Urengoyskoye field: history of development, reserves, exploitation, prospects

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The Urengoyskoye field is one of the largest in the world. It is inferior in volume to the North / South Pars field in the waters of Qatar and Iran. Estimated gas reserves are about 10 trillion m3.

Geographic location

The Urengoyskoye field is located in Western Siberia, on the territory of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, a few tens of kilometers from the border of the Arctic Circle. The name of the deposit is associated with the name of the nearby village of Urengoy. Its development led to the birth of the city of gas producers - Novy Urengoy.

History of the Urengoy field

The "Urengoyskoye" deposit was discovered in 1966 by V. Tsybenko's seismic station. A drilled exploratory well in the Purovsky district of the Tyumen region marked the beginning of intensive natural gas production, which began in 1978. Over the next three years, 100 billion m3 were raised to the surface3 raw materials.

The field is characterized by the following parameters: length - 220 km and area of 6 thousand hectares.km². January 1984 was marked by an important event - Urengoy gas began to be exported to Western Europe. The amount of raw materials produced grew every year: from 9 billion m^{3 of gas in 1978 to the next one - 2.5 times more, and in 1986 the volumes reached the design capacity. Since 1997, in addition to gas wells, oil wells have been put into operation.}

In 2008, the development of the Achimov deposits rich in gas and condensate began.

Gas composition

Urengoy gas is characterized as methane, the share of methane is 81–94%. The content of nitrogen and carbon dioxide is not higher than 1%.

Structure

The Urengoyskoye field is part of the West Siberian oil and gas province and consists of four deposits of natural raw materials, differing in the level of occurrence - Cenomanian, Neocomian, Achimov and Middle Jurassic. The structure of the deposit contains rocks of various ages, from the Jurassic to the Paleogene. The complex structure of the field is associated with focal uplifts - northern, central and southern, which are rich in gas deposits. Gas (1), gas condensate (7), gas condensate-oil (30) and oil (3) deposits were found within the boundaries of the field.

Achimov deposits

Processing data from the geological model of the Urengoy field shows that the size of the Achimov deposits is 9137 km², the volume of fossil gas is 1 trillion m^{3, gas condensate - 200 million tons. This allows us to consider the Achimov deposits as a promising natural formation, allowingincrease production at existing fields. However, the great depth of gas-bearing formations, combined with ultra-high pressure and the presence of heavy hydrocarbons, makes it difficult to develop the field. The project was developed with these factors in mind. Since the Achimov deposits have low productivity, the project provides for horizontal drilling of 200-300 meters long wells along the reservoir.}

During the development of the En-Yakhinskaya area, which is part of Bolshoy Urengoy, due to the increased content of gas condensate, a cycling process is used. The gas is pumped into the productive formations, thereby increasing the condensate recovery. This allows you to maximize the available condensate to the surface and significantly reduces reservoir losses.

At the Vuktyl field, the task of increasing condensate recovery remains relevant to this day, since significant volumes of condensate reserves remain in the reservoir.

Reserves of the Urengoy field

Geological reserves of UGM are estimated at 16 trillion m3 natural gas. Condensate presumably lies 1.2 billion tons.

Current position

At the moment, the number of operating drillings in the Urengoyskoye field has reached 1300. The rights to exploitation belong to OOO Gazprom dobycha Urengoy. It is a subsidiary of PJSC Gazprom (with 100% shareholding). By the end of 2008, the company's gas production exceeded 6 trillion m. This world record was included in the Russian Book of Records.

Prospects

Exploitation of the "Urengoyskoye" field in the near future involves the development of Achimov deposits. In 2011, the research center of TyumenNIIgiprogaz LLC introduced a scheme of technological processes. The document defines the development strategy and takes into account the interests of all subsoil users. The document provides for the commissioning of three more Achimov sites from 2015 to 2017. By 2024, it is planned to bring condensate production at all sites to the design figure, i.e. in the amount of 10.8 million tons annually. The estimated gas production volume of 36.8 billion m3 annually is planned to be reached by 2024. The predicted maximum level of oil production is more than 11 million tons per year.

VNIPIgazdobycha contribution

The Urengoyskoye field is of great importance for the Russian economy. VNIPIgazdobycha played an important role in the creation of the giant UGM gas production complex. Thanks to the many years of work of scientists and designers, new design technologies have been developed, unique systems for managing projects for the development of oil and gas fields have been created.