Tomsk. December 20, 2005.Sibneft-Vostok LLC, a production subsidiary of Sibneft, today won a natural resources auction for the Elleisky block in Tomsk region. The company agreed to pay 294 million rubles ($10.26 million) for the right to conclude a license agreement for development of the site.

The Elleisky block is located in the Kargasoksky district of southwestern Tomsk region, 290 km away from Transneft’s main pipeline system. The license agreement covers geological study, exploration and hydrocarbons production over a period of 25 years.

The license territory includes the Elleiskoye oilfield, which has category C1 geological reserves and recoverable reserves of 1.34 million tons (9.8 million barrels) and 0.47 million tons (3.4 million barrels), respectively. The field has category C3 geological resources of 21.48 million tons (157.4 million barrels) and recoverable resources of 7.74 million tons (56.7 million barrels), as well as forecasted D1+D2 recoverable resources of 47.24 million tons (346.3 million barrels).

Sibneft-Vostok was created earlier this year to develop Sibneft’s Archinskoye, Urmanskoye and Shinginskoye fields in Tomsk region, as well as the Krapivinskoye field in neighboring Omsk region. The Elleisky block is located in the same area as these fields, and represents the first auction victory for this new subsidiary.