Urengoy will give gas. The unique extractive field of Gazprom: the second youth

The company “Gazprom dobycha Urengoy” develops Urengoyskoye oil, gas, condensate field during 40 years. And though gas goes not under such pressure as during the first years of extraction, but employees do not see any problems. They are confident in the future and jokingly answer that there is enough work for their children and grandchildren.

Urengoyskoye field is really gigantic both by size and by reserves. Its length from south to the north makes 220 kilometers, and the area – about 5 thousand square kilometers. The enterprise “Gazprom dobycha Urengoy” includes 22 gas condensate and 2 oil deposits. A bigger part of this number is situated behind the Polar Circle. Development is difficult, conditions of the Far North are severe, but geologists and gas workers are persistent people. History of extraction of Urengoy gas was started from gas deposit N1. Production was started up in fast tempos exactly here as well as the first gas was delivered to the pipeline 40 years ago. There is the poster “Gas of Urengoy to the Motherland” hanging here then and now. Urengoyskoye field is unique also by its geological structure. It has three gas-saturated layers, but to reach them it needs to drill 400 meters of permafrost. The upper stratum – Cenomanian – is situated under it on the depth 1000-1200 meters. It consists of gas (methane) on 98-99% and was discovered in 1966. Deeper drilling was conducted in the middle of the 80-s of last century. The next stratum was found – Valanginian or Neocomian – on the depth from 1700 to 3200 meters. Not only gas is extracted here but also gas condensate and oil. Achimov suite is situated deeper. These horizons have been developed by the enterprise since 2009. In order to extract the most precious kind of hydrocarbons from it – gas condensate – it needs to drill more than 3.5 kilometers into the depth of the earth. These rocks are extremely difficult for extraction, as the pressure in them reach 600 atmospheres, and the temperature makes more than 100C degrees above zero. At that, three gas-saturated layers of the field are not the limit, Jurassic strata are situated deeper. Thus, the enterprise has prospects and time in order to find new technologies for their development. Within the jubilee press tour the company “Gazprom dobycha Urengoy” gave journalists the unique opportunity to visit two gas deposits of the enterprise and to communicate with their employees. Thus, the acting deputy director general on production of the company Aleksey Frolov tells that Urengoyskoye field entered the phase of falling extraction already long ago, as its development is conducted during 40 years. Experience of colleagues, who faced the same problems, in particular in Medvezhye field, is considered at plans for the future and optimization of expenditures. The layer pressure falls, superfluous equipment and capacities appear, it needs to bring them out of exploitation and to repurpose. Reserves of Urengoyskoye fields, of course, are not limitless, but they are permanently increased owing to exploratory drilling. Seismic methods and also space technologies are used to find hydrocarbons. Work on additional prospecting of geological reserves of new horizons of the field, search for those objects, which are not involved into development, are conducted actively. According to Aleksey Frolov, of course, these are not such big amounts as Cenomanian or Valanginian deposits, smaller ones, but in the prospect they can give increase in extraction. In addition, specialists of the enterprise are busy with optimization of work of the booster complex on acting objects; it helps to support amounts of extraction and necessary pressure in connection with its reducing in the layer. The total hydrocarbon reserves in the Big Urengoy are estimated approximately in 12 trillion cubic meters. It is a colossal figure not only for the country but in the world scale. According to Aleksey Frolov, the company “Gazprom dobycha Urengoy” was always one of the leaders in the sphere of use of innovative technologies; the level of equipping of its objects is high enough. In connection with big work being conducted in the country on import substitution, Russian manufacturers strive to test their equipment on areas of the extractive field. Now specialists of the company design objects with use of automation systems of Russian production, earlier foreign ones were used. The set of innovative decisions, first of all, on drilling of wells, is used at development of Achimov deposits. They have complex S-form structure, new technologies and modern equipment able to endure difficult geological conditions – abnormally high pressure and temperature – are necessary for their building. Bogdan Dub, the chief of the legendary gas deposit (N1), from which in 1978 the country received the first Urengoy gas, tells journalists that for increase in extraction the enterprise builds booster compressor stations in order to increase pressure for delivery of gas to the collecting pipe. In addition, specialists scrupulously control state of wells: conduct researches, capital repairs. The wells continue working after these activities. For a person not connected with oil and gas branch it is very difficult to imagine how gas extraction is conducted. The journalists visited the objects and saw the complex of constructions, in which equipment and many different pipes were situated. Gas is transported along them, it makes noise, if it is louder – the pressure is higher. Gas workers consider the deposit as a living organism. According to them, the complex of mutually connected constructions and equipment can be symbolically classified on the analogy with organs in the human body – a liver and kidneys, which filter and clean, and a brain, which controls the whole work. During 40 years “Gazprom dobycha Urengoy” reached big heights. In 2008 the company in total extracted 6 trillion cubic meters and was written into the Book of records of Russia – as the only enterprise that extracted such amount in one extractive field. For the present day the figure makes 6 trillion and 800 milliard cubic meters. But “Gazprom dobycha Urengoy” is busy not only with extraction. By the results of the Year of Ecology the enterprise conducted cleaning of 300 hectares of abandoned territories in the field, decreased emissions to atmosphere, reduced the amount of wastes and organized many ecological actions. The company pays big attention to taking care of people – veterans, young specialists and younger generation of Noviy Urengoy. The big collective of the enterprise, the number of which makes 12 thousand and 500 people, continues working and confidently goes forward to new achievements.

Translated from Yulia Tereshina The News Agency “Sever-Press”