№ 7 (July 2008)
Interest of the oil sector specialists to the issues of enhanced oil recovery and oil and gas production stimulation is not declining...
By Elena Zhuk
Interest of the oil sector specialists to the issues of enhanced oil
recovery and oil and gas production stimulation is not declining. It is
proved by increasing number of participants of the annual theoretical
and practical conference arranged by the Russian Society of Petroleum
Engineers (RSPE). 103 representatives of 43 companies were registered
at the 12th conference arranged during the Neftegas-2008 show.
Discussing
modern methods of enhanced oil recovery, advisor to Zarubezhneft
General Director, Doctor of Technical Science, Professor Arkady
Boxerman noted that, unfortunately, many of them are nor in demand
nowadays. With that, he stressed that thermal gas methods introduced at
the fields of RITEK, Gazprom Neft and Zarubezhneft are very efficient.
“We should give credit to the companies which, without waiting for any
incentives, spend much money trying to prove economic efficiency of the
technologies,” said Boxerman. In the Professor’s opinion, exempting of
industrial tests and implementation from taxation could facilitate
development of new technologies and techniques.
The conference
participants showed great interest in presentation of NPF Geophyzika
representative, Vladimir Laptev. The presentation was devoted to
real-time geophysical monitoring of reservoir behavior in the wells
equipped with ESP, with the ESP power cable used for communication with
the surface unit. This technology developed by the specialists of NPF
Geophyzika and the Izhevsk Radio Manufacturing Plant subsidiary
(IRZ-TEK) makes it possible to receive real-time geophysical and
hydrodynamic information on the performance of each of the beds
penetrated by the given well. Simultaneous to this information,
technological information on the ESP performance is transmitted.
Information coming from the well is accumulated in the surface recorder
memory and, through the dispatch information network operating at the
field, can be delivered to the services which are responsible for
current and strategic decision-making. Technological information is
also used for automatic shutdown of ESP in case of exceeding of the set
threshold of temperature and oil pressure in the electric motor, high
vibration of its body, increased current consumption or decrease of
power cable conductor insulation. For realization of this technology,
specialists of NPF Geophyzika developed hardware and software package
Sprut including downhole geophysical modules, submersible telemetry
module with sensors for electric motor operation control, and surface
unit providing power to the downhole instruments, downhole information
reception, accumulation and transfer to the users. The package is
applied by Gazprom Neft at Sibneft-Noyabrskneftegaz’ fields and by
Rosneft at the Priobskoye field.
Max Slepyan from NP Oil and Gas
Systems called upon to protect the domestic manufacturers of oil and
gas equipment by means of assignment of quotas or introduction of
special customs duties. Implementation of the National Standard GOST
R8-615.2005, which specifies the standards for accuracy of measurement
of the amount of liquid, oil and associated gas recovered from the
subsoil, became the grounds for verification of the hydrocarbon
resource base and the basis for the fiscal agencies for assessment of
the observance by license holders of the signed license agreements,
regulations and field development programs. According to information
presented by Slepyan, only Surgutneftegaz and Russneft have partially
realized the National standard by the present time. According to
the statement of Deputy Director of Gosstandart leading research
institute on flowmeter survey (VNIIR), M. Nemirov, only three of 17
certified units comply with the National Standard’s requirements.
Slepyan sounded perplexed and hurt when he spoke about tender results
at Verkhnechonskneft, when the Oil and Gas Systems company first
received a letter notifying them of their winning, and immediately
after that – notification that they came second after an American
company. In opinion of Slepyan, Oil and Gas Systems and
NGB-Energodiagnostika are capable to manufacture measuring equipment
fully complying with the GOST requirements.
