Belorusneft Head: 2m tonnes is immediate goal for Belarus’ oil production

The immediate goal of Belarus’ oil production is two million tonnes. To do this, it is necessary to gradually increase the volume of drilling work, Belorusneft Director General Aleksandr Lyakhov told reporters, commenting on the results of a meeting with the President discussing the state and development of the country’s mineral resource base and the expansion of geological exploration, including with regard to hydrocarbons

Aleksandr Lyakhov outlined the main result of the session: ‘to continue the expansion of geological exploration work for hydrocarbons on the territory of Belarus. “The main aspect was paid to drilling new wells, and the task was set to increase the volume of drilling work as a further step in increasing oil production in Belarus,” he said.

At the same time, the Belorusneft Head added that there has been a significant increase in the volume of drilling and seismic exploration work in recent years, which has already affected the growth rate of oil production.

Aleksandr Lyakhov notes that it is difficult to talk about the ceiling for Belarus’ oil production, because experts proceed from the data they have, “The immediate goal of Belarus’ oil production is 2 million tonnes. To do this, it is necessary to gradually increase the volume of drilling work both this year (which is being done by Belorusneft) and in 2025.”

At today’s event, the Director General of Belorusneft showed the meeting participants geological material: those parts of rocks recovered from wells that accumulate oil.

“This shows how the conditions for oil production in Belarus have changed nowadays. 50-60 years ago these were porous rocks, while today it is possible to extract oil from rocks that have low porosity and permeability properties. In order for these rocks to produce oil, it is necessary to perform hydraulic fracturing and build horizontal wells, which is being done by Belorusneft today. This is our future,” said Aleksandr Lyakhov.

At the same time, he added that this technology is sometimes twice as expensive as vertical technology, but the country has all the competencies for these types of work, and the company has the necessary scientific and practical base.