After nearly two years, Gazprom Neft Shelf has brought its second well into production at the Prirazlomnoye field in the Russian Arctic.
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Image of the Prirazlomnaya field. From Gazprom. |
Prirazlomnoye is located in the Pechora Sea, about 60km offshore Russia at 4500m water depth. It has recoverable reserves of approximately 70 million-tonne.
The second well is currently producing a total of 1800-tonne/d, with production expected to increase at Prirazlomnoye more than two-fold in comparison with production levels in its first year in 2014, which stood at 300,000-tonne.
According to Gazprom, the project will see 36 wells being brought into production, including 19 production wells, 16 re-injection wells, and one absorption well.
The Prirazlomnaya platform is equipped with a system to prevent the discharge of any production or drilling waste into the sea. Instead, waste will either be directly re-injected into the strata, or will be transferred to the shore for recycling. This is a principle that Gazprom has established called “zero emissions.”
“Ensuring environmental safety and the uninterrupted operation of our technical installations is the single most important objective for Gazprom Neft in the fulfilment of our projects under the harsh climatic conditions of the Arctic. The two-fold growth in production at the Prirazlomnaya field is a clear illustration of the effectiveness of the equipment and technologies in use,” Andrey Patrushev, Gazprom Neft deputy CEO, Shelf projects development said.
All wells to be drilled at Prirazlomnaya will be located within the platform, the base of which then acts as a buffer between the well and the open sea. In addition to which, all of the wells are specially equipped to prevent the possibility of any uncontrolled emission of oil or gas and can, if necessary, be hermetically sealed within 10 seconds, Gazprom said.
The Prirazlomnoye project is the first ever upstream project on the Russian Arctic Shelf. The first production well at field began production on 19 December 2013, which had been delayed due to challenges, including aging equipment, and a change in the project’s shareholders structure. The field also introduced a new type of oil, ARCO, that was introduced to the international market in April 2014. The field was discovered in 1989.
The wells have been drilled using an ice-resistant rig that was designed and constructed specifically for development of Prirazlomnoye, and is capable of handling all technological operations, including drilling, production, storage, and the preparation and offloading of the finished product.
The license holder on the project is Gazpromneft-Shelf LLC, a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft.
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