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Collaborating Authors
Alaska Rocks 2005, The 40th U.S. Symposium on Rock Mechanics (USRMS)
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT: In engineering practice, a linear poroelasticity stress model in combination with a rock strength criterion is commonly used to determine a minimum mud weight for stable well drilling. Rock strength criterion therefore plays a key role in minimum mud weight prediction. There are a variety of rock strength criteria available in literature. It is well known that all those criteria fall into two categories: intermediate principal stress dependent (รณ2-dependent) criteria and intermediate principal stress independent (รณ2-independent) criteria. To identify if a specific rock failure is รณ2-dependent or รณ2-independent, polyaxial (true triaxial) rock strength test is essential. Similarly, to study the effect of rock strength criteria on wellbore stability and minimum drilling mud weight prediction, polyaxial rock strength test data are most useful. In this paper, we present a systematic approach to quantify the effect of three most commonly used rock strength criteria on minimum drilling mud weight prediction using polyaxial rock strength test data for Yuubari shale and Dunham dolomite. INTRODUCTION In oil/gas well drilling, to maintain a stable borehole without inducing near borehole shear failure, a minimum mud weight should be used. Applying a mud weight significant larger than the minimum value reduces rate of penetration and potentially induces formation damage and thus is not desirable. Many investigations have been made to develop theories/models for determining a lower mud weight that is feasible for efficient drilling. Zheng [1] proposed that mud weight can be reduced by controlling borehole breakout size. Bradford and Cook [2] found that a mud weight calculated using a linear poroelastoplasticity model is less conservative than the one calculated from a commonly used linear poroelasticity model. In engineering practice, a linear poroelasticity stress model such as the ones by Bradley [3] and Aadnoy & Chenevert [4] in combination with a rock strength criterion such as the Mohr-Coulomb criterion [5] is commonly used to determine the minimum mud weight. Rock strength criterion therefore plays a key role in minimum mud weight recommendation. McLean and Addis [6] compared different versions of the Drucker-Prager criteria [7] and the Mohr-Coulomb criterion and assessed their effects on minimum mud weight recommendations. It is found that those strength criteria can give extreme differences in predicted minimum mud weights. Ewy [8] introduced a modified Lade criterion [9] to compare with the Mohr-Coulomb and Drucker-Prager criteria. Ewy [8] concludes that the modified Lade criterion predicts minimum mud weight values that are less conservative than those predicted using the Mohr-Coulomb criterion and yet are not as optimistic as those predicted by the Drucker-Prager criterion. With similar arguments, a modified Wiebols and Cook criterion [10] was introduced by Zhou et al. [11].
ABSTRACT: It is well established that uniaxial strain deformation condition better simulates the reservoir depletion response than hydrostatic deformation condition. As a result, pore compressibility and reservoir compaction estimated under uniaxial strain deformation condition are more realistic. Reservoir compaction is often an issue for unconsolidated reservoir, the deformation behavior of which is often nonlinear. Its rock mechanical properties such as Young?s modulus and Poisson?s ratio are often stressdependent. Hence the pore compressibility and reservoir compaction coefficient are also often stress-dependent and are not constants. Besides, under uniaxial strain deformation condition, the stress path is also not a constant but stress-dependent. In this paper, we use stress-dependent Young?s modulus and Poisson?s ratio from triaxial test derived stress-strain curves to characterize pore compressibility, reservoir compaction and in-situ stresses under uniaxial strain deformation condition. Different from traditional belief that pore compressibility/reservoir compaction coefficient always decrease with pore pressure depletion, this work clearly demonstrates that pore compressibility/reservoir compaction coefficient may increase at late stage of reservoir depletion. INTRODUCTION Underground reservoir rock is subjected to in-situ vertical overburden stress and horizontal stresses. The stresses are sustained by rock matrix (grains) and pore fluids. During oil and gas production, reservoir pore pressure is depleted. According to Biot?s theory of poroelasticity [1], the effective vertical stress acting on rock grains increases during pore pressure depletion. The in-situ horizontal stresses also change during pore pressure depletion, which has been observed in many oil fields [2, 3]. The magnitudes of the change of horizontal stresses are often unknown due to complicated (or unknown) stress/strain boundary conditions. As a result, it is hard to know exactly how pore volume and reservoir compaction/subsidence change during reservoir depletion. In laboratory, tests were run under hydrostatic loading conditions [4-6] to determine pore compressibility. Generally the insitu vertical stress and horizontal stresses are not equal to each other. Compared with hydrostatic loading condition, uniaxial strain loading condition better simulates the in-situ loading condition [7-9]. As expected, pore compressibilities measured under hydrostatic loading condition and uniaxial strain condition are different [10-13]. Methods have been found to convert pore compressibility measured under hydrostatic loading condition to uniaxial strain pore compressibility [10-13]. Besides loading condition, rock constitutive behavior also controls the deformation behavior of a rock. It is known that for porous media, the strains generally do not depend linearly on stresses [10, 14-16]. Thus the pore compressibility, reservoir compaction, and stress path are all stress-dependent. Numerous stress-strain models were provided to represent the nonlinear constitutive behavior. Interested readers should refer to [17] for a comprehensive review of the models.
