Gazprom Neft was the First in Russia to Launch an Oil and Gas Field Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Gazprom Neft has started commercial production of hydrocarbons at the Tazovskoye field in the north of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. This is the first oil and gas production field in Russia, the infrastructure of which was created under severe restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The field will become the center of a new production cluster of Gazprom Neft with geological reserves of about 1.1 billion tons of oil.
The launch ceremony for the Tazovskoye field * was held on June 16 as a teleconference between the oil field and the company’s Tsifergauz Digital Transformation Center in St. Petersburg. Production from Zifergauz was launched by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Chairman of the Gazprom Neft Management Committee Alexander Dyukov. The event at the Tazovskoye field was attended by the Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexei Chekunkov and the Governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Dmitry Artyukhov.
Gazprom Neft has put into operation a full infrastructure complex of the field, starting the development of the oil rim of the Tazovskoye field, one of the most complex assets of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Its geological reserves are estimated at 419 million tons of oil and 225 billion cubic meters of gas. The production infrastructure of the field includes oil and gas wells, a gas turbine power plant, oil and gas treatment plants, oil and gas pipelines, an acceptance point, and a residential complex for employees. In the future, the annual production level will reach 1.7 million tons of oil and 8 billion cubic meters of gas.
The construction of the field ** was carried out in conditions of severe restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which complicated the delivery of goods, the admission of contractors and shift personnel. The system of barriers against COVID-19 by Gazprom Neft and effective project management made it possible to overcome the challenges and accelerate the launch of the facility. During the design and construction, digital tools were used – BIM-modeling, the digital “twin” of the field. Control and acceptance of work was carried out remotely using drones and air-laser scanning. The use of a block-modular approach has reduced the volume of capital construction and halved the time required to equip the field infrastructure.
The Tazovskoye oil and gas condensate field (NGKM) is part of the promising production cluster of Gazprom Neft in the Nadym-Pur-Tazovsky region of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug ***. The project also includes the Meretoyakhinskoye, Severo-Samburgskoye fields and two Zapadno-Yubileiny blocks. The geological reserves of all assets amount to about 1.1 billion tons of oil and 492 billion cubic meters of gas, and include both conventional reserves and the resources of the Achimov strata ***. Geological exploration work is currently underway at the blocks, based on the results of which Gazprom Neft will form a strategy for the development of the cluster. The new asset will be operated by the company’s subsidiary Meretoyakhaneftegaz.
“Tazovskoye is the first oil and gas field in Russia, which was put into operation after the peak of the pandemic. This became possible thanks to our effective system of barriers against COVID-19, as well as digital technologies. They made it possible to perform and control many works remotely, including using drones. Tazovskoe is one of the first fields discovered in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug back in the 1960s . But it was impossible to start its full-scale development without modern innovative approaches and solutions. It is symbolic that the launch of the Tazovskoye field opens a new page in the history of oil and gas production in the Arctic. This large-scale project, in which we are investing over 150 billion rubles by 2030, will become the core of Gazprom Neft’s new production center in the Arctic with a geological potential of over 1 billion tons of oil. ”Alexander Dyukov Chairman of the Management Board, Gazprom Neft
“Today, a truly significant event for the country’s oil and gas industry is the commissioning of the Tazovskoye field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. This is a unique field in terms of its geological characteristics, one of the largest in Western Siberia. The Gazprom Neft team has done a tremendous job to ensure the search and application of technologies for production from such a complex Arctic field. This task was solved using modern digital technologies and developments in the field of artificial intelligence, big data and robotization. In the future, it is planned to develop a large-scale mining cluster located in this region. This will give an additional impetus to the development of the entire oil and gas industry, the economy of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District and the solution of social and economic problems. “Alexander Novak Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
