Photo from UNIAN
In total, Ukrnafta completed 17 hydraulic fracturing operations last year.
Ukraine's largest oil producer, Ukrnafta, in 2018 boosted oil and condensate production by 5% from 2017 to 1.448 million tonnes, reducing gas output by 2.3% to 1.082 billion cubic meters (bcm).
"In 2018, Ukrnafta increased oil and condensate production as well as factually stabilized natural gas output. The average daily production of oil and condensate grew by 5% up to 3.97 ktonnes/day against 3.78 ktonnes/day in 2017. Meanwhile, gas production demonstrated the insignificant decline from 3.03 mln m3/day to 2.96 mln m3/day," the company's press service said in a statement on January 25.
It is noted that in the fourth quarter (4Q) of 2018 the average daily hydrocarbons production increased, not only year-over-year (because of the low base effect due to the enforced halt in production in six fields), but also against the indicators posted in early 2018. The average daily production of oil and condensate in 4Q 2018 exceeded 4 ktonnes/day, while that of gas was more than 3 mln m3/day.
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"The company succeeded in achieving positive production results under the condition of restricted investment due to works on the existing wells such as recompletions, optimization of capital and planned workovers and replacement of the obsolete equipment," the report said.
In total, Ukrnafta completed 17 hydraulic fracturing operations last year, namely 121 capital workovers and 93 opex workovers. As of December 31, 2018, Ukrnafta produced extra 58.4 ktonnes of oil and 74.2 mln m3 of gas due to the capital workovers. The opex workovers resulted in incremental production of 27.2 ktonnes of oil and 12.4 mln m3 of gas.
Read alsoUkrnafta boosts daily gas output to 3.1 mcm
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrnafta in 2017 reduced oil production by 9.2%, to 1.4 million tonnes against 2016, while cutting natural gas output by 14.8%, to 1.1 bcm.
The company said the main reason for the reduction in hydrocarbon output was blocking the extension of special permits by the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources.
In 2017, nine licenses of Ukrnafta expired. The company's attempts to renew them were blocked by Ukraine's State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources. As a result, Ukrnafta was forced to stop production at six fields from April to June 2017.
UNIAN memo. Ukrnafta is the largest state-owned oil and gas company in Ukraine. It accounts for about 70% of oil and condensate production, and 11% of gas extraction in the country. Ukrnafta is one of the key players in the retail market for petroleum products in Ukraine: the company owns more than 560 fuel filling stations throughout the country.