- Europe (0.94)
- North America > United States > Texas (0.28)
- Europe > Norway > North Sea > Central North Sea > Central Graben > PL 018 > Block 2/4 > Greater Ekofisk Field > Ekofisk Field > Tor Formation (0.99)
- Europe > Norway > North Sea > Central North Sea > Central Graben > PL 018 > Block 2/4 > Greater Ekofisk Field > Ekofisk Field > Ekofisk Formation (0.99)
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT: In cased and perforated completions, without sand control, one common approach for predicting the onset of sand production is based on lab tests of thick-walled cylinders (TWC tests). The onset of shear failure around a perforation (treated in isolation from the wellbore) can be predicted analytically based on when the maximum hoop stress reaches the disaggregation strength of the formation. A sanding log can be constructed from a uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) log tied to the TWC lab tests, and this gives the threshold bottomhole pressure at which sanding occurs, as a function of depth. Depletion worsens sanding, and the effect of depletion is included in the analysis. The result is, for the weakest depth, a chart called a triangle plot, which shows how the threshold sanding line varies with drawdown and depletion. The new work entailed here addresses the full three-dimensional (3D) stress state acting at a perforation. This is significant because the standard model considers only the two stresses acting perpendicular to a perforation. However, the stress acting parallel to a perforation can also influence the failure state, which can lead to quantitative differences in the prediction. To include the third stress means extending the failure condition from 2D to 3D, by basing it upon a failure envelope, not just TWC strength. The failure envelope we use, which is calibrated by triaxial and other tests, is a generalized power law (GPL) implementation of [1]. For consistency with the standard approach, this envelope is scaled to the disaggregation strength as determined from TWC tests. Failure criteria of this type, in which strength depends upon three independent stress invariants, have been shown to provide a much better match to sand strength measurements [2]. We have developed a new theoretical analysis to include all these effects. Results of the new model are compared with the standard TWC approach to sand prediction. We demonstrate the differences in several cases, and discuss situations where the full 3D model of sanding onset needs to be INTRODUCTION The motivation for this work arises from the need to decide if a well can be completed without sand control. The potential advantages of no sand control are cheaper well installation, higher production rate, and ability to shut off water. Another aspect is to be able to evaluate whether a cased/perforated completion can be used initially, and to defer a sand control option until later, with cost and flow rate and environmental advantages [3]. In summary, there is often a substantial cost benefit ? both for capital and operating expenditure ? if sand management can be deployed successfully. An accurate prediction of sanding onset will go a long way towards making this decision. In addition, since we can now also predict the volume and concentration of sand [4, 5], we are in an even better position to decide if sand can be handled at surface (and to optimize the design of facilities for handling sand). In this paper we present an improvement in predicting the onset of sanding. Methods for predicting the onset of sand production have been developed over the past 20 years, foremost among them being the work by Shell (see [6, 7] for an overview). The standard TWC model for sanding onset is based on shear failure due to stresses acting around a hole [4] (e.g., a perforation or a barefoot well). The formation has to fail under shear, before the fluid drag forces can bring the failed material into the well. There are also models based on tensile failure, where the drag force exerted by inflow of fluids is strong enough to bring in the sand directly, but this generally only occurs for weak rocks [8, 9].
