The fifth biennial Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Russian Oil and Gas (ROG) Exploration and Production Technical Conference and Exhibition is set to focus on sustaining production levels by challenging the limits with technology.
This year’s conference, taking place 14-16 October in Moscow, agenda covers all major areas of hydrocarbon exploration and production and reflects the challenges of sustaining production levels as explored reserves deplete and new resources become more difficult to access.
Over 160 papers are dedicated to the discussion of the new methods required to overcome these challenges, focusing on greenfield development, new technologies for brownfields, and unconventional and hard-to-recover reserves.
“The conference Program committee selected the theme of sustaining production levels as one of the most important challenges Russia and other producing countries currently face,” say Alexey Vashkevich of Gazprom Neft and Fayaz Kamalov of Weatherford, co-chairs of the conference program committee. “Sustainable development is a shared responsibility that needs action today.”
The majority of papers featured at ROG are written and presented by both Russian and foreign specialists from producing and service companies as well as leading Russian universities and research institutes. Eighteen technical sessions will run over the three days of the event. Themes range from innovations in geology, geophysics, reservoir engineering, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and well construction to facilities, production operations and human capabilities. There will also be a focus on environmental stewardship and socially responsible performance. A glance at some of the papers to be presented illustrates the strength of the program.
Greenfield developments are key to sustaining production levels as recovery in mature fields declines and new reserves become more difficult to access. Andrey Levanov, Alexander Strybko, Yuriy Utyashev, Evgueniya Ustyugova and Tatiyana Pospelova from the Tyumen Oil Research Center take a multiplay field located in the north of Krasnoyarsk Territory as an example to present an approach to designing a full-scale development based on complex well ranking criteria. These take into account the understanding of each play, the percentage of hard-to-recover reserves (metamorphic aureoles, low-density zones, high-viscosity fluids), and the maximum production rate of a well cluster over five years of development. The research has yielded a method to identify the order of priorities in drilling well clusters, focusing initially on the all-oil explored areas and deferring drilling in the riskier zones with higher flow rates located near the oil-water and gas-oil contacts.
The Russian oil and gas industry is looking increasingly at developing offshore prospects to sustain production levels. Alexander Shandrygin, Igor Dyakonov and Dmitry Dubrovskiy of GPB Neftegas Services offer a workflow to accelerate the start-up of offshore field developments and reduce risks. It includes: a procedure based on proxy modeling for determination of the main geological factors impacting on the effectiveness of field exploration and development; the calculation of oil and liquid production profile (base/optimistic/pessimistic) per reservoir segment; upscaling of segment data and calculation of minimum oil production and geological reserves volume providing demanded NPV value for different types of production units; selection of the best option (in NPV and necessary STOIIP terms) for production unit locations; and recommendations on the types of exploration works on fields for optimization the costs of exploration.
Production growth in Russia and in other producing countries depends largely on the application of various EOR techniques. A paper by Sergey Anatolievich Doctor, Nikolay Chebykin and Alexey Tolmachev of Gazpromneft-Khantos and Alexey Yudin and Alexander Gromovenko of Schlumberger describe the first in Russia use of combining multi-stage hydraulic fracturing and channel fracturing technology to increase production and reduce costs and risk in horizontal wellbore completions. The South Priobskoe field has been in production for over a decade. As field development moved to areas of more complicated geology and poorer reservoir properties, the operator progressed from conventional hydraulic fracturing in vertical wells to horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing. New channel fracturing technology is the next step in horizontal wellbores completion leading to optimized well productivity and costs. New method allows a more reliable proppant placement into fracture by pulsating proppant at surface and the use of special fibers. High channels conductivity provided 15% increase in oil production from the first well.
Recovery increase provided by data from permanent downhole monitoring gauges (PDMGs) is a case study from the Western Silber field, presented by Danila Gulyaev, Sergey Melnikov and Kokurina Valentina of Gazpromneft STC. They set out the opportunities presented to reservoir engineers by the implementation in 2013 of PDMGs in the oil producing wells of this field. These opportunities include acquisition of bottomhole pressure data, and identification of well interference, formation pressure changes, and oil rate decline. The speakers demonstrate how this improved knowledge and understanding has resulted in an upgraded reservoir model and revised development strategies – leading ultimately to increased recovery.
Operators also need to access unconventional and hard-to-recover reserves to replace declining production. In a paper on high pressure tight gas condensate well testing in the Jurassic and Achimov deposits of the Bolshekhetskaya depression, Vladimir Stenin and Iliya Mandrik of Lukoil, and Sergey Abramochkin, Mikhail Belov, Alexander Davidovskiy, and Murad Amanov of Schlumberger Logelco Inc. review the experience in testing these geologically complex deposits. Specifically, they discuss a well test on the Pyakyakhinskoe field combining the most advanced technologies of completion in a closed borehole with a packer and a fullbore high pressure formation tester. This approach allowed the testing of all four targets and collection, for the first time, of a full set of geological data from the Jurassic and Achimov deposits of the Bolshekhetskaya depression, including corrected data on formation pressures and temperatures, permeability, formation fluids composition, as well as confirming the commercial value of the deposits.
Geology and geophysics form another key conference theme. Valerie Neillo, Catherine Neumann and Luc Pauget of Total present an integrated workflow to tackle heterogeneous karst dominated reservoirs, taking the Kharyaga upper Devonian oil reservoir as an example. Static and dynamic data gathered since production start-up reveal that the platform margin is extensively fractured and karstified and shows a dual permeability behavior. Understanding the distribution of the secondary medium is key to successful development of such a complex reservoir. To capture the relative weight on the flow network of each type of heterogeneity, a new two-stage modeling workflow to characterize the dual medium has been developed.
Three plenary sessions promise to provide thought-provoking discussions. Scheduled for each morning of the conference, these sessions cover key topics relevant to companies working in Russia today. The first session discusses full field development on greenfields in East Siberia, Yamal and others, moderated by Alexey Vashkevich, Gazprom Neft, and Sergey Kolbikov, NOVATEK. The second session covers new approaches and technologies for sustaining production on brownfields, moderated by Konstantin Fedorov, Academy of Oil and Gas Engineering, and Pavel Im, Baker Hughes. The final session addresses the unconventional and hard-to-recover reserves, moderated by Alexander Shandrygin of Gazprombank Neftegazservice, and Andrey Gladkov, Modeling Technology Center. Speakers at these sessions are drawn from senior management in Russian and foreign oil and gas operators, service companies, state organisations.
In addition to the opportunity to hear the cutting-edge papers and network with peers from all over the world, this event showcases leading-edge technology in an exhibition hosting over 100 companies. A ‘Technology Incubator’ will provide a site for young innovative companies. The Knowledge & Science Zone will showcase the developments of the key scientific centres and oil and gas universities of Russia, including Lomonosov Moscow State University, Ukhta State Technical University, National Mineral Resources University and Ufa State Petroleum Technological University.
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