PetroNeft Sees New Well Flow at Arbuzovskoye

Russia-focused PetroNeft Resources announced Friday that it has successfully completed well 109 at its Arbuzovskoye oil field on the onshore License 61 in the Tomsk Oblast and has put it into production.

PetroNeft said that the well is just beginning to stabilize after experiencing flow line problems caused by very cold weather and that it expects the well's initial flow rate of 100 barrels of oil per day to increase.

The news comes a month after PetroNeft announced that it had brought well 102 on the same field into production with an initial flow rate of 540 bopd – the highest rate it has so far achieved on the Arbuzoskoye field. The firm said that currently group production, including both the Arbuzoskoye field and the nearby Lineynoye field, is running at 2,500 bopd (down from 2,700 bopd reported last month because four wells at the Lineynoye field are currently off line while remedial work is carried out on down-hole pumps).

Meanwhile, PetroNeft added, the firm has begun drilling Arbuzovskoye well 111.

"While well 109 is very economic at this initial flow rate we do expect the rate will improve somewhat as we optimise the well. Importantly, the well is producing 100-percent oil with no water so we are continuing to confirm our understanding of the size of the field. While some operational challenges and variation in results should always be expected, we look forward to completing further wells in Arbuzovskoye over the coming months as we continue to focus on materially increasing our production profile and cash flows," PetroNeft CEO Dennis Francis commented in a company statement.