OREANDA-NEWS. An interregional scientific and practical conference on the subject "Prospects for increasing the resource base of developed oil fields, including the deposits of Domanik" was arranged at PJSC TATNEFT to coincide with the 70th anniversary of "Leninogorskneft", which is one of the structural divisions of the Company.

Valery Pak, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and Head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use, Nail Maganov, General Director of PJSC TATNEFT, representatives of industry branch departments, scientists of the leading institutes of Russia and Tatarstan, geologists and leading experts in the area of geology, geophysics, oil and gas development of the companies of Russia, TATNEFT Group of Companies, small oil companies of Tatarstan participated in the two-day scientific forum.

The conference participants discussed a wide range of issues concerning the study of geological structure specifics, development of the Republic's deposits, analyzed the current state of affairs and shared plans for the future.

Nail Maganov, General Director of PJSC TATNEFT, greeted the participants of the event. He noted in his speech that the conference was being held at the site of NGDU "Leninogorskneft", one of the oldest Company's divisions, which would soon  celebrate its 70th anniversary. The discovery of the unique Romashkinskoye oil field allowed the Republic to keep the status of the main oil and scientific center of the country for decades. Today at the late stage of fields' development   TATNEFT counts on the innovative development, up to date technologies and latest achievements of science and technology.

Over the past 15 years, the Company has managed to increase the annual crude oil production by 2 million tonnes. The task for the future envisages bringing the crude oil production to 30 million tonnes per year during next ten-year period. This objective is planned to achieve also through more efficient development of hard-to-recover oil deposits, primarily the deposits of natural bitumen.

In May this year, an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan on  establishment of special testing grounds "Domanik" and "Bitumen". TATNEFT invited Russian oil companies and research institutions to cooperate in these projects.

As Nail Maganov pointed out in his speech, the available technologies and      experience gained are planned to apply across the Russian oil industry, which will increase the development efficiency of such deposits, and will be the basis for the growth of crude oil production in the country as a whole.

Addressing the audience Valery Pak, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation - Head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use, said that practically all producing companies, service companies and research institutions were working on the matters relating to the prospects of increasing the resource base of the currently developed oil fields. At the same time, the present realities affect the total volume of investments in both research-and-development activities and  hydrocarbon  reserve  development.

"Concerted action is required in Russia for development, testing and implementation of new technologies. TATNEFT is one of the leaders in this area. We face ambitious goals.  The scientific testing ground set up at the Company will allow developing new technologies enabling production of both conventional and hard-to-recover oil. A transition from testing to commercial production will be made with maximum cost effectiveness," Valery Pak said.

There were more than 20 thematic papers presented at the conference. Within the framework of the geological scientific and technical forum there were the issues considered covering perspective approaches to the future development of unconventional sources of hydrocarbon resources in the Russian Federation, especially the unconventional hydrocarbon resources at PJSC TATNEFT and the Republic of Tatarstan. Presented  to the audience there were a program "Bitumen" and "Domanik" for development and introduction of new technologies of prospecting, exploration and development of hard-to-recover oil reserves; complex target interpretation of seismic data to evaluate the properties, structure and variability of domanik sequences in inter-well space within the Republic of Tatarstan, Samara and Orenburg areas; the technology for testing bituminous low-permeability rocks with application of the momentary depression method (as exemplified by the Bazhenov Formation of the Koltogorskiy oilfield at Yugra of the KhMAO); the experience of developing unconventional resources as exemplified by the Bazhenov formation of deposits developed by JSC "RITEK", certain features of the formation fracture system development  in the Domanik type rocks of the Volga-Ural region and Western Siberia.

The participants of the scientific and practical forum got acquainted with the reports on the state of knowledge of the Devonian carbonate reservoirs and the future prospects for the production intensification from Domanik deposits  of Zavolzhsky and Dankovo-Lebedyansky horizons at NGDU "Leninogorskneft"; the specifics of prospecting for shale oil and additional exploration of Semiluksky-mendymski  deposits of the Romashkinskoye oil field and other relevant topics.