Slotted Boreholes for Improved Well Stability and Sand Management
Addis, M.A. (Shell International Exploration and Production) | Khodaverdian, M.F. (Shell International Exploration and Production) | Lee, C.A. (Shell International Exploration and Production) | Fehler, D.F. (Shell International Exploration and Production)
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT: Borehole and perforation instability commonly occur during the life of a hydrocarbon producing field as a result of the increased effective stresses which accompany reservoir depletion. The use of slots cut into the sides of the boreholes has been investigated as a method of providing long term stability, using polyaxial block tests and numerical analyses. The slots are shown to redistribute the stress concentrations away from the borehole wall to the tips of the slots, for the polyaxial block tests, which results in improved stability. Numerical analyses demonstrate that the slots are expected to be more effective in increasing the strength of the borehole for field conditions, than in the laboratory. INTRODUCTION Wells drilled into high porosity sandstone formations commonly experience failure of the borehole walls due to excessive stress, normally high tangential (hoop) stresses. Fluid flow into the well during production tends to exacerbate the problem, ultimately leading to sand production in hydrocarbon producing reservoirs [1-7]. The stability of the borehole changes with time as the effective stresses in the reservoir increase in response to reservoir depletion. One approach for limiting borehole instability relies on increasing the formation strength: e.g. through injecting resins. This also normally stiffens the near wellbore region. The subject of our investigation addresses increasing the stability of boreholes by reducing the stresses acting in the vicinity of the well, by reducing the stiffness of the near wellbore region.
- North America > United States (0.46)
- Europe > Netherlands (0.28)
- Geology > Geological Subdiscipline > Geomechanics (1.00)
- Geology > Rock Type > Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Rock > Sandstone (0.55)
ABSTRACT: This research involved acoustic tomographic imaging of a shear failure in a rock core sample during triaxial deformation. To accomplish this, an extensive array of compressional wave sensors were placed on either side of a large core sample of porous limestone. The sample was put in the triaxial cell and deformed in a ?step-hold? type of test where successive axial stress steps were applied while acquiring several hundred compressional waveforms from an acoustic array. The waveform data were utilized to generate images at various states of stress until the sample failed. In the early phases of loading the acoustic velocities slightly increased. As the deformation neared the peak stress on the stress-strain curve, a centralized diffused low velocity zone developed. As the rock failed the low velocity zone increased in intensity and in the post peak failure region the sample exhibited an inclined low velocity zone. After the experiment was completed an inclined shear fracture was observed that aligned with the inclined low velocity zone. These results suggest that, for the first time, we were able to image the damage associated with process of dilatancy prior to shear failure and image the damage halo associated with the shear fracture itself. INTRODUCTION Seismic tomography has been used in the oil and gas industry to map rock lithologies, track CO2 floods, fire floods, and waterfloods during enhanced recovery operations [1,2,3]. The method involves measuring the acoustic velocities of the subsurface rocks along a wide array of seismic raypaths and then utilizing the data to reconstruct 2-D and 3-D internal images (tomograms) of the velocities. The acoustic sensors (geophones) are typically placed in wellbores or are in arrays on the surface. Acoustic (ultrasonic) tomography has also been used in the laboratory to image: i. dilatancy created during triaxial compressive failure [4]. For example, in imaging the damage in a circular cross section of a core. ii. hydraulic fracturing in granite samples [5]. In this study a mode I fracture was detected from the low wave velocities in the vicinity of the crack. iii. elastic stress distributions [6,7] during compressive indentation testing. In these tests the elastic closure of microcracks in highly stressed regions of a rock exhibited higher velocities. iv. compactive failure during indentation experiments [8]. In that study the compressional wave velocities decreased due to the breakage of cements between the grains during compaction. One important advance in ultrasonic tomographic imaging in the laboratory will be in its use under triaxial (e.g., high confining pressure) conditions as this is the stress condition which best approximates those which occur at depth in the subsurface. Much research is available on acoustic velocities obtained during triaxial experiments. Recently multi-raypath velocity data have been used to determine the stress-induced anisotropic elastic and poroelastic moduli during the initial elastic stages of triaxial deformation [9].
