Discovered in 2001, the Rakushechnoye field is located 160km from the port of Astrakhan, Russia, with a sea depth ranging from from 5 to 8 meters.

The Rakushechnoye field is estimated to contain initial recoverable reserves of around 39 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate, and 33 billion cubic meters of gas.

The field infrastructure will include a fixed offshore ice-resistant platform, a living quarters platform, and a crossover bridge.

Lukoil said that the field development will also include installation of subsea interfield pipelines and cable lines for the connection with the second fixed offshore ice-resistant platform at the Vladimir Filanovsky field.

Lukoil said: “Close proximity to the Company’s producing fields in the Caspian Sea made it possible to significantly optimize the field development project through the use of the existing infrastructure for treatment and transportation of products along with the power supply at the Rakushechnoye field.

“The Rakushechnoye field output will be supplied for treatment to the central technological platform at the V. Filanovsky field and then exported through the CPC.”

The offshore facilities required for the Rakushechnoye field development will be built in the Astrakhan Region, the firm said.

For the construction of the facilities, Lukoil plans to use the assembly site of OOO LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft as well as subcontractor’s production facilities.

The Rakushechnoye field is located 8.5km away from the V. Filanovsky field.

Discovered by Lukoil in 2005, the V. Filanovsky field is claimed to be the largest oil field in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea, with initial recoverable reserves of 129 million tonnes of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of gas.

In June, Lukoil commissioned the third well at the second development stage of the Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea.

The field’s second development stage includes construction of a total of eight wells including six producing and two injection wells to maintain the plateau oil production level of 6 million tons per year.