RusEnergy

13 March 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Imperial Energy unit Allianceneftegaz has won a 20-year exploration and production licence for Block 70, which holds the Maiskoye field, in Western Siberia. Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources granted the new exploration licence on 28 February, Imperial said. The new deal supercedes a previous five-year agreement, which was purely for exploration. Imperial said it is planning extensive development work at Maiskoye this year, including a drilling programme of nine new wells at already identified oil bearing intervals in the field. It is in the process of building field facilites worth about $15 million, which will be able to handle 10,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of the year, rising to 17,000 bpd by 2009. Imperial added that Maiskoye will be linked to its southern pipeline in the Tomsk region, which is still being built, with first deliveries from the field through the pipeline due by the end of the second quarter.