Jamil Girfanov: It is difficult to couch general problems, since they are individual for every company and sometimes unique. I can just tell you about our division, which has been doing service operations for over 10 years. The necessity to update CT equipment has been our major problem for the last few years. Specialists know that the work of CT units is very intense with a high degree of deterioration. Luckily, in forth quater of 2008 we bought 2 Fidmash units and managed the problem. The efficiency of the job depends on equipment and its capabilities. Currently, we can do the jobs faster and better.

 

J.G.: Registration as a legal body was a very important decision taken by the administration of our joint-stock company. Outsourcing of noncore activities (service divisions) had to be done in a thoughtful, organized and gradual manner. We studied the world experience, as service divisions are independent practically everywhere.

 

Note, that our company has rich experience accumulated during 10 years of working as Tatneft’s unit. And above all we had a wide range of technologies and highly skilled staff available. Thus, by the time of getting outsourced we were quite ready for the independence. As for the future, time will show.

 

J.G.: We do a wide number of operations to oil producers and other service companies. We offer about a score of operations, including 10-15 basic ones. In the first place we do traditional services like bottomhole cleaning and formation stimulation. We also perform the workover jobs. Actually, we can provide the whole set of operations including drilling laterals, cementing, isolation jobs under pressure, well abandoning and repeated abandoning. We also do acid fracturing and hydrofracturing. We use traditional HF and CT fleet for the services. The acid fracturing is performed in carbonate reservoirs. We develop a wide range of CT technologies using chemical reagents for enhancing oil recovery.

 

J.G.: For instance, we did the job at a well with 2 mouths. Such wells were drilled at Ashalchinskoye field for production of high-viscous oil. These wells have long horizontal bores. After drilling and lowering of the production string, the wellbore should be cleaned from mechanical deposits like sand, clay and so on. Such operations would be impossible without coiled tubing. Together with the specialists of Tatneft and Tatar Research, Development and Production Institute we developed technologies enabling such services. We not only purified the wellbores, but also lowered the fiber-optic cable led through a coiled tube.

 

J.G.: These technologies are used today for a wide number of jobs including washouts, bottomhole cleaning and drilling with downhole drilling motors in open shafts. Although, on the territory of Russia CT drilling of new wellbores is rather limited. The main reason of its slow development is high cost of such equipment. Our company is very interested in new types of equipment, downhole motors and  bottomhole assemblies. At the moment we use the tubing with diameters of 1” and 11/2”, and without changing the line of the units we would like to work with such tubes and more powerful motors. Today we can allow having a motor with a 146 mm bore bit. For now we can do about 100 round trips with the 11/2” tubing. The larger is the tubing, the more limited are the terms of its exploitation. Besides, the lifespan of the tubing depends on the used reagents. This is a very important limitation. We, service companies, wonder, when Russian industry will start producing coiled tubes with the quality of the best world’s manufacturers and at a reasonable price. As an independent company we are interested in “price-quality” correlation. One of the  avenues of CT development is the improvement of quality in domestic tubes. We spent much time on repairing the tubes. With regard to high cost of an hour of job, downtime is unallowable luxury for us. The mean time of workover in our company is 36 hours. As for traditional workover it lasts hundreds of hours. It is necessary to  work without downtimes to be profitable.

 

J.G.: Service divisions should be initiative, especially in promoting their ideas. Many contractors among Russian oil producers have little understanding, what coiled tubing is and what avenues it opens. When I became the head of a service division, I initiated a number of presentations. Many specialists including companies’ chief engineers were positively surprised to learn the opportunities of the coiled tubing. I think that service companies should promote the advanced technologies. Even if some of our ideas seem fantastic! Standing still means moving backwards.

 

J.G.: Yes. Unfortunately, today service companies, which have certain experience and technologies, try to keep them in secret from the colleagues. I have been working in the field of well service for all my life and I understand many tendencies well. The oil is still running, but it will not last forever. That is why service companies have to learn to deal with the problems of the contactors together. Cooperation and information exchange would be welcome. “The Coiled Tubing Tines” could  contribute to this task. Let us come up with a joint initiative.

 

 

Tatneft-Aktubinsk Rem Service was founded in 2008 on the basis of Aktubinsk Division of Slickline and Packer Technologies at Tatneft. It specializes in slickline technologies, for instance, in express methods of well workover involving  geophysical cables. The enterprise includes 5 teams for well workover with CT implementation. Tatneft-AktubinskRem Service provides the service of horizontal and cut-through wells, operations in tubular annulus and in non-standard conditions.

 

See also: V. Lebedev. Development of Coiled Tubing Technologies in Tatneft // Coiled Tubing Times – 2008. – №23.