Gazprom: Caspian Production Within 2 Years

March 10, 2009

Alex Nicholson and Ellen Pinchuk, Bloomberg

OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company, expects to begin commercial production of oil in the Russian section of the Caspian Sea within two years.

Gazprom and Stockholm-based Lundin Petroleum AB completed drilling the first well at their Morskaya-1 development and plan to drill two more within 18 months, Ilya Kochevrin, executive director of Gazprom’s export unit, said by phone today.

“We expect quick oil” at Morskaya-1, which is in shallow waters and may hold as much as 450 million barrels of crude, Kochevrin said. Lundin last month received a five-year extension of its license for the block from Russia’s subsoil agency.

Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev will hold talks with Lundin executives in Geneva this weekend.