BBC Monitoring Service: Shell joint venture upbeat on Siberian oil field results: 23 December 2005

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Khanty-Mansiysk, 23 December: The 100,000th tonne of crude has been produced by Salym Petroleum Development [SPD] at the Zapadno-Salymskoye oil field, which was put into operation at the end of November. "This is a milestone in the development of the Zapadno-Salymskoye field," the largest out of three in the Salym group of oil fields being developed by SPD, the company's press service said.

SPD CEO Dale Rollins called the start of Zapadno-Salymskoye operations and production of 100,000th tonne of oil "the most important events of 2005".

The main task in 2006, Rollins said, "is to ensure a total production of over 2m tonnes, or about 15m barrels, of oil at all three fields of the Salym group". In 2006, 385m dollars will be allocated to reach the target, he added.

Experts say that in terms of a total amount of investment - 1.25bn dollars - the Salym project is among the major projects with foreign capital in Russia's oil sector.

[Editorial note: Salym Petroleum Development NV was set up in 1996 to develop the Salym group of oil fields in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, Western Siberia. SPD was established on a parity basis by Shell Salym Development BV, a Shell Group company, and Evikhon, a subsidiary of UK-listed Sibir Energy plc, an Anglo-Russian energy company. SPD holds licenses to develop all three Salym fields, which contain 152.6m tonnes of recoverable oil reserves.]

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0531 gmt 23 Dec 05

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