OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2009. Well No. 3 of OAO TATNEFT's NGDU Leninogorskneft is a discovery well of the Romashkinskoe oil field, one of the largest in the world, which is still in operation. Until recently its daily production rate used to be less than a ton of crude oil. However after drilling a sidetrack to a previously untapped reservoir area, this well with a more than 60-year history, has been yielding more than 7 tons of pure oil per day for the past four months, reported the press-centre of TATNEFT.

As of today the major Romashkinskoe oil field areas developed by NGDU Leninogorskneft are at the late stage of development. Depletion accounts for more than 89%. One effective way of increasing the productivity of wells in these conditions has been application of the sidetrack drilling technology. Such an approach makes it possible to involve the hard-to-recover oil reserves into development.

Technical and economic assessment confirms the efficiency of side-tracking operation for all types of deposits. As a rule, the cost of the incremental oil production is lower than the average value for the fields, while the construction costs recouped within a few years.

Drilling of well No. 3 started in the war years, but its construction was only completed in the summer of 1948. The average daily production rate amounted to 120 tons of the Devonian oil. The maximum output of 130 tons per day was reached in January 1963. Today, the well, which has produced more than 400 thousand tons of oil, is reborn. The example of this well demonstrates that with a reasonable competent approach the Romashkinskoe oil field may remain in operation for a long time.