KRASNOYARSK, October 25 (Itar-Tass) — Commercial development of the Novo-Mikhailovskoye gas condensate field in Khakassia will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2013. The Progress-S geological prospecting company reported on Tuesday that the field reserves are four million tonnes. It has yet to drill four wells for the confirmation of the reserves. New equipment for geological prospecting worth tens millions of roubles will be supplied in two months.
The test run of the drilling site in the Novo-Mikhailovskaya gas-bearing area took place in August. On October 9, the well gave the first controlled blow-out. The planned volume of private investments in the filed development is 5 billion roubles. According to specialists, gas production at the field will result in 17 billion roubles in revenues to the regional budget from taxation.
“Gas production in Khakassia will make it possible to create an alternative energy source and partially solve the environmental problem, improve the region’s investment attractiveness,” Khakassia head Viktor Zimin said.
Coal-fired boiler houses, which have always been prevalent in the republic, will be transferred to natural gas use. The first 17 boiler houses will be prepared for the transition to the new fuel in 2012. Also, the republic’s government intends to use natural gas for the needs of the largest industrial enterprises in Khakassia and supply the raw material outside the region.
“The produced gas condensate can also be used fro making automotive fuel, up to 70 thousand tonnes of petrol a year,” Director of Progress-S Nikolai Melnikov said at a meeting with Viktor Zimin.
There are no developed oil and gas fields in Khakassia, but extensive geological surveys are being carried out. Specialists estimate that there are 345 million tonnes of oil reserves and 40 billion cubic metres of gas reserves in Khakassia. Mineral waters and muds are another resource, primarily in the form of mineral lakes and subsurface and radon waters. The venerable Shirinsky resort is located near the saline waters of Lake Shira. Khakassia’s reserves of sulfureous therapeutic mud are as much as 18 million cubic metres. Radon water reserves are sufficient for 50 years. Radon waters are the basis of operation of the Tumanny Health Centre. The Republic of Khakassia is a resource-rich Russian region. Extensive geological surveys are being carried out to evaluate the region's raw-material base. Ninety-one sites have been surveyed since 1991. The work is oriented toward subsurface studies, developing the raw mineral base of mining companies, and studying the raw mineral potential. However, owing to the republic’s strained financial situation, there are not enough funds for geological surveys.
The Republic of Khakassia with its capital Abakan is located in the southern part of Eastern Siberia. This is where the Sayansk territorial industrial complex was built and developed. The 6.4-million-kW Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant (Sayano-Shushenskaya GES), the most powerful in Russia, forms the basis of the complex. The complex is located in the Minusinsk Basin with its splendid natural resources. The main rivers are the Yenisei and its tributary the Abakan. The dam of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, located at the outlet of the Yenisei into the Minusinsk Basin, has formed the Sayanskoe reservoir, which has an area of 633 square km. The Sayansk complex is connected by the Yenisei and by rail with other districts of Eastern Siberia and Russia.