Keeping the Pipeline Full

Abstract

Large infusions of money and new technology will be needed to fill the oil gathering systems in the West Siberian oil fields. The owner of this field, Salym Petroleum Development, hopes to increase the output of its fields using chemically enhanced oil recovery and by producing oil from the Bazhenov formation. Russia Considers Its Unconventional Options To search online for the story of how Russia became one of the world’s top oil producers, try the keywords “West Siberia.” For the future, try “Bazhenov.” The Bazhenov is the source rock for the prolific West Siberian fields that still yield about two-thirds of Russia’s crude oil production nearly 50 years after the oldest of those fields went into production. The formation covers an enormous area—conservative estimates put it at more than 1 million km2, which is 1.5 times as large as the US state of Texas. The low-end estimate of the total reserves in the Bazhenov by a national agency that estimates Russian resources in the ground, Rosnedra, is 182 billion bbl, according to Platts, an oil industry trade publication. The high end is double that total. Now, some of the biggest oil companies in Russia, and the world, are trying to figure out how to convert that resource into reserves. Bazhenov wells have been drilled for decades, and have earned the formation a reputation for unpredictability. The drive to take what has been learned about unconventional oil production in the US and use it in West Siberia was a key theme at the recent SPE Russian Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Technical Conference and Exhibition in Moscow. Another theme was the growing list of techniques being employed to extract more oil out of conventional formations: from using advanced seismic analysis, to new drilling and completion methods to tap unproductive formations, to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using chemicals. An example of all of the above is Salym Petroleum Development (SPD). The 50/50 joint venture between Shell and Gazpromneft, a Gazprom subsidiary, has been investigating the Bazhenov in its fields in West Siberia, where it has also been drilling hundreds of wells based on advanced seismic studies to reach unproduced zones. And it is testing chemical EOR. Based on lab work and a single-well field test, using alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) treatments could significantly increase its ultimate production, Simon Durkin, chief executive officer of SPD, said in an interview during the Russian conference. Using chemicals to free more of the oil from the formation and improve the sweep of a waterflood could add more than 100 million bbl of incremental production over 30 years, according to company estimates.