New Oil Project in the Works - World’s Largest "Light Tight Oil" Development Begins in Yugra Region
Development of the world's largest light tight oil (LTO) deposit has begun in Yugra. The deposit is expected to bring 10 million tons of oil annually. This figure can help Russia outperform the US, which is currently the leader in LTO production. The name of the deposit is Bazhenov Formation, it has been studied for more than 50 years. But the first well will be drilled just now.
Nikolai Vasilyev reports on this historical moment.
Every 5 minutes, a new pipe stand goes underground. A pipe stand is a part of drilling equipment. With each pipe stand, the drilling bit descends another 25 meters.
"We have now prepared another pipe stand to reach the 2750 meters mark".
LTO deposits lie at roughly 3 kilometers underground. The average thickness of the oil layer, or magnitude, as experts call it, is 10 meters.
Ruslan Faziev, geologist: "The magnitude depends on the geographical location. In our well, it varies from 2 to 50 meters, depending on the geological structure of the deposit."
This would be the first well in the Palyanovskiy deposit, more commonly referred to as the Bazhenov Formation. The amount of proven oil reserves here is more than 100 billion tons. This drilling rig will include 6 wells in Bazhenov Formation.
In May, the second rig is expected to be set up to drill 8 more wells in this pre-historic deposit of hydrocarbon fuels. The scientific center of Gazprom Neft in Saint-Petersburg monitors the drill approaching the oil-bearing rock in the western part of Siberia. Now it's time to start horizontal drilling in order for the pipe to get precisely into the rather thin oil layer.
Alexander Dyukov, Gazprom Neft: "Though it's hard to extract this oil, its quality is almost perfect — it is good and light. As for the cost-efficiency of the project, we successfully achieved a full-cycle LTO extraction from the Bazhenov Formation. We used domestic technologies and domestic equipment, and also hired domestic subcontractors".
In order to extract oil, the rock will be crushed by water pumped underground under pressure of up to 500 atm. The water would then push the oil above the surface.
Ayrat Ibragimov, site supervisor: "It could be a blowout, i.e. the well could supply oil using its own energy".
If the price for hydrocarbon fuels remains on the same level, the high-tech Palyanovskiy deposit could become one of the leading oil suppliers in the years to come.
Nikolai Vasilyev, Pavel Kostrykov, Aleksandr Feoktistov, Sergey Ishchenko, Vesti, Saint-Petersburg and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.