Gazprom Neft becomes first company in Russia to complete unique geotechnical operation

17 September 2013

For the first time inRussia, ahorizontal well came on-stream following aten-stage hydraulic fracturing atGazprom Nefts Vyngapur field (run byGazpromneft Noyabrskneftegaz). Upuntil now, the highest number ofhydraulic fracturing stages Gazprom Neft had performed onanindividual wellbore ofahorizontal well had been eight. The company had first accomplished this inJune 2013, also atVyngapur field.

The depth ofthe new well isnearly 4,500meters, and the length ofthe horizontal section isover 1,000meters. There was anadditional difficulty inthe operations performed. The formation through which the horizontal section ofthe well was drilled was only four meters thick. Moreover, the effective horizontal well length (i.e. the section ofthe well that penetrates the oil-containing formation without coming into contact with surrounding rock) reaches 90percent, which isabove average even for wells with shorter horizontal wellbores.

The flow rate obtained atthe well isover 135 tons per day, which exceeds the results obtained athorizontal wells with alower number ofhydraulic fracturing stages byapproximately one third.

Drilling horizontal wells with multistage hydraulic fracturing makes itpossible toexpand the producing area ofthe reservoir and increase the flow rates ofwells drilled inlow-permeability horizons classified astight reserves. Gazprom Neft adopted anoperations program for this category ofreserves in2012. The company plans tobring 60million tons oftight reserves into development by2015, and that number should rise to300 million tons by2020.

The conduct ofmultistage hydraulic fracturing atGazpromneft Noyabrskneftegaz made itpossible for the enterprise toraise its production volume during the first half of2013 by6percent over the volume produced during the first half of2012, upto4.4 million tons. Atotal of57new wells were commissioned during the last six months, forty ofwhich are horizontal wells with multistage hydraulic fracturing. Gazprom Neft isusing multistage hydraulic fracturing atseven fields, and isstudying the feasibility ofapplying this method inother areas.

Gazprom Neft isactively applying technologies that make itpossible toenhance the development ofour assets and which are adapted tothose assets’ individual peculiarities. Weare constantly studying the innovative production methods, adapting them, and implementing them atour fields. This includes alarge scale use ofmultistage hydraulic fracturing. However, increasing the number ofhydraulic fracturing stages isnot anend initself. The main task remains todetermine the most productive and economically justified production methods ateach individual asset, commented Gazprom Neft First Deputy CEO Vadim Yakovlev.

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