Russia has abandoned plans for intensive offshore oil and gas production. Gazprom Neft shelf For shallow depths

Prospects for exploration and production of hydrocarbons on the world and Russian shelves in the analytical review of LUKOIL "Main trends in the development of global oil and gas markets until 2025."

Vladimir Akramovsky

© "LUKOIL"

It has long become a tradition for a number of world oil majors to periodically make public own research and development forecasts oil and gas industry. This year, for the first time, the Russian company LUKOIL also presented to the general public its own assessment of global trends in the development of oil and gas markets. A team of analysts from one of the Russian leaders regularly conducts research in this area. Previously, such a review was prepared solely for the purpose of updating the development strategy and forming the investment program of LUKOIL. Today, according to company analysts, the entire Russian industry objectively needs to update its development strategy. Oil and gas industry. In the published review of global trends, special attention is paid to the analysis of pressing problems in the Russian oil and gas industry. Among the main “challenges” for the country is the natural decline in production at old fields in the coming years, which can be fully compensated by a set of measures, mainly related to the large-scale use of new technologies. For Russia in the current conditions, one of the key “growth resources” is the intensification of exploration and production of hydrocarbons on the shelf, which require the use of unique knowledge and technologies.

FOCUS ON THE DEEP-WATER SHELF
Global trends are such that, as traditional onshore oil reserves are depleted, offshore resources are playing an increasingly prominent role in ensuring growing consumption. And if the discovery of new giant deposits is no longer expected on land, then the prospects for the shelf in this regard are very promising. Scientists estimate that the world's proven offshore oil reserves alone amount to 280 billion barrels. IN last years Most onshore discoveries are in small and medium-sized deposits. “Over the past 20 years, the number of large discoveries on the shelf has exceeded the number of large discoveries on land, and production from offshore fields reaches almost 30% of the global total,” LUKOIL emphasizes in its analytical review.

“With the development of technology, the depth of developed shelf fields also increases. Modern technologies allow drilling even at depths exceeding 3000 m. About 27% of offshore production now occurs in deep water, and its share will continue to grow,” the review says. The accident on the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico forced many companies to reconsider their approaches to ensuring safety during drilling on the shelf. As a result, additional measures to prevent emergency situations naturally lead to an increase in the cost of offshore hydrocarbon production. The high tax burden in certain countries, such as Angola and Nigeria, also contributes to rising costs for deep-water development.

The implementation of complex offshore projects involves huge financial costs. However, high oil prices will stimulate such investments. According to LUKOIL analysts, the price of oil for the profitable development of deep-sea reserves should be from 50 to 90 dollars, depending on the depth and region of production.

Taking into account global trends - population growth and motorization in Asia, the depletion of the traditional hydrocarbon resource base, the moderate growth rate of oil production in North America and Iraq, the planned high budget expenditures of the OPEC countries and, as a consequence, the latter’s restrictions on production volumes to maintain prices at a level of at least $100 per barrel - a significant decrease in oil prices in the medium term is unlikely.

The last decade has been characterized by unprecedented increases in global exploration and production costs. According to LUKOIL estimates, since the beginning of the 2000s, company costs for geological exploration, development and production have more than tripled. Growing demand for hydrocarbons is forcing companies to develop increasingly expensive unconventional reserves. In particular, to conduct production on the deep-sea shelf. Currently, the cost of profitable production per day is approximately 15 million barrels—more than $70 per barrel.

“The largest increase in production will come from the deepwater shelf, low-permeability reservoirs in the United States, heavy oil from Canada and Venezuela,” the review emphasizes.

As for the increase in gas production, here, along with progress in the development of shale resources, new regions of traditional gas production will play a major role by the beginning of the next decade. In particular, in Europe, “the Eastern Mediterranean shelf may become a new global source of LNG by the beginning of the next decade. The total recoverable resources of the Mediterranean shelf of Israel, Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt, according to various estimates, amount to several trillion cubic meters of gas.”

A significant increase in oil production, as noted in the LUKOIL study, is expected after 2015, when new large fields are put into operation.

CHALLENGES FOR RUSSIA
According to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, geological oil reserves in Russia amount to 74.3 billion tons, and resources – 157.1 billion tons. However, as summarized in LUKOIL's review, modern technical capabilities significantly limit the country's powerful resource potential. Thus, recoverable reserves on the territory of the Russian Federation are estimated at 22 billion tons. The assessment of reserves according to the international classification, which takes into account the economics of field development projects, is approximately two times lower than according to the Russian one. The government's initiation of additional economic incentives for the development of deposits that are currently unprofitable will contribute to the increase in reserves according to the international classification.

