Production Boost at Russia's Arctic Field

Gazprom Neft has brought its second well into production at the Prirazlomnoye field, with output totalling 1,800 tons per day. 

This will see production increase more than two-fold compared to 2014 production levels at Prirazlomnoye, which stood at 300,000 tons. The depth of the new well extends to more than 4,500 meters, with drilling undertaken by Russia’s Gazprom Burenie.

Altogether, 36 wells will be brought into production, including 19 production wells, 16 re-injection wells and one absorption well. The first production well at the field was launched on December 19, 2013.

The Prirazlomnoye project is the first ever upstream project on the Russian Arctic Shelf, with a new type of oil, ARCO, launching on the international market in April 2014. 

The field is located in the Pechora Sea, 60 kilometers from shore. Recoverable reserves are in the order of 70 million tonnes. The licence holder on the project is Gazpromneft-Shelf, a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft.

The ice-resistant Prirazlomnaya rig was designed and constructed specifically for development of this field, capable of handling all technological operations — drilling, production, storage, and the preparation and offloading of the finished product.

Production using the Prirazlomnaya platform is predicated on the principle of zero emissions, with the platform equipped with a system to prevent the discharge of any production or drilling waste into the sea. Waste will, instead, be either directly re-injected into the strata, or will be transferred to the shore for recycling. 

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.