Prospects of finding new oil deposits in Belarus outlined

Oil extraction per annum in Belarus has been close to 1.65 million tonnes for the last ten years. “Our job is to increase the reserves in a way to exceed oil extraction. With this in mind work is being done to find new deposits of hydrocarbon resources, promising areas, and measures are being taken to start commercial development of the already known deposits with hard-to-recover oil,” the official said.

Oil prospecting in Belarus is focused on the Pripyat Trough in southeastern parts of the country. Most of the discovered deposits (about 80%) are located in the northern part of the oil and gas-bearing zone of the Pripyat Trough. This area has been thoroughly examined. The central oil and gas-bearing zone is not so well-studied but shows a lot of promise. Oil inflow was secured as a result of a well-drilling operation in Petrikov District in April 2020. The fact gives reasons for prospecting work in this area.

The southern part of the Pripyat Trough is little-studied but promising. Subsalt layers in the area have not been studied due to the complicated geologic structure and radioactive pollution in the area. However, oil inflow from intersalt layers gives reasons for continued prospecting work. A program has been worked out on carrying out progressive seismic prospecting operations in the area in the next five-year term.

Although oil-bearing areas of the Pripyat Trough have been well studied, there is no doubt that geological prospecting work in the region should continue. About 50% of the total oil reserves in the area remain undiscovered. The Pripyat Trough area contains multiple promising places, which detailed examination will allow finding new oil deposits for a long period of time, Andrei Khudyk noted. For instance, the Applied Science Center for Geology alone has about 30 sites with about 7 million tonnes of hard-to-recover oil prepared for exploration drilling.

As of 1 January 2020 Belarus had recoverable oil reserves as large as 50 million tonnes. According to the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, the existing reserves will last for 30 years at the current rate of extraction without taking into account the development of promising areas and inferred resources.