By its decree № 1180 the government of Belarus approved the strategy to develop the country's energy potential, according to which in coming years it is planned to produce 21 million tons of oil outside of Belarus. At the same time, the document stresses that these figures are an optimistic prognosis of oil production abroad.
As they declare in the Council of Ministers, the reason for Belarus to extract «black gold» out of its territory is natural decrease of oil production in the Republic. At present, there being successfully implemented, in particular, joint projects to develop oil fields in Venezuela and Iran, the strategy notes.
In Venezuela, oil production amount of joint venture Petrolera BelVenezolana for the period from 2008 to June 2010 exceeded 1.7 million tons. In order to develop this joint venture and increase the amount of oil production in 2009, there were added oil assets of Ostra and Oritupano Norte inland Venezuela and Lagunilas block-2, offshore Lake Maracaibo, informed in the government.
There is a work on the joint oil production at Junin-1 block in Orinoco River basin with prepared business plan of its development. In accordance with optimistic version of development plan, the production is planned to be begun in 2013 with a volume of 2.9 million tons per year within two years. Then, the average annual production will increase to 5.8 million tons per year, and after the construction of infrastructure facilities to reach the optimal — about 11.6 million tons per year.
Under the pessimistic prognosis of the field development, oil production gradually increases and reaches a maximum of 7.5 million tons per year by 2020 and will last until 2027.
Belarus plans to produce nearly 10 million tons of oil for 10 years in Iran
Established in Iran joint venture is engaged in development project of Jofeir oil field. In accordance with the general development plan of oil filed, there being carried out the preparation of the filed to be used for industrial purposes (there drilled four wells, infrastructure is being created), reported in the Council of Ministers.
Maximum amount of oil, expected to be extracted by Belarusian-Iranian joint venture by the fourth year of the field development will be about 1.3 million tons per year. The period of stable oil production is 10 years. For 10 years, the cumulative oil production to amount to 9.3 million tons, the strategy authors are sure.
Venezuelan oil supplies to Belarus are planned to be executed through the ports of four countries
Besides oil production in far abroad, Belarus plans to purchase oil from Venezuela. Expected volume of supply will amount to four million tons by May 2011 and ten million tons per year in the future.
The government studied possible routes for oil transportation by sea and concluded that five ports in four countries were suitable to implement them: Odessa and Yuzhny (Ukraine), Ventspils (Latvia), Klaipeda (Lithuania), Tallinn (Estonia).
Furthermore, the strategy reads that the Belarusian side examined the possibility of oil supply through the Baltic and Black Sea ports from Azerbaijan and countries of the Persian Gulf region.