At most Russian fields there is a natural decline in production due to depletion of reserves. Most of Russian oil production is carried out in the fields of Western Siberia, where the first major discoveries were made back in the 1960s. “...90% of oil in the Russian Federation is produced from fields discovered before 1988, and only 10% from fields discovered in the 1990s and 2000s,” the review notes. In the 2000s, the rate of decline in production from the rolling stock of wells increased significantly, reaching an annual level of 11%. Active geological exploration and intensification of production, starting in 2009, made it possible to stabilize the rate of decline, however, these rates still remain high.

The certain positive dynamics of production achieved in 2010 was largely a consequence of the commissioning of new fields. The largest increase in production occurred at large onshore fields in Eastern Siberia - Vankorskoye, Talakanskoye and Verkhnechonskoye. To fully overcome the natural decline in production, it is necessary to commission annually 3-4 fields comparable in size to Vankor (about 500 million tons), this is the conclusion of the review.

If we take into account the sale at auction in 2012 of the last three undistributed large oil fields on land, today we can finally state that in the future new large Russian deposits will be introduced specifically on the shelf.

THE ARCTIC IS A KEY RESOURCE FOR GROWTH
The possibility of developing huge oil reserves on land at a relatively low cost of production (compared to offshore projects) for a long time naturally influenced Russia’s “lag” in the development of offshore fields. However, today the country is already objectively forced to become more actively involved in shelf development. The initial oil reserves, according to the "Energy Strategy of Russia for the period until 2025", have already been depleted by more than 50%, in the European part - by 65%, including in the Ural-Volga region - by more than 70%. The degree of depletion of reserves of large actively developed fields is approaching 60%.

“The development of the Arctic shelf can become a significant source of production growth in the long term,” the review emphasizes. To date, the total hydrocarbon resources on the Russian Arctic shelf are estimated at 76.3 billion tons of fuel equivalent (toe), and recoverable ones - at 9.6 billion toe. t. The main part of these resources (about 70%) falls on the continental shelf of the Barents, Pechora and Kara seas.

The exploration of hydrocarbon resources on the Russian continental shelf is insignificant and in most areas does not exceed 10%. At the same time, the exploration of oil and gas resources on the continental shelf of the Caspian, Barents and Okhotsk seas exceeds 15%. The majority of developed reserves are natural gas.

Let us recall that, according to estimates presented in the “Energy Strategy of Russia for the period until 2030”, the forecast gas resources on the continental shelf of the Russian Federation exceed 60 trillion m3, of which the proven balance reserves of gas of industrial categories A+B+C 1 are about 7 trillion. Harsh conditions Arctic: difficult ice conditions, low temperatures, lack of infrastructure - all this requires the use of unique knowledge and technologies. If drilling exploratory wells in a short period of the Arctic summer is a solvable task, then the issues of the system for their arrangement and subsequent production are much more complex.

LUKOIL's unique experience in Varandey, on the Caspian and Baltic shelves, as well as on foreign deep-water shelves could be very useful for Arctic projects. However, current legislation restricts the access of private companies to the development of offshore fields in Russia. Today, only state-owned companies have the right to extract oil in the Russian Arctic.

“Removing this restriction could provide additional impetus to exploration activities in the region, facilitate the spread of technology, and also distribute risks among a larger number of participants,” the analytical review summarizes.

WHERE IS THE EXIT?
If the current conditions for allowing companies to work on the shelf remain the same, the authors of the review emphasize, production on the Arctic shelf will be about 12 million tons.

The analytical review examines options for the development of the entire industry, while it tactfully does not mention the plans of LUKOIL itself. What course will the Russian major follow in its offshore strategy? For the company, based on the current situation, two options are obvious. The first is to wait for positive changes in legislation. Objectively, it is not in the interests of the state to limit the number of companies that want and can invest money in geological exploration on the shelf, and subsequently in as soon as possible develop these new deposits, quickly bringing them into production, bringing taxes to the state and providing new jobs.

If this does not happen, for this major player, like LUKOIL, the second option will remain - to focus on new potentially effective foreign projects on the deep-water shelves of Norway, Brazil, Venezuela, and West African countries. The company is ready to implement such a scenario - today it is actively involved in geological exploration projects on the shelves of Vietnam, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Norway, Romania, Sierra Leone and Uzbekistan.

The review authors emphasize: “To maintain sustainable production in long term Additional steps are needed to reform the oil production taxation system. Otherwise, a decline in production can be expected starting in 2016–2017."

