Gazprom Starts Up New Oil Project at Urengoy in West Siberia

PJSC Gazprom has achieved commercial oil production from the sixth block of the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye field in the West Siberian basin.

Four oil wells in the field's Block 6A have now been fired up with two mobile oil treatment units. "In the future, a total of more than 40 wells will be built to perform the full-scale development of Block 6A", Russia's state-owned Gazprom said in an online statement.

"The Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye field lie at a depth of some 3,400-3,700 meters [11,154.86-12,139.11 feet] and are characterized by an extremely complex geological structure, heterogeneity of rock formations, low permeability, high temperature and abnormally high formation pressure", Gazprom added.

"High-tech solutions have been used to achieve cost-effective oil production from the complex Achimov deposits. For example, a 3D formation model has been generated to provide support while drilling horizontal wells of significant length; the multi-stage hydraulic fracturing procedure is used as well".

Gazpromneft-Zapolyarye director-general Vladimir Krupenikov said, "In former times, the extraction of resources of this kind was considered to be a challenge for the entire oil and gas sector. Today, we successfully produce hydrocarbons from the Achimov formations in various geological conditions. The first-ever production of oil from the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye field was made possible due to the development of tools for digital modeling and drilling of high-tech wells. The experience we gained will be used at other blocks and will help develop complex hydrocarbon deposits across Western Siberia".

Located in the Nadym-Pur-Taz region of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, a traditional gas producing area, the Urengoy oil, gas and condensate field began producing gas in 1978, according to Gazprom.

Urengoy was the biggest gas field at the time of discovery in 1966 with initial reserves of 10.9 trillion cubic meters [35.76 trillion cubic feet] of gas, according to Gazprom.

The Achimov formations have over 1 trillion cubic meters of gas and 400 million tons of condensate classified as C1 (explored) under the Russian system, according to Gazprom.

The formations first produced oil two decades ago under a pilot phase involving Block 1A, as announced by Gazprom July 15, 2008. Block 1A launched into commercial oil production three years later, as announced by Gazprom December 2, 2011.

In 2009 Gazprom enabled pilot gas production from the Achimov deposits through Block 2A, it says on its website.

In 2021 Block 4A and Block 5A of the Achimov deposits entered test production for gas and condensate, as announced by Gazprom at the time.

On May 28, 2024 Gazprom said Block 3A of the Achimov deposits had started commercial gas and gas condensate production.

"After the five blocks [1A-5A] reach their full capacity, the overall gas output will be around 37 billion cubic meters per year", Gazprom says on its website.

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