Gazprom Neft: Increases Bazhenov Production by 78% Compared to 2019
In 2020, Gazprom Neft reduced the cost of producing unconventional oil by 20% compared to 2019, to RUB 13,000 per ton. By the end of 2021, it is planned to reach the level of 8.5 thousand rubles per ton, which will allow the start of industrial development of the Bazhenov formation at the fields with equipped infrastructure.
By the end of 2020, the Gazpromneft – Technological Partnerships Industrial Integration Center (formerly the Bazhen Technology Center) increased oil production in the Bazhenov formation by 78% compared to 2019 – up to 100,000 tons. The development of technologies for the development of unconventional hydrocarbons allowed the company to more than halve the cost of producing Bazhenov oil * – from 30 thousand rubles per ton at the start of the project in 2017 to 13 thousand rubles by 2021.
In 2020, at the Palyanovskoye field in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, a high-tech well was drilled with a horizontal wellbore about 2 km long and 30-stage hydraulic fracturing with high fluid injection rates up to 16 m3 per minute. For the first time, all operations on such a complex structure were performed using Russian-made equipment **.
In 2021, Gazprom Neft plans to complete testing of a set of solutions for cost-effective production of Bazhenov oil. 8 wells will be drilled at the Palyanovskoye field to finally confirm the effectiveness of industrial technology for the development of unconventional formations. Completion of the experiment and reduction of the cost of unconventional oil production to 8.5 thousand rubles per ton will allow the start of cost-effective production of Bazhenov hydrocarbons at fields in developed infrastructure in Western Siberia.
“We have come a long way, having managed to create an impetus for the development of reserves of ‘difficult’ oil, halving the cost of its production. At the same time, the level of import substitution in the construction of high-tech wells required for the development of unconventional reserves exceeded 95%. Many solutions created with our participation have no analogues in the industry. The introduction of industrial technology for the Bazhenov formation will not only allow producing up to 1 million tons of these deposits annually by 2025, but will also open access to other “difficult” reserves in Western Siberia, ”said Alexey Vashkevich, Director of Technological Development at Gazprom Neft .
“The main result of 2020 can be confidently called the creation of an industrial image of the technology for working with the Bazhenov suite. It was in 2020 that we began to move from prototypes to serial solutions, from pilot projects to operation. To provide oilfield services, a pool of Russian companies and partners has been formed. Thus, we overcame an important milestone: we proved that the development of bazhen with the help of domestic technologies is possible. Our task now is to confirm the profitability of Russian technological know-how in order to start commercial production of the hard-to-recover Bazhenov oil in 2022, ”said Kirill Strizhnev, CEO of Gazpromneft-Technological Partnerships .
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* The key indicator of the technology profitability – UDC (ultimate drilling cost) – is a set of unit costs for drilling a horizontal well with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, per 1 ton of cumulative oil production.
** The equipment was manufactured within the framework of the Bazhen national project (in 2017, the Ministry of Energy of Russia assigned the national status to the project to create a complex of domestic technologies and high-tech equipment for the cost-effective development of the Bazhenov formation). The well configuration ensured the maximum efficiency of the development of unconventional formations and can become the basis for the industrial technology for the development of the Bazhenov formation.
*** The level of import substitution at the experimental well has reached 95%. In 2020, a Russian layout was tested for the first time to stimulate the Bazhenov formation, which allows hydraulic fracturing with any number of stages. The testing of the main elements of the Russian-made technology was completed: LWD, liner hanger with the ability to rotate during cementing, hydraulic fracturing fluid based on xanthan gum, bushing, composite, soluble and blind dividing plugs delivered by cable.
