Feasibility study of the Ayashkinskoye license block (Sakhalin offshore) development

Abstract

Despite several successful existing offshore Russian projects such as Prirazlomnoye, Arkutun-Dagi, Piltun-Astokhskoye, Chayvo and Kirinskoye, Russian continental shelf remains to be a unique perspective for future exploration and development activities. In terms of recoverable reserves, Sakhalin offshore takes the second position in the chart of Russian Offshore Oil&Gas reserves. There are nine existing projects on the Russian shelf near the Sakhalin island. However, only three from the nine projects have reached the status of being developed. Hydrocarbon production on the island is carried out mainly under the Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2 and Sakhalin -3 projects. The Sakhalin -3 project appeals itself as one of the further developments since it has not been fully explored yet. The only successful project, put in operation, is Kirinskoye field. Nevertheless, there are other potentially perspective structures on the sites of Sakhalin-3. Among these is Ayashkinskoye license block which comprises several fields. The most perspective is Ayashkinskoye and Bautinskoye fields which have already been explored and received names Neptun and Triton respectively. The objective of the Master’s thesis is to come up with the possible solution of development of Ayashkinskoye license block. It is of great importance to narrow the criteria of choice to ensure the successful analysis to be performed as soon as all data would be available. The superior design of the development was based on: • analysing the environmental conditions and present challenges of North-East Sakhalin Offshore; • investigating all existed offshore development projects in that region; • analysing the status of exploration development of Ayashkinskoye license block; • Inspecting relevant development technologies, suitable for this license area; • Calculation ice loads on columns of GBS platform; • Modelling cases of impact loads from dropped objects.