- Geology > Rock Type (1.00)
- Geology > Geological Subdiscipline > Geomechanics (0.91)
- Geophysics > Seismic Surveying > Borehole Seismic Surveying (0.35)
- Geophysics > Seismic Surveying > Surface Seismic Acquisition (0.34)
- Geophysics > Seismic Surveying > Seismic Modeling > Velocity Modeling (0.34)
ABSTRACT: A design of the roller compacted concrete dam, 85 m high with a crest length of 705 m, was carried out to provide flood storage on the lower reaches of the Imjin river. The alluvium layer between gneiss and basalt rock masses, varying from fine silty clay to cobbles mixed with sandy-clay particles, is compressed by the overburden rock mass. The magnitude of the in-situ horizontal stresses were measured, using hydraulic fracturing method, and found to be higher than the overburden stress. Two different grouting techniques were carried out in the field and the test results suggest that for the rock masses both methods improve the deformation modulus. MSG (micro-silica grout) performs better than OPC (ordinary Portland cement) grouting. Both methods with low injection pressure appear inappropriate for the foundation treatment in the alluvium layer due to the presence of a wide range of particle size. Groutability was identified with core recovery, a borehole camera, a borehole elastometer test, and monitoring of the grouting injection pressure, respectively. For porous and massive rock mass the effect of grouting on the foundation stability appears to improve, but it is relatively small for the alluvium layer identified with fine to coarse material mixtures. INTRODUCTION By the end of 2001 there were 232 completed Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) dams throughout the world with additional 31 under construction [1]. There are many advantages to RCC mix materials. Among them are that RCC does not utilize artificial postcooling, reducing the total amount of cementitious material by substituting a greater percentage of fly ash for cement, and quick construction [2]. The RCC is placed in lifts up to one meter thick, usually spread in approximately six layers each of which is semi-compacted by bulldozers. The final lift is compacted using a vibrating roller. After completion of the lift, the RCC is left for three days or more, the surface is green cut and mortar is spread over the whole surface. The dam is split into a number of sections ranging from 30 m to 60 m in width. The sections are constructed of lifts between the formwork. Within a section contraction joints are cut at 15-m centers. A large number of publications can be found that deal with RCC materials and dam construction [2, 3]. In this paper, an 85 m high gravity dam with a crest length of 705 m was proposed for a Hantan-river (Hantan-gang) dam. It would provide flood storage on the lower reaches of the Imjin river, a major tributary of the Hantan-river. The dam site is located approximately 70 km north of Seoul, Korea. The main higher section of the dam on the left abutment fills the existing steep-side river valley, 250 m wide at dam crest level. The remaining 450 m consists of a section 25 m high above existing ground level across a high-level terrace on the dam right abutment. The dam body was proposed to contain flood control gates, sedimentation outlets, grouting and drainage galleries, a gated spillway over the dam crest, and environment-friendly fishway channel in the dam body. The dam consists of two main overflow and non-overflow sections for the right and the left abutments (Fig. 1).