However, past experience testifies to the government’s ability to adequately respond to a drop in “black gold” production. "Timely measures to mitigate the tax burden made it possible to ensure stable level production after the crisis period of 2008–2009. In particular, in 2010–2011. The export duty rate was reduced, mineral extraction tax benefits were provided, preferential export duty rates were introduced for fields in Eastern Siberia and the North Caspian shelf, as well as the preferential “10-10-10” system to stimulate the production of ultra-viscous oil,” the review notes.

Moreover, in July 2013, the President of Russia signed a law that provides for differentiation of the production tax rate for hard-to-recover reserves oil. In accordance with the law, the government of the Russian Federation will have the right to establish formulas for calculating export rates customs duties for similar oil. A procedure has been established for determining and applying a coefficient characterizing the degree of complexity of oil production and the depletion of a specific hydrocarbon deposit. In particular, for production from the Bazhenov, Abalak, Khadum and Domanik productive deposits, this coefficient will be equal to zero.

So, the first progressive legislative changes in this direction have already been made. Now it's time for no less important question– stimulation of effective development of the shelf of Russian seas.

The Arctic is a zone of strategic interests of the Russian Federation. Russia is interested in the Arctic for many reasons. One of the main ones is material. The region is believed to contain 30% of the world's undiscovered gas reserves and 13% of its oil reserves (USGS estimate). These resources, among other things, could become a potential source of attracting investment into the Russian economy.

The Northern Sea Route passing through the Arctic (a record 4 million tons of cargo was transported along it in 2014) also contains economic potential, including for the development of the northern regions of Russia.

Oil and gas fields in many regions of the world are in a phase of depletion. The Arctic, on the contrary, remains one of the few areas of the planet where energy companies have conducted almost no active production. This is due to harsh climatic conditions that made it difficult to extract resources.

Meanwhile, up to 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in the Arctic. According to the US Geological Survey, the region contains 90 billion barrels of oil, 47.3 trillion cubic meters. m of gas and 44 billion barrels of gas condensate. Control over these reserves will allow the Arctic states to ensure high growth rates of their national economies in the future. We have already written in more detail about the Russian ones here.

Today we’ll talk about something else - why oil production in the Arctic is a bad idea. The official website of Greenpeace Russia indicates 10 reasons indicating the danger and short-sightedness of actions on the part of any countries interested in oil production in the Arctic zone.

Let's look at the example of the only stationary oil platform— Prirazlomnaya, which produces oil on the Russian Arctic shelf. The first batch of Arctic oil ARCO (Arctic oil) was shipped in April 2014, and in September 2014, the millionth barrel of oil was produced at Prirazlomnaya.

The platform is located 55 km north of the village of Varandey in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and 320 km northeast of the city of Naryan-Mar.

The license for the Prirazlomnoye field belongs to Gazprom Neft Shelf LLC (a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft OJSC). The platform was created specifically for field development and carries out all the necessary technological operations - drilling wells, production, storage, loading oil onto tankers, generating thermal and electrical energy. The uniqueness of Prirazlomnaya is that for the first time in the world, hydrocarbon production on the Arctic shelf is carried out from a stationary platform in the difficult conditions of drifting ice fields. The platform is designed for operation in extreme climatic conditions, meets the most stringent safety requirements and is capable of withstanding maximum ice loads.

Despite all of the above, and the assurances of the oil producing company about maximum safety and the ability to withstand any load, Greenpeace Russia, due to the nature of its activities, considers oil production at Prirazlomnaya to be a dangerous activity.

So, what are these reasons:

1. Arctic shelf oil is too expensive.

The cost of oil production at Prirazlomnaya is $30 per barrel. This is about 3 times more expensive than extracting oil on land. Gazprom, one of the most successful companies in the world, pledged $175 thousand to insure environmental risks. By comparison, the accident in the Gulf of Mexico cost $41.3 billion.

2. Removing oil from the Arctic is extremely difficult.

In the world there is no effective methods cleaning up oil products in ice. Norway had the latest experience in eliminating an accident. But even there, using the most modern methods, were able to collect only half of the spilled fuel oil.

3. Artik cools the climate of our planet.

Burning oil causes climate change and melting arctic ice, and without them, solar radiation is reflected worse and worse, and the Earth warms up faster.

4. Oil is already polluting the Arctic.

Every year, Russian rivers carry up to 500,000 tons of oil products into the Arctic Ocean, which were formed, including as a result of accidents during oil production and transportation.

5. We don't need oil from the Arctic.

Russia is the first country in the world in terms of the number of pipeline accidents. We should first eliminate oil leaks and then focus on developing energy efficient technologies. If we implement them by 2020, this will help save 8 times more oil than is expected to be produced on the Prirazlomnaya platform.

