A horizontal well was input to operation in Vyngapur field of Gazprom Neft, which is developed by the affiliated enterprise Gazprom Neft - Noyabrsk-neftegaz. Hydraulic fracturing of formation in ten stages was performed here for the first time in Russia. Till this time, the maximum number of stages realized in one horizontal well of Gazprom Neft was eight.

 

The depth of new well is 4,500 meters (14,760 ft.), the length of the horizontal section exceeds 1,000 meters (3,280 ft.). Additional difficulty during the operation was connected with the fact that the thickness of formation, through which the horizontal section of the well passed, amounted to 4 meters (13 ft.) only. At that, effective horizontal length of the well achieves for 90 per cent, what is higher than average indexes.

 

By the information given in the press-service of Gazprom Neft, production rate in the well reached the value of 135 tons per day, which is about one third higher than the results achieved on horizontal wells with lesser number of hydraulic fracturing stages.

 

Drilling of horizontal wells with conducting of multistage hydraulic fracturing allows enlarging the area of productive formation development, to increase production rate of wells drilled in deposits with low permeability. Gazprom Neft took the program of work with this category of reserves in 2012. Till 2015 the company plans to involve 60 million tons of difficult reserves in development. Till 2020 this index should be increased up to 300 million tons.

 

“Gazprom Neft is actively implementing technologies that allow to increase the efficiency of assets development and take into account all their peculiarities. We constantly study innovative production methods that appear on the market, adapt them and implement at our oilfields. Multistage hydraulic fracturing technology is the one that is actively used by our Company. It should be noted that the increase of the number of fractured stages is not the goal in itself. The primary target is still connected with identification of the most productive and economically viable production method for each of the asset in place,” said Vadim Yakovlev, Deputy General Director of Gazprom Neft.