First production well launched in Turonian deposit at Yuzhno-Russkoye field
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A festive ceremony dedicated to launching the first production well in the Turonian deposit located in Western Siberia took place today at the Yuzhno-Russkoye oil, gas and condensate field operated by Severneftegazprom. Top executives from Gazprom, Gazprom Export and Severneftegazprom took part in the event.
Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Chairman of the Severneftegazprom Board of Directors and Stanislav Tsygankov, Director General of Severneftegazprom pressed the symbolic start button and launched the project which was believed to become a starting point for the large-scale development of Turonian deposits in the Russian Federation.
“I would like to thank all employees from Severneftegazprom and everyone who made their own contribution, and, in fact, gave a start to a new stage in the domestic gas industry growth, which anticipates developing hard-to-access gas reserves. The Yuzhno-Russkoye field is one of the major resource bases to feed the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Severneftegazprom started the Turonian deposits development which allows securing new volumes of gas deliveries in the future as well as helps Gazprom, the gas supplier of the new gas transmission project, to achieve its most important goal – to provide reliable and uninterrupted gas supplies to Europe,” said Alexander Medvedev.
“The Turonian deposits of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field are estimated at more than 300 billion cubic meters of natural gas, meaning that annual production may potentially be increased by 5 or 8 billion cubic meters. The Turonian development project is vital for advancement of the entire gas industry. At the same time, a special approach needs to be taken towards the project – the unique and state-of-the-art engineering solutions have to be introduced. We were successful in achieving this goal and managed to launch the Turonian development owing to the accumulated production and human potential as well as highly professional participants engaged into the project. In the nearest future we hope to prepare the Turonian gas deposit for commercial operation. This is a great honor for us and a status symbol for Severneftegazprom and Gazprom in general to play a pioneer role in developing the Turonian deposits,” said Stanislav Tsygankov.
Background
Severneftegazprom holds the hydrocarbons exploration, development and production license for the Yuzhno-Russkoye oil and gas field located in the Krasnoselkupsky District of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. ABC1+C2 natural gas reserves of the field exceed 1 trillion cubic meters. In August 2009 the Yuzhno-Russkoye field reached its annual design capacity of 25 billion cubic meters one year ahead of schedule. Severneftegazprom has the following shareholding structure: Gazprom (a majority stake), BASF and E.ON. The company is engaged in commercial gas production from the Cenomanian gas deposits. At present, the company has started developing the Turonian deposits, which may be considered a pioneer project as there is still no experience in commercial development of Turonian deposits in Russia.
Lying at the depth of 810 to 840 meters, Turonian deposits are classified as hard-to-recover reserves. They feature abnormally high reservoir pressures, low reservoir temperatures, discontinuity and variability of the lithological composition and low reservoir permeability. Development of Turonian deposits through drilling of the vertical wells traditionally used for Cenomanian deposits is inexpedient. The company is intensely searching for new technologies and is currently producing the Turonian gas in a pilot commercial mode from the first dual well that is unique by design and construction techniques. Its specific configuration with a flat ending and purpose-designed dual wellhead equipment is sensitive to the structural features of the reservoir and enables to efficiently extract gas. The well was drilled from the existing base of a well cluster and connected to the Cenomanian gas gathering network.
The company is going to prepare the Turonian gas deposit for commercial gas production between 2023 and 2025.