6. Not ready for drilling.

The first drilling platform in the Arctic, Prirazlomnaya, belongs to a subsidiary of Gazprom. It was launched with many technical deficiencies and without an effective spill response plan.

7. Not prepared for an accident.

This plan also includes 7 spill response vessels. Shell, which is planning to drill offshore Alaska, has 9 vessels at its disposal, while Cairn Energy, which worked in Greenland, has 14. For comparison, 6,000 vessels were deployed to eliminate the consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

8. Animals suffer from industrial development of the Arctic.

Even seismic exploration of oil reserves can cause the death of fish fry and zooplankton, as well as pathological diseases in whales and other animals. An oil spill on the Prirazlomnaya platform could lead to mass deaths of seals, polar bears, birds and other animals.

9. Oil reserves will last for three years.

According to the US Geological Exploration Service, up to 90 billion barrels of oil are concentrated in the Arctic. The number is considerable. However, it will provide global oil demand for only three years.

10. The consequences of any disaster will last for decades.

Storms, fogs and the polar night make it difficult to remove oil, which means it most of will inevitably settle to the bottom and remain on the banks. In the cold, oil takes longer to decompose. More than 20 years have passed since the major accident of the Exxon Valdis tanker, and oil is still being found on the coast of Alaska.

Prirazlomnaya accident: risk zone

An accident on the Prirazlomnaya platform can cause serious damage to nature - the water area and coast of the Pechora Sea, as well as several protected areas, will be affected. How an oil slick will spread in the event of a possible spill depends on many factors: time of year and day, wind direction and speed, ice conditions. According to scientists’ calculations, a huge area will fall into the risk zone: 140,000 square kilometers of the Pechora Sea (that’s about four Baikals!) and over 3,000 kilometers of coastline. Oil may affect the Nenetsky Nature Reserve, as well as the Vaygach and Nenetsky nature reserves, which are located only 50-60 km from Prirazlomnaya. This means that an accident could cause serious damage to the populations of such animals as beluga whales, walruses, harp seals, and polar bears.

Possible spill scenario

Scientists looked at tens of thousands of possible spill scenarios. This map shows one of them. If the accident is major (10,000 tons of oil will fall into the sea), then with the appropriate direction of wind and currents, within 24 hours the oil will reach Dolgy Island. And after another four days there will be over 100 tons of oil on the shore. The western coast of Dolgiy Island is part of the Nenetsky Nature Reserve, a habitat for the walrus, as well as many birds: the little swan, the barnacle goose, the eider, the peregrine falcon, the white-tailed eagle, the golden eagle, and the gyrfalcon. Up to 40 km of coastline may be polluted with oil. But the Prirazlomnaya operator’s emergency plan does not provide any means for saving animals, and for cleaning the shore the company’s arsenal includes 15 shovels, 15 buckets, 1 sledgehammer...

And now more clearly:

Candidate of Technical Sciences A. OSADCHY.

“The wealth of the land of Russian Siberia will grow even with the cold seas,” wrote Mikhail Lomonosov. When exploring Siberia, we usually omitted the last words of this quote. But how significant they sound today, when the geology of not only the land, but also the shelf, that is, the coastal shallow part of the seas, has been studied. Almost the entire Russian shelf is located in the cold seas of the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Its length off the coast of Russia accounts for 21% of the entire shelf of the World Ocean. About 70% of its area is promising in terms of mineral resources, primarily oil and gas.

Major oil and gas reserves Russian shelf concentrated along the Arctic coast.

Oil reserves of Russia, including the shelf.

The riches of the shelf of the Kara and Barents seas and the adjacent Siberian land. Such a large deposit as Kharasaveyskoye is located both on land and in the sea.

Science and life // Illustrations

Forecast of oil (A) and gas (B) production on the Russian shelf until 2035 (according to the journal "Oil of Russia" No. 10, 2005).

Installation of the platform on production association"Sevmash" in Severodvinsk.

Science and life // Illustrations

To all year round to produce oil at the Prirazlomnoye field in harsh northern conditions, an offshore ice-resistant platform was designed. At the bottom of the sea, a steel base - a caisson - is installed on a cushion of crushed stone.

At the Shtokman field, it is planned to use ice-resistant semi-submersible platforms for drilling wells and pumping gas.

The shelf contains a quarter of our oil reserves and half of our gas reserves. They are distributed as follows: Barents Sea - 49%, Kara Sea - 35%, Okhotsk Sea - 15%. And only less than 1% is located in the Baltic Sea and in our section of the Caspian Sea.

