RN-Yuganskneftegaz: Performed a 30-Stage Hydraulic Fracturing at the Priobskoye Field

For the first time, RN-Yuganskneftegaz carried out a 30-stage hydraulic fracturing treatment at well pad No. 600 of the Priobskoye field. As a result of the well completion, the average inflow was 750 m3 / day, which is almost 7% higher than expected.

The Priobskoye field is unique in terms of its reserves and geological structure, therefore it is this field that often becomes a platform for approbation and implementation of modern oil production technologies. In particular, oil workers are building long horizontal wells to efficiently extract oil and optimize production infrastructure.

“Sometimes, in order to reduce the capital costs of an enterprise, it is advisable to build one long horizontal well instead of several directional wells,” explained Alexey Plotnikov, chief specialist of the Hydraulic Fracturing Supervising Sector of LLC RN-Yuganskneftegaz. “The accumulated experience and development of technologies today allow us to drill ultra-long horizontal wells, and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, in turn, increases its productivity.”

As Alexey Plotnikov notes, carrying out a 30-stage hydraulic fracturing is a complex and time-consuming process. Especially for testing the technology, the longest horizontal well in the history of the enterprise was drilled at Priobka with a depth of 6196 meters and a horizontal section length of 3034 meters. It was the length of the horizontal section of the well that made it possible to locate the required number of hydraulic fracturing ports. 

According to the chief specialist of the Hydraulic Fracturing Supervising Sector of LLC RN-Yuganskneftegaz, the 30-stage hydraulic fracturing has shown high efficiency. The total volume of proppant injected was 1,910 tons. The entire process took less than two weeks.

“We spent about 10.5 hours on each stage. We carried out the multistage hydraulic fracturing rather quickly, as the logistics and preparation for hydraulic fracturing operations at the enterprise were optimized. Supervisors of LLC RN-Yuganskneftegaz are located directly at the work site and control every stage of the work, “added Alexey Plotnikov.

About 4-5 thousand hydraulic fracturing operations are performed annually at the fields of LLC RN-Yuganskneftegaz. However, in 2021, the company’s specialists increased the indicator to record values, having carried out about 7100 operations. This is 30% higher than in 2020 and 27% more than the previous record of hydraulic fracturing performed in 2018. The record for performing hydraulic fracturing operations for a month has been updated. So, in August 2021, 723 hydraulic fracturing operations were carried out, while in October 2020 this figure was 600. Also in August, a record was set for daily hydraulic fracturing – 34 operations, current production amounted to 29.1 hydraulic fracturing operations per fleet per month. 

“We have surpassed all previous records of five years. Thanks to the use of hydraulic fracturing at the company’s fields, a 10% increase in oil production is provided annually. By the end of this year, we expect additional production of 7.5 million tons of oil. Last year this figure was about 5 million tons. Such results were achieved, in particular, due to the introduction of innovative technologies and an increase in the number of hydraulic fracturing fleets, ”noted Alexey Plotnikov.

Putting into efficient and cost-effective development of reserves of ultra-low-permeability reservoirs is one of the strategically important directions of replenishing the resource base of the enterprise. High-rate hydraulic fracturing has proven itself as a modern technology in this direction. The method is suitable for working with the reserves of the Bazhenov formation.

More sophisticated hydraulic fracturing technologies are also being tested, such as Plug & Perf, hydro-jet perforation with hydraulic fracturing (SandStorm), perforating perforation followed by hydraulic fracturing, Continuum Frac. The latter, by the way, allows the use of an equal-bore liner in the well structure, which allows hydraulic fracturing with an unlimited number of stages and significantly reduces the cost of well operation.  

RN-Yuganskneftegaz is the largest asset of Rosneft, which provides about 30% of the Company’s oil production. This year, the company has produced 2.5 billion tons of oil since the start of field development in 1964.