- North America > United States (0.28)
- Asia > South Korea > Seoul > Seoul (0.25)
- Research Report > New Finding (0.48)
- Research Report > Experimental Study (0.34)
- Geology > Sedimentary Geology > Depositional Environment (1.00)
- Geology > Geological Subdiscipline > Geomechanics (1.00)
- Geology > Rock Type > Igneous Rock > Basalt (0.30)
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT: In naturally fracture formations, injected fluid could flow into the existing fractures or induce a new fracture. It is important to predict conditions where opening of natural fractures happens and to determine the best strategy to avoid this, if one desires to pump proppant. We studied this with experiments on fractured blocks and a numerical model that incorporates transmissive discontinuities INTRODUCTION When injecting fluid at high pressure into naturally fractured formations the fluid has a choice between flowing into the existing fractures and creating a new fracture. If one desires to inject proppant, the latter is best because the fracture pressure can induce a sufficiently wide channel for proppant entry whereas a fracture network will show obstructions to proppant transport. We studied this with experiments on fractured blocks and a numerical model that incorporates transmissive discontinuities. Both reservoir and treatment parameters influence the hydraulic fracture geometry in naturally fractured reservoirs [1,2]. Practically, it is difficult to change the reservoir parameters, like in-situ stress, but the treatment parameters like the fluid viscosity and injection rate can be changed by an order of magnitude. Currently, it is believed that near-wellbore multiple fractures are mitigated by pumping viscous fluid, both during initiation and in later injections [3]. However, numerical simulations showed that the opposite effect might occur when high fluid pressure would open natural discontinuities, which deviate from the preferred fracture plane. The objective of our research is to investigate whether the measures to mitigate fracture tortuosity are also valid in fractured reservoirs. The fluid viscosity and injection rate influence the characteristic time scales of the fracture process. Pressurization rate is determined by injection rate and wellbore storage. Infiltration rate into the rock is determined by permeability (including natural fractures), porosity and fluid viscosity. Finally, pressure drop inside the fractures (natural or hydraulic) is determined by flow rate and viscosity.
- Asia (0.46)
- Europe > Netherlands (0.29)
- North America > United States (0.28)
ABSTRACT: Annular or dedicated reinjection operations are performed in nearly all major hydrocarbon producing regions of the world as an acceptable, safe, and cost-effective disposal alternative for drill cuttings and other solids. In the Central Graben region of the North Sea, ConocoPhillips employs cuttings reinjection (CRI) on a number of fields and long-term reinjection performance evaluations have been performed. During early injection, typically less than 6,400 m3 (40,000 barrels) of cumulative injection volume, injection behavior is indicative of periods of near-wellbore plugging followed by flushing. Later behavior is characterized by a steady rise in both injection and shut-in pressures that plateau greatly above the expected fracture gradients. More importantly, these pressures are at or above the vertical stress for this area of the North Sea and appear limited by the vertical stress. This effect suggests that: 1) all or most of the injection volume is retained very local to the perforations or annulus; and 2) the injection fracture(s) may have a horizontal or near-horizontal component. This further suggests that the injected slurry is well contained, as no large, vertical fractures are created, and the maximum injection capacity is likely considerably greater than previously thought based upon conservative fracture simulations. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Historical Context Beginning in the late 1980's, there was a marked increase in the reported success of long-term, largevolume disposal of slurrified, oil-based mud cuttings into subsurface formations. Notable success was reported by BP for operations at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska and Gyda in the North Sea[1,2,3]. At the time, Amoco also reported success at Valhall[4], Statoil reported success at Gullfaks and Statfjord[5], and other successes were reported[6]. These successes were followed by the original implementation of cuttings reinjection at Ekofisk[7]. Commonly, subsurface solids injection or cuttings reinjection for the early case histories were conducted in relatively deep, low permeability, shale formations, as is the case, for example, at Ekofisk. Here, the created injection fractures provide storage for both the solid and aqueous portion of the injection slurry. The principal benefit of injection into shale has been the inability to screen-out the injection. That is, the inability to plug the formation, which would result in excessive injection pressure and the cessation of injection. However, the downside of shale injection is the potential for the creation of very large fractures, which may grow unintended into other horizons. Until the late 1990?s and early 2000?s, few additional papers were written about cuttings or solids injection. However in the late 1990?s, renewed interest, and reporting, concerning cuttings and solids injection ensued following the success of the Gas Research Institute (GRI) sponsored Joint Industry Project on subsurface solids disposal conducted at the Mounds Test Site in Oklahoma[8,9]. One of the primary findings from the Mounds work was additional support for the concept of a disposal domain, which had been originally proposed by Moschovidis[4] in 1993. According to Moschovidis, a disposal domain is created by cyclic opening and closure of reinjection fractures creating a spherical injection domain. During each batch injection of cuttings slurry, a given fracture is created. Between batch injections, the fracture closes on the injected solids. Because the fracture does not close completely, and due to changes in pore pressure around the fracture itself, the local horizontal stress field is altered.
