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Technology Implementation at Lukoil





Cost of the upstream R&D has focused on developing efficient logging systems, improving methods of estimating reserves (studies have continued on creating methods for calculating hydrocarbon reserves in reservoirs with complex structures), and also on developing and improving methods of enhancing oil recovery and optimizing the development of undrilled areas and reservoirs. Steady attention has focused on environmental protection technologies, especially for offshore fields.


One of the most important results of LUKoil's technology development effort is the active use of methods for stimulating oil production and enhancing oil recovery (EOR). These methods substantially increase recoverable reserves and oil production, and allow commercial development of reserves of highly viscous oil, reserves in low-permeability reservoirs, and hard-to-recover reserves at the late stages of field development. In recent years, the proportion of oil recovered through the use of various stimulation technologies at LUKoil fields has been more than 20% of total production.


In 2007, the LUKoil Group performed 5,292 EOR operations, which corresponds to the 2006 level. LUKoil companies employ physical, chemical, hydrodynamic, and thermal methods to stimulate pay zones. In the reporting year, EOR techniques accounted for additional 23.7 million tonnes, or more than 26% of LUKoil's total Russian production. The bulk of the enhanced recovery (14.4 million tonnes, or 61.3%) was produced by physical techniques, primarily hydrochloric acid fracturing (hydrofrac).


In the reporting year, pilot production using acid frac technology continued at 12 cis-Ural fields. Thirty-one operations yielded an average oil flow increase of 9.4 tonnes per day (tpd), for a total enhanced recovery of 59,000 tonnes. Based on this experience, this promising technology will be employed widely in LUKoil's other oil production areas.


Other EOR techniques (hydrodynamic, thermal and chemical methods, and stimulation of oil recovery) have yielded 9.2 million tonnes. The results of various EOR techniques have shown the high effectiveness of chemical methods in limiting water encroachment in wells. For example, the widespread use of chemical technologies at West Siberian fields has reduced the overall growth in water cut from 2.4% in 2006 to 1.2% in 2007.


The use of chemical technologies more than doubled in 2007 over 2006 (from 494 to 1,004 operations), and the enhanced recovery totaled 1.3 million tonnes.


In 2007, LUKoil tested a new water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection technology on an oil/gas reservoir in order to stimulate oil recovery using a booster unit. Since the technology was introduced in 2005 at East Pereval Field in West Siberia, the enhanced oil recovery due to WAG injection has been 8,300 tonnes, including 3,100 tonnes in 2007. The LUKoil Group plans to extend the technology to other oil production sites in 2008.


Another highly effective EOR technique is the sidetrack drilling from existing wells. The sidetrack drilling expanded in 2007, with a total of 188 sidetracks placed in service (vs. 146 in 2006) with an average enhanced flow of 19,200 tpd. Enhanced recovery totaled 579,000 tonnes, up 17.2% from 2006. The greatest increase was at a group of West Siberian fields, where the average flow increase from 47 sidetracked holes totaled 33,400 tpd, which is practically equivalent to the flow from new wells.


Pilot radial drilling continued in 2007. At relatively low cost, the drilling of radial channels from existing wells permits both stimulated recovery and development of hard-to-recover reserves. The LUKoil Group carried out 39 operations with an average oil flow increase of 8,000 tpd. The enhanced oil recovery produced by this method totaled 21,500 tonnes. LUKoil will use this positive experience of radial drilling in other oil-producing regions.


In addition, the LUKoil Group uses horizontal drilling to increase the efficiency of oil production, raising well productivity 50Р100%. In 2007, LUKoil placed 109 new horizontal wells in service, with an average flow of 65,500 tpd.


The LUKoil Group made active use of new technologies for when drilling and constructing horizontal wells in 2007. For example, data obtained from the drilling of two horizontal pilot wells were used to build a model of a pay zone in West Siberia. During drilling of the horizontal leg, a logging system was used to refine the model in real time and select the trajectory to achieve the best porosity and oil saturation.


At the Usa Field in the Komi Republic, the LUKoil Group performed a smart completion of a horizontal well in a Permian-Carboniferous reservoir where heavy oil is being produced. The horizontal leg was broken into four sections, each of which has pressure and temperature sensors and a device for opening/closing the perforation interval, controllable in real time from the surface. This permits each section of the well to be operated separately and formation parameters to be tracked in real time.


At Yarega high-viscosity oil field (Komi Republic), pilot operations to adapt thermogravitational drainage technology using horizontal wells for secondary steam-heat "huff-n-puff") development of this field have been underway since late 2005. In the two years the technology has been in use, it has shown steady growth of basic development parameters.


Oil production in the pilot production area has risen from 200 tonnes per month in January 2006 to 1000 tonnes per month by early 2008. In 2007, the LUKoil Group developed a program to adapt this technology at a new pilot production area in Yarega Field. Implementation is scheduled for 2008. In 2007, based on analysis of the pilot operations at Yarega Field, the LUKoil Group developed a Method of Developing High-Viscosity Oil Fields, which proposed options for developing fields like Yarega. The technical solution is currently under expert review at the Russian Patent Agency [Rospatent]. posted by The Rogtec Team @ 23:32 

1 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

What a great article! Very informative and a great read. I have requested a subscription and look forward to reading more of the same.

12 November 2008 15:42  

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