lukoil plans to start commercial oil production at its new Rakushechnoye field in the Caspian Sea in 2023, the company announced on Tuesday.
Lukoil said the company's president Vagit Alekperov with the Head of the Astrakhan Region, Sergey Morozov, jointly took part in the official groundbreaking ceremony to mark the construction start of the infrastructure facilities at the field.
This is the company's third large project in the Caspian Sea along with two other fields, Yury Korchagin and Vladimir Filanovsky.
Commercial oil production, with an estimated plateau level of 1.2 million tonnes, is expected to commence in 2023.
Initial recoverable reserves of the field are estimated at 39 million tonnes of oil and around 33 billion cubic meters of gas.
Discovered in 2001, the Rakushechnoye field is located 100 kilometers off the west coast, 160 kilometers away from the port of Astrakhan and 8.5 kilometers from the Vladimir Filanovsky field.
Lukoil has discovered ten fields in the Caspian Sea to date, with total recoverable hydrocarbon reserves of seven billion barrels of oil equivalent.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr