Pursuing the aim of enhancing oil recovery the specialists of OAO TATNEFT apply up-to-date technologies such as EOR methods using composite systems based on xanthan biopolymer ("Xanthan" technology).

 

The technology developed by the scientists of TatNIPIneft is applied in the Company’s oilfields at the late stages of developing heterogeneous permeability reservoirs and has been designed to increase the current oil production through shutting off flooded zones and redistributing the routes of water injected in the reservoir.

 

The professionals of TATNEFT’s oil and gas producing divisions achieve these results through alignment of the producing reservoir heterogeneity, as well as regulation of sweep efficiency and redistribution of the flows in the reservoir at the expense of xanthan biopolymer based composition properties.

 

The technological process is carried out by injection of gelling composition, which is a xanthan exopolysaccharide based composition consisting of microbial origin biopolymer and cross-linking agent.

 

The advantages of this technology include the use of solutions and gelling compositions resistant to mineralized water impact, as well as their resistance to shear deformations and biodegradation. The injected xanthan based injected compositions are characterized by low filtration resistance during migration in a porous medium up to the moment of gellation. After the gel is formed the filtration resistance of the isolated substratum increases hundreds of times. The low cost of injection process and high technological efficiency provide for high profitability of this technology.

 

An important advantage of "Xanthan" technology is its environmental safety. Biotechnologically produced polymer has no adverse impact on the environment.

 

The average increase in crude oil production rate since the beginning of commercial application of the technology has amounted to 3 tons per day. EOR technology based on the injection of biopolymer compositions is protected by RF patent No.2347897 owned by OAO TATNEFT.