The procedure for constructing oil and gas wells has been simplified for "Belorusneft"

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko today signed Decree No. 352 "On the Construction of Oil and Gas Wells". This was reported to BELTA by the press service of the Belarusian leader.

To accelerate the development of the Southern structural and tectonic zone, the decree provides for simplifying the procedure for implementing projects for the construction of oil and gas wells carried out by Belorusneft.

As reported, geological exploration and prospects for increasing oil production volumes in Belarus were discussed on September 6 during a meeting between Alexander Lukashenko and General Director of Belorusneft Production Association Alexander Lyakhov. The Head of State recalled that oil reserves were discovered in Belarus back in the Soviet Union, but they were used irrationally, which affected the current production volumes.

"I still consider it a sad moment when, after discovering promising fields in Belarus, we at one time (before you and I were around) produced over 8 million tons of oil. We pumped out our oil because we mistakenly believed that we had a sea of oil in Belarus. Perhaps we still have something there, some kind of sea that you and I haven't found yet. This is the main topic of today's conversation. But if we had 8-9 million tons of oil today, we would live better than the richest countries on our planet. But, alas, this is not the case," said the Belarusian leader.

The Head of State expressed certain hopes for the so-called Pripyat Trough, where potential oil reserves may exist. "I am very interested in and concerned about the problem of the Pripyat Trough. I have a gut feeling that there is oil there that we haven't seen yet," he stated.

"You have studied this issue. If you propose something, I am ready to be directly involved in it. But in such a way that we increase oil production during our lifetime to at least 3-3.5 million tons (currently, the country produces approximately 1.6 million tons of its own oil per year. - BELTA note). This is a solution to the problem for the country. We will forget about any dependence. And if we also build one more nuclear power plant, the country will be provided with everything necessary. Especially energy," said Alexander Lukashenko.

Alyaksandr Lyakhov considers the possibility of increasing oil production in Belarus to be very promising. In particular, this concerns oil production opportunities in the southern districts of the Gomel region, where exploration for oil and gas has not been carried out since the Chernobyl NPP accident. "We have already returned to this work this year. Currently, we are working in the Lelchytsy and Yelsk districts of the Gomel region. Next year, we plan to work in the Narovlya and Khoiniki districts on seismic exploration. And in the future, we plan to recommission old wells drilled before the Chernobyl NPP accident and drill new wells, if there is geological potential for it," the company's CEO said.

Source: belta.by