- Europe > United Kingdom > North Sea (1.00)
- Europe > Norway > North Sea > Central North Sea (1.00)
- North America > United States > Alaska > North Slope Borough > Prudhoe Bay (0.34)
- Geology > Rock Type > Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Rock > Mudrock > Shale (1.00)
- Geology > Geological Subdiscipline > Geomechanics (1.00)
- North America > United States > Alaska > North Slope Basin > Prudhoe Bay Field (0.99)
- Europe > United Kingdom > North Sea > North Sea > Northern North Sea > Balder Formation (0.99)
- Europe > United Kingdom > North Sea > Central North Sea > Northern North Sea > Balder Formation (0.99)
- (10 more...)
The Reservoir Stress Path And Its Implications For Water-Flooding, Champion Southeast Field, Brunei
Nelson, E.J. (The University of Adelaide) | Hillis, R.R. (The University of Adelaide) | Meyer, J.J. (JRS Petroleum Research) | Mildren, S.D. (JRS Petroleum Research) | Van Nispen, D. (Brunei Shell Petroleum Co.) | Briner, A. (Brunei Shell Petroleum Co.)
ABSTRACT: A geomechanical study of the Champion Southeast (CPSE) field, Brunei was undertaken as part of the planning of a waterflood in the field. The key geomechanical issue addressed determining the change in reservoir pressure that could be sustained without reactivating faults in the reservoir or fracturing intact rock. Differential depletion of reservoirs and fault blocks has resulted in pressure compartmentalisation and variable pore pressure-stress conditions in the CPSE field. Pore pressure and minimum horizontal stress (รคh) data recorded during depletion of the two most significantly depleted fault blocks were used to determine the stress path between undepleted and depleted reservoirs. The minimum horizontal stress (รณh) is 15.5 MPa/km in hydrostatically pressured reservoirs. In the most depleted reservoirs, pore pressure is currently 6 MPa/km and รณh is 12.5 MPa/km. The pore pressure-stress (Pp/รณh) coupling ratio with depletion in the two fault blocks is 0.84. Other reservoirs and fault blocks at various stages of depletion in the CPSE field are assumed to lie on the same stress path. The vertical stress magnitude (รณv) has been constrained to approximately 22 MPa/km in CPSE and the maximum horizontal stress (รณH) has been loosely constrained to ~17 MPa/km. There is no clear evidence for the variation in รณH with depletion. The present day stress regime is one of normal faulting where รณH is the intermediate stress hence accurate knowledge of รณH is less significant to failure analysis than รณh and รณv. The likelihood of reactivating pre-existing faults and failing intact rock was assessed using failure envelopes of C=0 MPa/km; ยต=0.5 and C=1 MPa/km; ยต=0.5 respectively. The conservative assumption that the decrease in รณh with Pp is non-reversible during re-pressurisation was made. This assumption minimises the pressure increase required to induce fracturing during repressurisation. รณH is oriented 128ยฐN across the CPSE field. This orientation is orthogonal to the region?s major extensional deltaic growth faults, hence the orientation of รณH has rotated approximately 90ยฐ since the faults were active in the Miocene-Pliocene. The orientation of the faults within the in-situ stress field results in the faults being at relatively low risk of reactivation. The faults are capable of sustaining significant re-pressurisation without reactivating, despite assuming an irreversible stress path. ? 4.0 MPa/km re-pressurisation can be sustained from reservoirs at 9.8 MPa/km pore pressure (hydrostatic), and; ? 8.3 MPa/km re-pressurisation can be sustained from reservoirs at 2.5 MPa/km pore pressure (significantly depleted). Since the pre-existing faults are mis-oriented for re-activation within the in-situ stress regime, the failure of intact rock presents greater risk of fault reactivation in CPSE: ? 3.5 MPa/km re-pressurisation can be sustained from reservoirs at 9.8 MPa/km (hydrostatic), and; ? 0.1 MPa/km re-pressurisation can be sustained from reservoirs at 0.5 MPa/km (significantly depleted). The amount of re-pressurisation that can be withstood prior to intact rock failure reduces with the amount of prior depletion because of the assumption that the decrease in รณh with pore-pressure is non-reversible.