“Without development
of new technologies, we will be unwanted guests at our own fields,”
mentioned the chairman of the session “Drilling and Operation of Oil
and Gas Fields”, Director of the research institute of drilling
technologies Valery Kulchitsky. Kulchitsky made attempts to set up a
domestic service company more than ten times, and always failed. It is
no secret that in this sector of oil and gas market mergers and
acquisitions by international companies became “the mark of
time”. Still, some small Russian companies manage to show growth
dynamics. Thus, domestic leader of the service market, OTO is
successfully rendering services on sidetracking, well workover and
enhanced oil recovery. At the same time, Head of Drilling Directorate
Evgeny Kolesnik expressed his concern with the permanent
under-investment of the technological base. According to Kolesnik,
today’s service prices “prevent independent domestic service companies
from upgrading the equipment, developing and improving the
technologies, investment in the research and design work.” In
particular, he stressed that “in spite of high economic and production
efficiency of coiled tubing application, the companies have no
possibility to purchase units for underbalanced drilling because of
their high price and long payback period.” Kolesnik also mentioned that
“by the same reasons, today there is acute shortage of companies
providing high-quality engineering-telemetry support of well drilling;
in absence of local equipment, it becomes necessary to purchase
expensive foreign equipment, but the payback period of this equipment
is very long.” Downhole equipment and equipment for oil production
facilities, remedial cementing assemblies and innovative technologies
for well completion, stimulation and production were presented by
Yugson-Service from Tyumen.
Institute of Petroleum Chemistry of the
Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Science, which has an
extensive database on oil of Russia and other countries, and also data
on distribution of high-viscosity oil among Russian companies, suggests
that in viscous oil production, thermal-steam and cyclic steam
treatment should be combined with physical-chemical methods using
gelling and oil-sweeping compositions. High efficiency of application
of the Institute’s composition is proven not only at the Russian
fields, but also in China. “The Chinese thoroughly look after each
well, one can walk around the field as if in a park,” mentioned
Vladimir Kuvshinov, leading research engineer of the Institute. This
careful attitude to the wells resulted in setting up of production of
NINKA composition (designed by the Russian Institute) in the city of
Lyaon; this composition proved its high efficiency being used at the
Lyaohe field. Application of the technology of stationary steam
injection results in reduction of the production water-cut by 10-20
percent, increase of oil production rates on average by 40 percent, at
increase of liquid production rates on average by 5-10
percent.
As the result of cyclic steam
treatment, compared to steam injection, oil production increased
1.8-2.3 times, duration of the period of oil production increased by
3-5 months, oil viscosity decreased by three times, oil pour point
decreased by 10-22 С.
The RadTech technology of small-diameter
radial hole drilling from the old wells appeared to be very efficient
for involvement in production of reserves from the blind and stagnant
zones; this technology is applied by LUKOIL in Perm region. Using the
experience of application of this technology at Tatneft, with coiled
tubing, the company drilled radial holes from 40 wells of the region in
2007. Average production rate increment amounted to 8 tons/day (at
average production rate 5 tons/day), total production amounted to
76,000 tons of oil. Yury Ikonnikov, Manager of the oil production
department of the Main Directorate on oil and gas production support of
LUKOIL, identified new ideas for the technology application taking into
account the operational experience. They are related to the possibility
of the local directional hydraulic fracturing of the formation. It was
proposed to perform “drilling parallel to the wellbores according to
the RadTech technology in the direction of the supposed reserve
concentration; in this way, it is supposed to form preliminary fracture
zones and get the guaranteed required hydraulic fracture direction.”
Hydraulic
fracturing of the formation is one of the modern technologies requiring
a thoroughly verified approach to selection of wells for application of
the frac job. It was not accidental that presentations on hydraulic
fracturing were united in a separate section of the conference.
Uraineftegaz presented the results of various types of hydraulic
fracturing performed in the drowned wells: frac jobs with preliminary
remedial cementing, with injection of clay “fringe” according to TSO
technology, standard technologies, selective fracturing. According to
Victor Lysenko, Uraineftegaz group manager, wells with water cut
exceeding 20 percent previously were not considered as candidates for
hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately, wells with lower water cut are not
numerous now, and the company lays emphasis on operations with the
drowned wells. New company RESION from St. Petersburg offered proppants
preventing salt formation in the fractures, high-strength proppants
with lower density, and proppants with low hardening temperature to be
used without activators.
This year, the conference of the Russian
Society of Petroleum Engineers was supplemented by a workshop which was
held in the framework of Neftegas-2008 show. At this workshop, Russian
companies had an opportunity to present new technologies not only in
the area of the enhanced oil recovery, but also hydrocarbon
prospecting, corrosion monitoring, and oil sludge utilization.
