No. 1, 2008

Innovation technologies enable Russia to make a breakthrough in the development of its oil and gas complex

Innovation technologies enable Russia to make a breakthrough in the development of its oil and gas complex

Russia’s oil and gas industry largely depends on innovative technologies for its further progress. State-of-the-art technological and process solutions should enhance the efficiency of the upstream and downstream sectors and, at the same time, be environment-friendly, energy- and resource-saving.

Seeking innovative solutions

Fundamental and prospect-level research is essential to attaining the ambitious targets pursued by Russia’s oil industry.

Further advance of oil and gas prospecting works relies heavily on the successfulness of fundamental research into the effects of global geological processes on oil and gas formation and accumulation. This research effort should concentrate, above all, on the dynamics of geospheric shells, global and local fluid dynamics, the impact of deep-going energy flows on the asthenosphere and the lithosphere.

Pay-bed seismoacoustic emission has an important role to play. An effective 3D monitoring of the state of that field can be carried out using the method of passive emission seismic tomography developed by the Oil and Gas Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (OGI RAS). Such stratum monitoring makes it possible to assess the effectiveness of wave technologies used to enhance oil recovery and to control hydrofrac process on the basis of real-time 3D stress field visualization.

The systems analysis of oil and gas content of sedimentary basins has made further progress. Paleogeological zoning, in particular, helped bring out paleobasins as objects of study in their own right and conduct oil and gas prospecting therein. This technique reveals, for each development stage, sections identical in their tectonic position and structure and singles out those of them which have sustained prolonged and stable immersion and, consequently, possess the best conditions for the formation of oil and gas reservoirs. And finally, a clear-cut definition of paleobasins in space and time automatically transfers modeling operations to a four-dimensional measurement mode.

Structural-lithological typification of sedimentary basins and methods of their lithological-geophysical exploration as integral natural systems provide a reliable basis for the quantitative prognostication of oil- and gas-bearing capacity.

Managing field energy

The progress made to date by oil and gas science and technology has opened up new prospects for the development of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon accumulations occurring at great depths under complex geological and hitherto unprecedented thermobaric conditions, in rocks the physical and geological parameters of which differ substantially from those hitherto known.

Unique capabilities of computer technologies make for an impressive advance in the development of 3D hydrodynamic modeling and an adequate simulation of the oil and gas field development cycle. This innovation, combined with an integrated multidisciplinary approach to hydrocarbon recovery, may prove even more efficient than the “tertiary” EOR methods.

The gas condensate and gas-oil mix flow instability mode theory is a new trend in physical-chemical thermodynamics. It has been theoretically proved that their phase-transition filtration within the framework of classical models may produce areas with unstable solutions. In such areas, confined to near-well zones, there emerge various nonclassical flow modes of oscillating soliton character. Phase-transition nonequilibrium, capillary relaxation and other effects, otherwise negligible, assume a predominant role under conditions of instability. This phenomenon may provide the basis for the development of new, much more

effective methods of gas condensate well survey.

The OGI RAS has developed a general methodology of reserves estimation, laboratory research and well planning on the basis of the pore space effectiveness concept. The appropriate transition in 3D geological and hydrodynamic modeling is accompanied by minor changes in the mathematical description of problems, with the algorithms of their solution unchanged. The use of somewhat different methods of conducting and interpreting the findings of core examination, the construction of “core-geophysics” correlation dependences and results of geophysical well survey turn out to be quite sufficient.

The progress of new technologies will be stimulated by utilizing the specifics of a new kind of hydrocarbon stock – its high molecular weight variety.

Fundamental research findings have shown that the Orenburg gas condensate field contains not only ample reserves of gas and condensate but also comparable reserves of natural high molecular weight hydrocarbons (HMWH) of nonhydrocarbon (resins, asphaltenes) and hydrocarbon (solid paraffins, oils) composition.

The Orenburg oil and gas condensate field’s total geological reserves of HMWH amount to 2.56 billion tons which is more than 2.5 times in excess of local gas, condensate and oil reserves taken together. The field also contains a wealth of nonferrous, precious, rare and rare-earth metals. Concentration of some of them is so high as to be comparable to their content in ore deposits.

HMWH development processes and process regulations have been worked out, ground has been broken in the Orenburg oil and gas-condensate field for a plant to produce solvents from HMWH, to refine them into motor oils, liquid aromatics and gas-containing ethylene-propylene, with high-value metals and their marketable products extracted in the process.

New energy transport possibilities

Today, natural gas is stored and transported in liquefied or compressed state. Each of these methods has its shortcomings. The former calls for the use of special materials and cooling systems, is cumbersome and costly and, besides, some of the gas evaporates in the process of transportation and storage. The latter method requires high pressures and extra strong much-heavier-than-gas container materials.

Loaded into a gas-containing vessel, accumulating sorbents will reduce the compressed methane storage and transportation costs. New forms of carbon – fullerenes, nanotubes and nanofibers – have recently been proposed for use as such sorbents. According to expert opinion, the amount of methane adsorbed by carbon accumulating agents may amount to several dozen percent, but the cost of such sorbents is too high to make their use economically justified.

A many-year research effort has materialized in a new material – carbon fiber obtained from readily available and cheap feedstock and effecting a cut in compressed gas transportation and storage costs by boosting its amount in existing containers or reducing the size of storage and transport facilities to two-thirds or a half of their current dimensions.

Cellulose hydrate – a product of wood processing – has been selected as starting material. Following special aftertreatment and activation, carbon fiber obtained from cellulose hydrate acquires a much higher sorption capacity.

Sorbent-using technologies make compressed gas transportation competitive. First of all, they permit the use of economical enough motor and railroad transport for delivering fuel to consumers in various – often hard-to-reach – regions of the country. Second, they make river and sea-going vessels suitable for gas conveyance. And third, this is the cheapest, safest and simplest method of methane transportation.

Superconductivity promises a breakthrough in energy transport. A conductor is known to become superconducting if placed in a medium – compressed methane, for example – with a temperature of –980C and lower. Compressed methane will permit carrying energy and gas via one pipeline simultaneously. Core-type superconducting material (special ceramics, etc.) will reduce transportation losses practically to naught and permit replacement of most large-diameter pipes and power transmission lines by much smaller pipelines. This means a drastic cut in energy losses and higher flow responsiveness to control efforts, let alone a dramatic saving in metal. Realization of the project in question requires selecting material for the core part of a pipeline and solving the problem of its efficient insulation.

The future lies in innovative quests

The development of new “multifactor” technologies based on the use of various physical, thermodynamic, hydrodynamic, mechanical, physical-chemical and other effects is possible only through the promotion of fundamental research and putting its findings into practice.

Bringing out the specific features of the Earth’s structure, energy flows and evolution prompts new approaches to the origins of oil and gas, to the laws governing the distribution of oil and gas reserves, and brings more system into prospecting for hydrocarbon reservoirs, forecasting reservoir specifics and estimating the resource base in a new way.

Today, we witness a watershed in the history of the science and practice of oil and gas exploration and production. Sweeping-scale computerization and informatization of the entire infrastructure underlying the search for and development of oil and gas reservoirs, embodiment of fundamental research findings in hydrocarbon reserves recovery, transportation and processing technologies prepare the ground for a transition to the innovative stage in the development of Russia’s oil and gas industry.