Proven reserves on the Arctic Ocean shelf account for 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves. To understand what this means for our country, let us recall some facts. Oil and gas provide 20% of Russia's gross domestic product; they are the main items of our exports, providing more than half of its income. However, their main deposits on land have already been partially developed, and in Tataria and Western Siberia they have been depleted. According to forecasts, at the current rate of production of the exploited fields in Russia, there will be enough oil for 30 years. The increase in proven reserves currently does not cover the amount being produced.

The magazine “Science and Life” has already talked about what the continental shelf is and what its origin is (see the article “The Continental Shelf: the “Achilles’ Heel” of the Ocean” in no.). Where the coast is flat and gently slopes into the sea, the shelf acts as a continuation of the land under water, having the same geological structure. If oil and gas are produced in coastal areas, it is almost certain that they can also be found in the depths of the seabed. Already today, every third ton of oil in the world is produced at sea.

Oil and gas, these native fossil “brothers,” were formed and lie in the same source rocks - in many kilometers of sedimentary strata accumulated at the bottom of ancient seas. These strata are not homogeneous, but are divided into many layers of different ages. It happens that there is a gas “cap” on top of an oil deposit in the same formation. Oil and gas lie in porous formations, composed mainly of sandstones and limestones, from the oldest - the Devonian period (their age is about 1.5 billion years) to the youngest - the Neogene, which is only 20 million years old. The field is considered to be oil or gas, whichever is dominant. The average depth of deposits is about 3 km, although deposits are also found at a depth of 7 km. In the future, for brevity, we will only talk about oil, since for a general assessment of reserves based on their energy properties, oil is often indicated, recalculating gas reserves into oil equivalent (1 thousand m3 of gas is equal to 1 ton of oil).

In Western Siberia, which is rich in oil, the thickness of sedimentary rocks is more than 10 km. A larger volume and depth of sedimentary strata, as a rule, indicate greater potential resources. The only question is whether the accumulated organic matter has matured to the stage of oil. It certainly takes at least 10 million years to mature, and even heat. It happens that in some places oil-bearing strata are not covered on top by a thick layer of impermeable rocks, such as clays or salts. Then not only gas, but also all light fractions of oil evaporate and huge reserves of bitumen are formed. In terms of calories, they are almost as good as oil; The reserves of raw materials are huge and shallow, but it is almost impossible to approach bitumen deposits: low fluidity prevents practical development.

The greatest thickness of the sedimentary cover in Russia is in the Caspian Sea region, where it reaches a record 25 km! The modern Caspian Sea is the pitiful “shrunken” remnants of an ancient warm-water sea. That is why so many sedimentary deposits have accumulated here, accumulating huge reserves of oil (see the article “Big Oil of the Caspian Sea”, “Science and Life” No.).

Russia has the largest extent of maritime borders and, accordingly, the sea shelf. Most of it is located in the Arctic Ocean, harsh and cold, covered with ice almost all year round. In the east, Russia is washed by the Pacific Ocean. In the winter months, they are covered with ice from the shores of Chukotka and almost to the southern tip of Sakhalin. But under the water and ice fields lie rich oil-bearing structures and already discovered fields (a structure becomes a field when an industrial influx of oil and gas is obtained from a well drilled on it and reserves can already be roughly estimated).

Traveling along the maritime borders of Russia, we will see what is discovered on the shelf, what is being mined nearby on the shore, we will take a look at the geology of the coast and shelf, or more precisely, at the sedimentary strata. It should immediately be noted that the sea shelves, on average, are only 7% studied, while the main onshore oil and gas regions are more than 50%. Therefore, we can only talk about potential shelf reserves.

ALONG THE SEA BORDERS OF RUSSIA

Since our school years, we have been familiar with the geographical map of our country, with green spots of lowlands and brown, different shades of mountains. But very few people have seen a similar map of the relief of the seabed, especially the Arctic Ocean - it appeared quite recently.

Let's begin a more detailed examination of the shelf from the border with Norway. Of course, on land it is defined precisely - down to a meter, because these small kilometers were our only land border with NATO member countries. Further north, the dividing line of the Barents Sea bottom has not yet been recorded. This is explained by the fact that back in 1926 the government of the USSR declared the sea border to be a continuation of the land border exactly to the north. This is how it is indicated on all domestic maps and atlases. For a long time, the border suited our neighbor, Norway, quite well. But different times have come. In 1982, the International Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted, which we also signed. And she recommends drawing the seabed boundary along the median line between the shores of territories belonging to countries. (So ​​we recently divided the Caspian Sea with our neighbors - Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan). In the case of the Russian-Norwegian border, the line should run in the middle between the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, which belong to Russia, and the shores of Spitsbergen and Norway itself. It turned out that this median line runs east of the border we declared in 1926. As a result, a significant (several tens of thousands of square kilometers) section of the seabed appeared, which both states claim. This area of ​​the seabed is predicted to contain large reserves of hydrocarbons. Moreover, the mining conditions are quite easy: shallow depth and no ice - after all, a branch of the Gulf Stream passes through here, which is why the port in Murmansk is ice-free and the winter on the Kola Peninsula is relatively warm.

