Gazpromneft Khantos (a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft) has completed 18-stage fracking at the Yuzhno-Priobskoye field, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. This is the first time such an operation has been undertaken within the Gazprom Neft Group — the maximum multi-stage fracking operation through a single bore hole in a horizontal well, thus far, having been undertaken at the same location, the Gazpromneft Khantos Yuzhno-Priobskoye field, in December 2015.
Increasing the number of fracks per well has been made possible through the use of non-ball-and-socket (Mongoose) well completion and stimulation technology.
With a well-depth of approximately four kilometres, and the horizontal section running to 920 metres, anticipated operational potential is at least 80 tonnes of oil per day, 15 percent higher than performance levels following lower-stage fracking operations.
The key feature of the configuration of the horizontal section of the well lies in its allowing well stimulation to continue throughout its entire operation.
The application of multi-stage fracking not only allows an increase in the well-flow rate (production rate) but also, in the long term, allows a greater proportion of hard-to-recover reserves to be developed, by identifying the optimum means of developing the more marginal blocks of a field.
Gazpromneft Khantos brought 373 wells into operation in 2015, 52 of which were horizontal wells using multi-stage fracking.
Vadim Yakovlev, First Deputy CEO, Gazprom Neft, commented: “Gazprom Neft’s official Technology Strategy is designed to support the constant search for innovative solutions around which its long-term development might be based. Work with hard-to-recover reserves allows the company to further improve technologies designed to improve oil recovery, and bring into development reserves previously deemed unviable.”