Courtesy of tatneft.ru

1 million tons of high viscosity oil (HVO) has been produced at Ashalchinskoye oil field of PJSC TATNEFT since the beginning of the development.

Since the 70-ies of the XXth century the Republic of Tatarstan has been and still remains a scientific and practical testing ground for developing bituminous oil production technologies in the country. Dozens of technologies have been tested over the years and the veterans of TATNEFT Company have gained valuable experience in the development of the hard-to-recover reserves. This work was given renewed momentum in 2006 at Ashalchinskoye field, where the proprietary technologies of development based on steam assisted gravity drainage by pairs of horizontal wells were introduced in Russia for the first time.

Currently the production at Ashalchinskoye field is carried oil with operation of 84 horizontal wells: 65 wells are operated with application of the steam assisted gravity drainage technology, while there are 19 wells operated with application of the huff-and-puff method. The daily production of HVO at Ashalchinskoye field makes over 1300 tonnes.

The HVO commercial development target is Sheshminsky horizon, Ufimian strata of the Cheremshano-Bastryksky zone. The reservoir development plan has been designed by the experts of TatNIPIneft.

The main production technology applied is the process of steam assisted gravity drainage.

The project Implementation requires performance of a large set of technical measures, including establishment of the facilities of gas, water and heat supply and installations for production, treatment and transportation of high viscosity oil.

Establishment of the necessary infrastructure at the surface is caused by the need of using steam, treatment of high-viscosity oil and disposal of much water.

Treatment of HVO to bring it to the marketable condition involves the use of the extra-viscous oil treatment unit (UPSVN) operated on the "hard" technology of thermo-chemical dehydration with application of electrical dehydrators and specifically designed coalescing devices.

To ensure stable production of HVO the professionals of the Company face the problem of increasing the net boilers’ capacity, improving reliability of the pumping equipment operation, as well as treatment and injection of produced water.

Source: tatneft.ru