Let's move further east. According to its geological structure, the entire Kola Peninsula is part of the outcropping Baltic Shield, formed by ancient igneous rocks. Their age on the surface can reach 3 billion years, and the age of the Earth is only 6 billion. It is no coincidence that it was here, near the border with Norway, that the Kola superdeep well was drilled to study the deep structure of the Earth (see “Science and Life” No.). It reached the greatest depth in the world - more than 12 km! There are no sedimentary rocks here, and there is no oil either. But the land is washed by the Barents Sea, and under its bottom, at some distance from the coast, lies a large sedimentary layer - there was a huge sea there in ancient times, apparently warm and shallow, otherwise so much sediment with organic matter would not have fallen. And therefore, the bottom of the sea has a different geological structure than the land. That is why significant hydrocarbon reserves were discovered here.

Beyond the Kola Peninsula is the narrow throat of the White Sea, the outskirts of the Baltic Shield. On top of the igneous rocks lie sedimentary rocks. But what kind of oil is there - the sedimentary thickness has barely grown to 500-600 m and has not yet sunk deeper.

We head east. We passed the Kanin Peninsula, followed by Kolguev Island and the Pechora Sea. On the shore, the forests gave way to tundra, and beneath them there was a multi-kilometer sedimentary layer. Here, near Pechora, and further to the south, there are powerful oil and gas fields. Oil workers call this area the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province. And it is no coincidence that on the shelf of the Pechora Sea (it is relatively small, and is not distinguished on large-scale maps, considering it part of the Barents Sea) there are largest deposits oil and gas. They go north, into the Barents Sea, along the entire western coast of Novaya Zemlya, but do not come close to it - Novaya Zemlya is a continuation of the ancient Ural Mountains, and there are no sedimentary rocks here.

We cross beyond the Urals, and at sea - beyond Novaya Zemlya. Let's take a look at the Yamal Peninsula and the eastern shore of the Ob Bay. They are literally strewn oil and gas fields, the largest of which are the Yamburg gas, Urengoy and Medvezhye oil. In the Gulf of Ob itself, two new deposits were discovered in 2004. All deposits are, as it were, strung on a thread stretching from southeast to northwest. The fact is that deep underground there is a large ancient tectonic fault, along which the deposits are grouped. Along the fault, more heat is released from the depths of the earth, which accelerates the formation of oil from organic matter in the ancient sedimentary sequence. So, 84% of the already known reserves of the entire Russian shelf are concentrated in the Barents and Kara Seas. And on the coast, to the south, is the huge West Siberian Lowland, which contains 63% of our onshore oil resources. All this is the bottom of a single ancient sea that existed for many geological eras. This is where our main nurse is located - West Siberian oil province. The Yamal Peninsula is also famous for the fact that Russia produces almost 80% of its gas. The neighboring shelf apparently contains 95% of the gas reserves of our entire shelf. This is where the main Russian gas pipelines begin, through which gas goes to Western European countries.

Let's continue our journey along the coast. Further, to the east, are the mouth of the Yenisei and the Taimyr Peninsula. Near the Yenisei, the lowland of Western Siberia gives way to the Siberian Platform, stretching to the mouth of the Lena, on which ancient igneous rocks come to the surface in places. A small trough of the platform with a six-kilometer layer of sediment goes around the Taimyr Peninsula from the south from the mouth of the Yenisei to Khatanga, but there is no oil in it.

The geology of the north of Eastern Siberia is still very poorly studied. But the general geological structure of this mountainous country indicates that oil is confined to troughs where there is a sedimentary cover. But further to the east, near the seashore, the geology is already different - here, under the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, there lies a many-kilometer-long sedimentary layer (after the land uplifted, in some places it “came out” onto the shore), promising for oil and gas, but almost completely unstudied. Research from the surface is hampered by year-round ice, and drilling of the bottom has not yet been carried out here.

