Courtesy of salympetroleum.com

Salym Petroleum Development N.V. (SPD) completed drilling of seven wells designed for the three component ASP mixture-based chemical flooding pilot project. Within the scope of this project SPD will also construct an ASP* pipeline and an ASP mixing unit in 2014.

“Completion of well drilling is an important milestone in ASP pilot project execution. The entire set of scheduled work has been completed within the budget and on target dates, all HSSE rules complied with. These wells are an evidence of the fact that SPD has progressed from preparatory work phase directly to project execution phase, the success of which will make it possible for us to practically demonstrate the advantages of the new technology and show that we can develop natural resources as reasonably as possible,” Mikhail Shuster, ASP Facilities Project Manager, noted.

For construction of ASP wells SPD used the five-spot infill drilling pattern: one producer in the centre and 4 injectors along the perimeter. In addition thereto, two wells have been constructed for observation of injection progress and sample taking. In the course of wells drilling SPD has also successfully tested a unique technology solution which helped it recover an insulated core without losing formation fluid.

*ASP is a promising enhanced oil recovery method based on chemical formation flooding with a three component mixture (alkali, surfactant, and polymer). It becomes possible to enhance oil recovery factor by injecting a composition of certain chemicals into the well. Surfactant reduces interfacial tension of oil, while alkali influences the electric charge of rock, which in its turn reduces surfactant loss. Polymer is applied to enhance solution viscosity. The technology has already been actively applied in the USA, Canada, and China; pilot testing is performed in several other countries. SPD has been studying this technology since 2008. The company has already run several laboratory and field tests. In 2012 SPD shareholders approved execution of an ASP pilot project on the Salym group of oil fields in 2013-2015.

Source: salympetroleum.com