OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2011. Within the period from the 20th to the 21st of September 2011, in JSC “Zarubezhneft” (on September 20, 2011) and JSC “VNIIneft” (on September 21, 2011) the III-rd International Scientific Symposium “The Theory and Practice of EOR methods application” was held. The event organizers were JSC “Zarubezhneft”, JSC “VNIIneft”, JSC “RMNTK “Nefteotdacha”, JSC “Giprovostokneft”, Central Field Development Commission “Rosnedra”, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministry of the Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.

The purpose of the international scientific symposium was the analysis of the modern achievements of the science and technology in the area of the enhancing oil recovery and improvement of the project and resources management in oil production.

Among the speakers were the leading scientists in the area of oil field development and enhancing oil recovery, as well as representatives of the oil companies, directly engaged in this problem in the fields of our country and abroad, such as JSC “Zarubezhneft”, OC “Rosneft”, JSC “Lukoil”, JSC “Lukoil-Komi”, JSC “Gazprom Neft”, “TNK-BP” Ltd., “RussNeft-NTC” Ltd., JSC “KazMunayGas” Exploration Production and many other.

In his welcome speech at the symposium opening the First Deputy General Director of Zarubezhneft, Mr. Victor S. Gorshenev noted, that in the recent years under depletion conditions of the earlier commissioned large fields and decrease in volumes of reserves growth, more attention both in our country and abroad had been paid to the problem of a fuller oil recovery from the existing and newly commissioned fields. In this connection, among the priorities in activities of Zarubezhneft in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No.137 dated February 3, 2004 the lines of activities, such as “an application of the advanced domestic technologies in development of the oil & gas fields” and “testing modern methods of enhanced oil recovery methods with the purpose of expanding the export of high-technology services” are stated. By an example of large oil production projects of JSC “Zarubezhneft”, Mr. Gorshenev told in detail about the methods of solving the scientific-and-technical problems in this area. Summing up the results, he underlined that all the listed projects are substantially connected with an application of the new, more efficient technologies of oil recovery. Therefore Zarubezhneft pays a special attention to the development of scientific and service organizations constituting a part of its structure, such as RMNTK “Nefteotdacha”, Institute “VNIIneft” and “Giprovostokneft”. A plenary session of the symposium was opened by a speech of a Chairman of the Central Field Development Commission (CFDC) “Rosnedra”, doctor of geologic-and-mineralogical sciences V.V. Shelepov. The Head of CFDC reported about new technologies of oil recovery enhancement in the design documentation examined by Rosnedra. Director of Oil and Gas Problems Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, doctor of geologic-and-mineralogical sciences, professor, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, A.N. Dmitrievsky; First Deputy General Director of JSC “VNIIneft” S.A. Zhdanov; First Deputy General Director of JSC “KazMunayGas” Exploration Production of the Republic of Kazakhstan, V.Y. Miroshnikov and many other made a speech.

A report by General Director of JSC “RMNTK “Nefteotdacha”, a candidate of geologic-and-mineralogical sciences, A.V. Fomkin raised an interest of the participants of the symposium. He told about the experience and the prospects of developing unconventional resources of hydrocarbons, having noted, that the work on such fields is one of the priority areas of activities of the working teams of RMNTK “Nefteotdacha” and JSC “Zarubezhneft”, which includes the development of the unique reservoirs of Bach Ho (White Tiger) field in Vietnam, high-viscosity oil, reserves contained within exhausted and highly watered, low-permeable and kerogen-containing reservoirs.

In particular, A.V. Fomkin noted that today the specialists of RMNTK “Nefteotdacha” and JSC “Zarubezhneft” are having a task of developing the methods of hydrocarbons production from unconventional reservoirs, establishing the polygons for conducting pilot works for various EOR methods application, testing techniques and technology of its application. The next task shall be introduction of methods and technologies showed a positive result, at the fields of subsidiary and associated companies of Zarubezhneft and abroad. At the end of his speech, Mr. Fomkin underlined that the joint efforts of the working team of Zarubezhneft, VNIIneft, RMNTK “Nefteotdacha” and Giprovostokneft would allow solving the set tasks and ultimately establishing yourself as a leader in the market of the unique and complicated projects for development of unconventional hydrocarbons reserves. From Zarubezhneft, Mr. A.A. Tsukanov, a specialist of the Department for new technologies introduction, made a report on integrated EOR methods.

At present, considering the fact that application of EOR methods application is becoming particularly topical, the hosts of the events hope that the symposium will make its considerable contribution on solving important scientific-and-technical problems in this area.