Let's go around Chukotka: in some places there were searches for oil and exploratory drilling. The next section of the shelf, where 15% of the reserves are located, is the Pacific coast, from the north of Kamchatka to the south of Sakhalin. True, we will see oil rigs only in northern Sakhalin, where oil has been produced since 1927. The geology of the shelf off the island follows the geology of the land. It would be more accurate to say that only in northern Sakhalin the ancient shelf “dried up slightly.” Some deposits on the Sakhalin shelf have almost “crawled” onto land. Offshore deposits, the area and reserves of which are many times larger than onshore deposits, stretch along the entire eastern coast of Sakhalin and go north. Some of the deposits were discovered back in the 70s of the last century. The predicted recoverable reserves of the Sakhalin shelf are more than 1.5 billion tons (recoverable reserves account for approximately 30% of identified ones). For comparison: all Western Siberia has 9.1 billion tons of proven reserves. The first commercial oil from the Russian shelf was obtained on Sakhalin in 1998, but that is a different story.

It remains to look at the shelf of the Caspian, Black, Azov and Baltic seas, although its length is only a small part of the Russian one, and it is barely visible on the map. According to estimates, the Russian part of the Caspian shelf contains about 13% of all its reserves (the main ones belong to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan). Near the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, there may be oil in the deep-sea (depth 1.5-2 km) part and very little in the Sea of ​​Azov. But the Sea of ​​Azov is small and divided between two countries. Ukraine is producing gas there.

And finally, completing our journey across the seas, let's look at the Baltic. The Baltic Sea is small compared to the seas of the Arctic Ocean, and there are many states, but here, in the Kaliningrad region, not far from the coast, next to the Curonian Spit, oil was discovered at shallow depths in 1983. In 2004, its industrial production began. The reserves by Russian standards are not so large - less than 1 million tons, but production conditions are much easier than in the Arctic Ocean. The presence of oil in this place is not a surprise; it has been extracted nearby on the shore for a long time, and the reserves are larger.

FIRST STEPS IN DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTHERN SHELF

In the world today, 35% of oil and about 32% of gas are produced on the shelf and coastal waters. The beginning was made by drilling the first offshore wells 50 years ago in the shallow and warm Gulf of Mexico.

Europe also has experience in developing the resources of the seabed. For more than 30 years, Norway and England have been producing from offshore platforms in the North Sea and receiving so much oil that the total exports of these two countries are comparable to those of Russia. Thanks to oil production, Norway ranks first in terms of living standards. True, here production is carried out not on the shelf, but on the bottom North Sea having a different geological structure. By the way, mining is carried out not only in the economic zones of these countries, but also outside them in accordance with the international agreement on the division of the seabed between adjacent countries.

It is expected that in Russia the share of hydrocarbon production on the shelf by 2020 will be 4% of the total volume. There are significant reserves on the shelf, but developing them is much more difficult and expensive. We need huge investments that will begin to produce returns and profits no earlier than in five, or even ten, years. For example, to develop the marine resources of the Caspian Sea, total investments over ten years will exceed $60 billion. In the Arctic Ocean, the cost will be even higher due to harsh ice conditions.

And yet, Russia has begun to develop its offshore wealth. Only 15% of the hydrocarbon reserves of the shelf are in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. But it was here, near Sakhalin, in 1998, that the group foreign companies For the first time in Russia, it began industrial oil production from the shelf. In 2004, industrial oil was also produced on the Baltic Sea shelf.

Two largest fields are planned for development on the Pechora Sea shelf. The first is the Prirazlomnoye oil field, discovered in 1989 and located 60 km from the coast, where the depth is about 20 m. The name is no coincidence - the field is located next to that very deep fault. Its reserves are 74 million tons of recoverable oil and 8.6 billion m3 of gas. At the current level of technology in Russia, only about 30% of identified oil reserves are recovered, in Western countries- up to 40%.

There is already a project for the development of Prirazlomnoye. Licenses for its development were received Russian companies. A huge ice-resistant platform with a total weight of about 110 thousand tons with a support base measuring 126 x 126 m, consisting of four supermodules, will be installed in the center. They will house 14 oil storage tanks with a capacity of 120 thousand tons. The residential module is designed for 200 people. These are just a few impressive figures that allow you to imagine the scale of just one structure, but a whole complex will be required. A platform of this ice class has not yet been manufactured in the world. The mining conditions in these parts are too harsh: after all, navigation along the Northern Sea Route lasts for several months, and even then accompanied by icebreakers. In addition, every year the ice conditions are different, and at the beginning of navigation the question arises: what is the best way to pass through the ice in the Novaya Zemlya area - go around the archipelago from the north or make your way through the straits in the middle. But year-round production from the shelf is planned. Construction of the platform began in 1998 at the largest plant near Arkhangelsk, which had previously built submarines.