- Asia (0.85)
- North America > United States > Oklahoma (0.40)
- Europe > Norway > North Sea > Central North Sea (0.28)
- Geology > Geological Subdiscipline > Geomechanics (1.00)
- Geology > Structural Geology > Fault > Dip-Slip Fault > Normal Fault (0.68)
- Geophysics > Borehole Geophysics (1.00)
- Geophysics > Seismic Surveying (0.68)
- North America > United States > Oklahoma > Southeast Field (0.99)
- Europe > Norway > North Sea > Central North Sea > Central Graben > PL 018 > Block 2/4 > Greater Ekofisk Field > Ekofisk Field > Tor Formation (0.99)
- Europe > Norway > North Sea > Central North Sea > Central Graben > PL 018 > Block 2/4 > Greater Ekofisk Field > Ekofisk Field > Ekofisk Formation (0.99)
- (9 more...)
ABSTRACT: The paper presents a detailed assessment of the possibility of utilization of underground storage facilities in transportation-technological systems, designed for accumulation, transportation, storage and reloading of products during the development of deposits of hydrocarbon raw material in the Russian Arctic. The characteristic is presented of engineeringgeological conditions of oil and gas storage on the coast of the Kola Peninsula, of the continental part of the Arkhangelsk region and in the Northern islands. A special attention is given to the engineering, technology and experience of underground construction in the Russian Arctic, as well as its technical-economic assessments. There is given an assessment of the nearest prospects of the development of transport-technological systems providing the utilization of underground reservoir fleets in the Russian Arctic. INTRODUCTION According to the data of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, the recoverable resources of marine periphery of the country amount to 13.5 bln. ton of oil and 79 trl.m3 of gas. One third of them is concentrated in the Arctic shelf. This is the reason why the beginning of the development of the Arctic shelf is considered an opening of new opportunities for advantageous supply of hydrocarbon raw materials and the refined products to both Russia?s domestic markets and to the Western Europe, and the USA. However, to implement these opportunities a large number of technical and economic problems have to be solved, associated with the severe climatic conditions in the area of oil and gas production. One of such problems is organizing and providing an uninterrupted functioning of transport and distribution systems, dedicated to collect, transport, accumulate at certain sites and to ship the products in tankers, or trainloads or their transportation using oil and gas main pipe-lines. We will see how this issue is handled and the decisions are made at the initial stage of the shelf development in the Russian Arctic, if we consider the preparatory steps and the beginning of operations at the Prirazlomnoye oil deposit, run by a Russian operator Sevmorneftegaz company. In this case the special transport-technological system includes 14 oil tanks with the total volume of 113,000 m3 installed directly on a sleetproof fixed platform, two multi-purpose ice-breakers, two shuttle tankers with the deadweight of 70,000 tons each, auxiliary ships of various purpose and an oilstorage vessel Belokamenka for 360,000 tons of oil. It is assumed that such system could provide an all-year-round oil transportation with no impact on the environment during the entire period of the deposit operation.
- Asia > Russia (1.00)
- Europe > Russia > Northwestern Federal District > Arkhangelsk Oblast > Arkhangelsk (0.25)
- Energy > Oil & Gas > Upstream (1.00)
- Government > Regional Government > Europe Government > Russia Government (0.54)
- Government > Regional Government > Asia Government > Russia Government (0.54)
- North America > Canada > Quebec > Arctic Platform (0.89)
- North America > Canada > Nunavut > Arctic Platform (0.89)
- Europe > Russia (0.89)