K.V. Burdin was born on December 30, 1976 in Svetlodarskoye, Donetsk region. He holds a degree with distinction from Tyumen O&G University, on specialty "Drilling O&G Wells and Well Workover". He started his professional career as an assistant workover driller in Surgut Department of Oil Recovery Enhancement and Well Workover. In 2001 he was appointed the leading engineer of department for well workover with implementation of CT units. In 2003 he defended a dissertation for Doctor of Engineering degree. The thesis was entitled “Development and Research of Behind-the-Casing Flows Isolation Technologies with CT Application”.  He has been working for Schlumberger since 2004, where he rose from the position of a design engineer to manager on CT business development.A constant participant of Сonference for CT Technologies and Well Intervention. Burdin is an author of over 20 articles on the subject.

 

 

Konstantin Burdin: Our company has 11 CT units in various Russian regions: from Astrakhan gas condensate field to platforms in Sakhalin. The principal contractors are such giant companies as Rosneft, Gazprom, Gazprom Oil, TNK-BP, Russneft. All of them demonstrate an increasing interest in our CT products. Besides, we offer services for small O&G producers.Working with them is no less important for us, since we have long and reliable links with most of such companies. For example, we’ve been successfully cooperating with Salym Petroleum Development since the very beginning of Salym project.

 

At the moment Schlumberger makes serious plans to offer our Russian clients the new technology development, differentiation of well workover jobs, CT innovation solutions. Up to the present time Schlumberger made proppant flushing after hydrofracturing and stimulating wells with nitrogen in 90% of operations. Today we perform tubing treatment with the help of downhole drilling motors, lowering bridge plugs (CoilFLATE) and autonomous geophysical instruments, abrasive jet perforation (AbrasiFRAC), disposal of chemicals in the pay zone, acid treatment, including special acid systems (VDAViscoelastic Diverting Acid), producing a selective impact on oil-saturated zone and blocking the water-saturated one and many other jobs.  These polymict reactants are now successfully applied with the CT, which became an instrument of their precise delivery. Holding course for differentiation of well workover jobs is a key priority for us, since the well service market is getting more tough and competitive.That is why our company spends substantial resources on development, know-how and education of specialists.

 

 

K.B.: Schlumberger has 4 research & development centers worldwide, including the one in Novosibirsk, Russia. Our company has organized a wide range of client support laboratories, which, as a rule, are located in close proximity to the fields and are meant for applied research requested by customers.

 

K.B.: Absolutely. All our research centers are fully order-driven. In case there is a problem on the site, a request is made to a research center, which starts investigating the problems and comes up with the best solution at a scheduled time.

 

K.B.: Exactly. That is why we presented only the technologies that were successfully applied in Russia at the 9th International Conference on Coiled Tubing and Well Intervention, held in Tyumen in September, 2008. We don’t want to only promote our know-how, but also to demonstrate to potential contractors the developments, which can be applied here in Russia right now.

 

K.B.: Our company has tough standards of security and protection of intellectual property rights. All the developments are patented and certified. Schlumberger is in constant search of innovations and unique, best solutions, it introduces and promotes new technologies on a regular basis. For instance, the above mentioned research centers invite our customers for doors open days.

 

K.B.: Like any big company, we have a specialized department for purchasing equipment. Also we have official suppliers. They are our regular partners, who have proved a guaranteed high quality of their products. It is difficult to become an official supplier. Before the company is included in the list, a serious work on comparing market products is undertaken. Tenders are held as well, but since the situations in various countries is different, the conditions of holding a tender are varied. Russia has its specifics as well. For instance, the demands to equipment quality are very high. Nevertheless, in order to use Russian equipment somewhere else, we need an international certification confirming its quality.

 

K.B.: Today the market of CT units in Siberia is rather saturated. Even this year the competition has been especially tough and new companies entering the market are having hard times. As for the market development, now it is actively developing in the more and more Eastern Russian regions. The active development of Yakutiya and the Sakhalin fields is not a secret. Schlumberger is present in these regions as well. Many companies who compete for Western Siberia turn to the East today. I think that in 2–3 years the market will move in that direction, unless the global crisis interferes.

 

K.B.: As for CT development in Russia, the technology made a major breakthrough over the last decade. In 2001 I was the participant of the  2nd All-Russian Conference on CT Technologies and Well Intervention. Hardly anyone in Russia was aware of the coiled tubing at that time.I made a search for the words “coiled tubing” in Russian and Google gave only 2-3 references. They usually had something to do either with this very conference or Surgutneftegaz, which was the first Russian company to launch  T

technologies into commercial production.Today one can found several thousand references.

 

K.B.: Schlumberger has a streamlined system of training young specialists, who are thoroughly selected. We have two levels of training engineers: field training, then their first school, which gives reinforcement of practical learning and the second school, after which the graduate is obliged to write and defend a project, which is an scientific work with economic assessment. It takes about three years to train a one specialist.

 

Every spring we select potential candidates from the best universities of Russia. Naturally, like any employer we try to choose the best ones. One of the principal requirements, beside perfect knowledge of specialization, is a good command of English. Though the company is international, 95% of its personnel in Russia are local specialists. Schlumberger prefers to train specialists, equip them with

special knowledge, individually adapted for each specialization. You must have heard that Schlumberger opened a large training center in Tyumen, where specialists

and engineers are trained.

 

K.B: Oil-engineers, especially middle managers and entrants, aspire after knowledge and advanced technical decisions. Specialized scientific and practical issues are in high demand among this bracket of readers. There is also a great interest of customers willing to choose and receive the most advanced technologies for meeting specific objectives at oilfields and choosing the most suitable technologies. Such customers are eager to learn about the available operations and contractors able to provide quality services.