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The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometre long peninsula in the far east of Russia covering an area of 472,300 km². It is located between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west. The majority of the approximately 400,000 inhabitants are Russians, but there are also about 13,000 Koryaks. More than half of the population lives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (approximately 200,000 people) and nearby Yelizovo (approximately 40,000 people).
Characteristics of the Kamchatka Peninsula
The geology of the western portion of the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the Company's seven exploration licences are located, is similar in some respects to Sakhalin Island, the largest producing area in the northwest Pacific ocean region. Both areas are located adjacent to the Sea of Okhotsk on the northwestern pacific rim, a geologically complex area where plate collisions resulted in the subduction of oceanic crust from an eastern direction. Sediment of early Eocene and Miocene age unconformably overlie Cretaceous to Paleocene deformed and metamorphosed accretionary rocks. Late Miocene and Pliocene tectonism contributed to significant faulting and folding of the sedimentary package, which can be very thick (over 1,000 metres) in localized sub-basins. Sahkalin Island, approximately 1,000 kilometres southwest of the Kamchatka Peninsula, is estimated to contain 6.1 BBOE (billion barrels of oil equivalent) recoverable reserves according to the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Interior (Open File Report 99-50-0). This report was not prepared in accordance with NI 51-101. Field studies of outcrops and modern seismic data acquired by PetroKamchatka confirm that the thick sediments of Eocene and Miocene age are present on the Tigil, Icha and Urginskaya licences.
Significant gas and condensate reserves have been discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Four gas fields with reserves estimated to total in excess 685 BCF as estimated by BC Gas International Inc. in its report, "Kamchatka Regional Gas Supply Feasibility Study", are located approximately 100 kilometres south of the PetroKamchatka's Icha Block. This report was not prepared in accordance with NI 51-101. Most of the drilling on these fields was done between 1982 and 1988. Gazprom is currently developing the Kopalkovsky gas field in conjunction with the construction of a 392-kilometre natural gas pipeline from the field to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The gas is intended to supply local demand.