Korchagin

Location and Geology

The Yury Korchagin oil and gas field is located in the Russian waters of the North Caspian Sea, approximately 180 kilometers off the coast of Astrakhan city and 240 kilometers from Makhachkala. The field is situated at a water depth of 11-13 meters.

Discovery and Ownership

The Yury Korchagin field was discovered in 2000 by Lukoil and is owned by its subsidiary, Lukoil Nizhnevolzhskneft. It was the first field put into production by Lukoil in the Caspian Sea.

Production and Reserves

The field is anticipated to produce up to 2.5 million tonnes of crude oil and 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. As of 2018, the cumulative oil production from the field had reached 8.6 million tonnes. The field is estimated to hold 570 million barrels of oil-equivalent reserves.

Development Phases

Phase One

The first phase of the project began production in April 2010. This phase includes:

• A fixed offshore ice-resistant platform (LSP-1) which serves as the main production facility. The platform is 95.5 meters long, 72.2 meters wide, weighs 25,655 tonnes, and is installed 86.6 meters above sea level. It houses a 560-tonne drilling complex and two cranes with a load capacity of 70 tonnes each.
• The LSP-1 platform operates 30 wells, including 26 production wells, three water-injection wells, and one gas-injection well. The wells are drilled horizontally to lengths of approximately 5 kilometers.
• A living quarters platform (LSP-2) which accommodates 105 personnel, includes a medical facility, storerooms, ship repair and service facilities, a helpdesk, and rescue equipment. The LSP-2 platform is 41.5 meters long, 40.2 meters wide, and weighs 1,340 tonnes.
• A single-buoy moored (SBM) floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit located 58 kilometers away from the main production platform, connected by a 58-kilometer-long, 12-inch-diameter pipeline.

Phase Two

The second phase of development began in 2017 and includes:

• The installation of a satellite wellhead platform to drill new production wells in the eastern part of the field.
• A 9-kilometer-long multi-phase intra-field pipeline to supply the well-flow to the main production platform (LSP-1).
• The satellite platform also houses living quarters for temporary personnel and a helideck.
• Drilling of the first production well from the wellhead platform was completed in July 2018, reaching a depth of 5,217 meters with an initial flow rate of 500 tonnes of crude oil per day. The second production well was drilled to a depth of 3,736 meters by November 2018, with an initial flow rate of 600 tonnes of crude oil per day.

Contractors and Suppliers

Several contractors and suppliers have been involved in the development of the Yury Korchagin field:

• United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) of Russia provided the LSP-1 fixed offshore ice-resistant platform.
• Keppel Singmarine delivered the FSO unit, with the hull constructed in Singapore and assembled by Keppel Fels’ Caspian Shipyard Company (CSC) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• McDermott was awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the 58-kilometer subsea pipeline and was responsible for the installation of the main production platform LSP-1.
• Stroytransgaz installed the technological complex for the production platform.
• BKE Shelf was the drilling contractor for the first phase of the project.
• Tendeka provided autonomous inflow control devices for the first phase.

Operations and Infrastructure

• The oil produced at the field is supplied onshore to Makhachkala by shuttle tankers and then fed into the Makhachkala Novorossiysk pipeline, jointly operated by SOCAR and Transneft.
• The field development utilizes zero discharge technology, ensuring that all production and household waste is evacuated to the shore for disposal.

Technological Innovations

The development of the Yury Korchagin field has involved sophisticated technological solutions, including:

• Intelligent production wells with horizontal sections exceeding 5 kilometers, which is unique for Russia.
• Satellite monitoring to trace pollution in the Caspian waters, carried out by the Research and Development Center ScanX.

Production Milestones

As of 2020, Lukoil had produced ten million tonnes of oil from the Yury Korchagin and Vladimir Filanovsky fields combined. The accumulated production from these projects was approaching 30 million tonnes.