Gas production

At the yearend 2023, the actual gas production of RussNeft amounted to 2.103 bn m³, including 270 mln cubic meters of natural gas. The Company's fields yielded 1.833 billion cubic meters of APG. Meanwhile, the level of gas utilization at the yearend was maintained at 96.1%, thus having met the state's requirement aimed at maximizing the negative impact of production on the environment.

Program of efficient use of associated petroleum gas (APG)

Currently, the Company's task is to maintain the rate of rational APG utilization, improve the energy efficiency of oil production, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This activity will be pursued in the framework of the corporate program developed for 2024-2026. In accordance with it, a number of major engineering and gas infrastructure facilities is planned to be financed.

Gas business

The gas business development is one of the priorities for the Company. In 2022, a decision was made to implement a project for technical upgrading of the Stepnovsky oil treatment area in the Saratov region as one of the components of the conducted large-scale revamping of the gas compressor unit with a capacity of more than 50 mln m³/year.

Oil and gas exploration and reserves

The total number of oilfields is 123 (State Register of Reserves of the Russian Federation as of 01.01.2024). The Company's enterprises are divided according to territorial and operational criteria into the following groups:

• West Siberian
• Volga Region
• Central Siberian

The oil and gas content of the fields within the boundaries of the Volga group is associated with terrigenous and carbonate rocks of the Middle-Lower Carboniferous and Devonian, while in the West Siberian and Central Siberian regions with deposits of the Upper Jurassic and Neocomian.

The prospects for the discovery of new oil and gas deposits, as well as the expansion of the oil-bearing capacity of previously discovered fields, are related to the strategy for stable implementation of the exploration program with a focus on the detailed high-quality CDP (common depth point)-2D/3D seismic surveys and to the strategy of successful prospecting, appraisal and exploration drilling.

It is worth noting, that lately the hard-to-recover and unconventional reserves have become the main sources of replenishment of the reserves portfolio for the medium term. The growth of competencies in research and industrial development of HTR, the analysis of ongoing retrospective exploration work and generalization of its results allow us to promptly rank projects in the Company, identifying the most promising areas of development (Verkhne-Shapshinskoye, Tagrinskoye, Vostochno-Kamennoye, Zapadno-Varioganskoye fields).

Since 2017, the Company has continued active industrial development of deposits of the Achimov sequence based on the results of a comprehensive methodological approach to the study of productive sediments of the Verkhne-Shapshinskoye field. In total, since 2017, reserves evolution for the Achimov deposits of the Verkhne-Shapshinskoye field have amounted to more than 42 million tons of oil.

The implementation of the production drilling program at the Tagrinskiy license area has confirmed the high effectiveness of the ongoing exploration work and enables real time updating for the geological model of the Achimov deposits. Since 2015, the total changes in the oil reserves of the Achimov sequence of the Tagrinskoye field amounted to more than 55 million tons, while the reserves of the HTR category added more than 75 million tons.

Among other things, the total increase in oil reserves is associated with expanding the boundaries of the Tagrinskiy license area so that to include in its territory a part of the subsoil with hydrocarbon reserves of the unallocated subsoil reserve fund. As a result of such inclusion of bordering areas, the increase in reserves of the Achimov deposits of the Tagrinskoye field amounted to about 13 million tons.

The program of geological prospecting and exploration, and production drilling in 2023 resulted in 8-million-tons change in liquid hydrocarbons reserves. The bulk change in reserves in 2023 is the increase in oil reserves at the Tagrinskoye field, amounted to 6.3 million tons of oil.

As part of the exploration and evaluation stage, following the construction of the exploration and evaluation well No. 3 of the Zapadno-Vishnevsky license area of the Saratov branch of the Company, a new accumulation of natural gas amounted to 500 million cubic metres was discovered.

In 2023, on the territory of KhMAO-Yugra the Company carried out CDP- 2D field seismic surveys in the amount of 900 linear km, as well as cameral CDP - 3D seismic surveys in the amount of 419 km². According to the results of the cameral works, the prospective resources (D0) in the Bazhenov and Tyumen deposits were estimated at more than 5 million tons of oil.

In order to annually replenish the mineral resource base, the Company plans to maintain the exploration policy based on:

• search and exploration of new hydrocarbon deposits in oil and gas-bearing horizons due to prospecting, appraisal and exploratory drilling, as well as advanced production drilling;
• improving the efficiency of prospecting, appraisal and exploratory drilling by improving the quality of CDP- 2D/3D seismic surveys, enabling detailed study of complex hydrocarbon traps, including in deep-lying complexes represented by hard-to-recover reserves and unconventional reservoirs;
• expanding the boundaries of the oil and gas potential of already identified deposits;
• acquisition of potentially promising new subsoil areas based on geological, as well as technical and economic assessments.