Gazprom Neft creating testing grounds in Western Siberia for technology to tap difficult oil reserves
MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - Gazprom Neft is establishing a network of testing grounds in Western Siberia to develop new approaches to tapping hard-to-recover oil reserves, the Russian oil company said.
"Innovation areas will be created at the Verkhnesalymsky and Kholmogorsky blocks in the Khanty Mansi Autonomous District (KMAD)-Yugra. The company will also test solutions for developing Achimov reserves at the Yamburg technology testing ground in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District (YNAD)," the company said in a press release.
"Gazprom Neft opened Russia's first technology testing grounds at the Salymsky-3 and Palyanovsky blocks in KMAD-Yugra [in 2021]. The creation of the three new areas will expand possibilities for the company to develop the latest tools to extract hard-to-recover oil reserves in various geological and geographic conditions," the company said.
The network will thus connect the innovation areas of Gazpromneft-Salym, Gazpromneft-Palyan, Gazpromneft-Noyabrskneftegaz, Salym Petroleum Development and Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg (under a long-term risk service contract). The Federal Mineral Resources Agency (Rosnedra) issued the licenses to the Verkhnesalymsky, Kholmogorsky and Yamburg hard-to-recover reserves to the companies in mid-March.
Gazprom Neft experts will use the new testing areas to test equipment for geophysical well logging, drilling and fracking, domestic technology and reagents to increase extraction rates, as well as software and mathematical models to explore for and develop hard-to-recover reserves.
"We have already found approaches to extracting Achimov oil at blocks in KMAD-Yugra and the Noyabrsk region. The next stage involves looking for solutions to develop hard-to-recover reserves in the rest of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, including the Yamal Peninsula. With the opening of new technology testing grounds, we will get closer to solving this massive challenge, which is important for both our company and for maintaining production in Siberian regions," the deputy head of Gazprom Neft's exploration and resource development department, Yury Masalkin said in the press release.
Technology testing grounds for developing hard-to-recover reserves as a new type of resource licensing were introduced in the spring of 2021. This type of license provides for the development of geological survey, exploration and production technology with tax breaks. The list of hard-to-recover reserves for which such testing grounds can be implemented includes Bazhenov, Abalak, Khadum and Domanic formations, extra heavy crude, tight Achimov formations, as well as Kumsko-Kerestinsky Suite oil deposits in the North Caucasus and Paleozoic deposits in Western Siberia.
Such licenses are also held by Rosneft (two in Samara Region), Tatneft (one in Tatarstan), Delta Technologies (one in Stavropol), Volgo-Uralskaya Oil Company (two in Samara Region), as well as CGC Holding-controlled Tekhnefteinvest and Stavropolneftegaz (two in the YNAD and five in Stavropol, respectively).
