Historia inwestycji PMG Strachocina, jako przykład sukcesu współpracy firmy zachodniej z polskimi przedsiębiorstwami z sektora ropy naftowej i gazu ziemnego

Abstract

In 2006 Oil and Gas Institute, Underground Gas Storage Department was given the task of designing the UGS Strachocina working volume, production and injection rates enlargement. Gas storage Strachocina is located in the south eastern part of Poland, near Sanok. The UGS Department ran some analysis before that date, which gave us the answer that the old vertical well technology would not be enough to achieve investment success. We knew that we needed to use horizontal well technology in which we had no experience at all. At that time there were only a few horizontal wells drilled in Poland. We decided to start cooperation with the company Baker Hughes, and asked them to help us to design the drilling technology and well completions. We knew that we needed to drill 8 horizontal wells in difficult reservoir conditions. Based on Baker Hughes’ recommendations, the EXALO Polish drilling company’s experience and the Institute’s knowledge of storage reservoir geology, the trajectories of 8 new wells were designed. Working with Baker Hughes, we designed the well completion based on expandable filters, the second time this type of completion technology had been used in the world at that time. During drilling, we were prepared for drilling fluid losses because of the extensive Strachocina reservoir’s natural fracture system. The investment was in doubt during the drilling of the first two horizontal wells because of huge drilling fluid losses and the inability of drilling the horizontal section length as designed. We lost 4000 cubic metres of drilling fluid in a one single well. During the drilling of the 2nd well, we asked Baker Hughes to help us to improve the drilling technology. Our partners from Baker Hughes prepared the solution in 3 weeks, and so we were able to use this new technology on the 3rd well drilled. It turned out that we could drill a longer horizontal section with less drilling fluid loss. The paper will show the idea of the project, the team building process, the project problems solved by the team, decisions made during the UGS Strachocina investment and the results. It will show how combining “western” technology and experience with “eastern” knowledge created a success story for all partners.