Following Prirazlomnoye, the Shtokman gas field, the largest in the Arctic and in the world, will most likely be developed. It was discovered in 1988 on the shelf of the Barents Sea, 650 km northeast of Murmansk. The sea depth there is 320-340 m. The reserves of the Shtokman field are estimated at 3.2 trillion m3 of gas, which is comparable to the fields in Yamal. The total volume of capital investments in the project will be $18.7 billion, the payback period is 13 years. A project is being prepared for the construction of the largest liquefaction plant natural gas: then it will be possible to transport it overseas, to Canada and America.

Until recently, it was believed that ocean oil was concentrated precisely on the shelf, but over the past 10-15 years, giant deposits have been discovered at sea depths of 2-4 km. This changes established ideas about where hydrocarbons accumulate on the ocean floor. This is not a shelf, but a continental slope. Such deposits are already being successfully developed, for example, in Brazil.

Why we are behind other countries in shelf development can probably be explained. We have large reserves on land; we still have enough of them for ourselves and for export. And offshore production costs about three times more. Domestic companies are in no hurry to enter such a harsh shelf: now, with high prices for oil, it is more profitable to invest in already developed fields. But what will we do when readily available oil runs out? How not to be late in developing your own wealth.

The editors thank ZAO Sevmorneftegaz for providing a number of illustrations.

The energy potential of economic development largely depends on the offshore future of oil and gas. Hydrocarbon experts insist on this. In our country, the industrial development of the continental shelf is declared as promising. However, achieving a result requires a coordinated solution to a number of legal, investment, geological exploration, infrastructure and environmental problems.

The profitability of offshore fields is primarily due to the use of efficient production technologies and. At the same time, end consumers of hydrocarbons are attaching increasing importance to the capabilities of oil and gas treatment as a factor in achieving the quality of marketable products. World experience in this direction is increasing and is now coming to Russia. Hard-to-get, but so desirable hydrocarbons from the underwater subsoil are already awaiting industrial production.

1. World reserves of oil and gas on the continental shelf.
2. Distribution of oil production on the continental shelf by region of the world.
3. Distribution of gas production on the continental shelf by region of the world.
4. Hydrocarbon reserves on the Russian continental shelf.

The marine continental shelf is an underwater continuation of the surface of the continent (with a slight slope - approximately 1-2 m per 1 km). The width of the shelf varies from 50 to 100 km, the depth of the outer boundary is in the range of 120-150 m, the underwater slope of the continent ends at the foot. The shelf has the same geological structure as the mainland, which is of fundamental importance for its industrial development.

The development of deposits near the sea began in the mid-19th century in the coastal areas of the Caspian Sea (Absheron Peninsula in the Baku region). Here, less than 100 years ago, the industrial operation of drilling platforms on piles began. Since the 1960s, subsea oil and gas production has become widespread.

Offshore field development is a knowledge-intensive, technologically complex and at the same time dangerous process when equipment is installed and operated in extreme conditions environment(strong storms, high and low tides, sea salt, hydrogen sulfide, critically low temperatures and difficult ice conditions). However, the prospects for offshore production are based on economic feasibility and are supported by research showing that half of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are contained in the subsoil under the seabed.

Projections indicate that more than 60% of the continental shelf area has hydrocarbon reserves. Every year, about 1 thousand exploration and approximately 2 thousand production wells are drilled in the world various types. In total, more than 100 thousand wells were drilled. More than 2 thousand offshore oil and gas fields have been explored, most of which are gigantic and large in terms of reserves.

The main underwater oil and gas deposits are concentrated in the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Qatar). More than half of the world's oil reserves are located here. The largest hydrocarbon deposits are also being developed in the Gulf of Guinea and the Gulf of Mexico, in the waters of Maracaibo (Venezuela), in the seas of Southeast Asia, Beaufort and in the North Sea (Norway). Hydrocarbon production at sea accounts for approximately a third of global production.

According to IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) and IHS Energy, global continental shelf oil and gas reserves in 2010 were estimated at approximately 650 billion barrels of oil equivalent (or 650 Gboe, diagram 1). At the same time, the share of oil reserves was 275 Gboe, and gas reserves - 375 Gboe. The total oil production in 2010 on the sea shelves of our planet was 23.6 million barrels per day, and gas production - 2.4 billion m 3 per day ( diagrams 2 and 3 ).

Russia is on the threshold of industrial development of the continental shelf (the area is more than 6 billion km 2, which is 22% of the shelf area of ​​the World Ocean). This is the largest shelf in the world by area, whose recoverable hydrocarbon resources are estimated at 98.7 billion tons. in terms of standard fuel. Moreover, about 85% of proven reserves are concentrated on the Arctic shelf (Barents Sea, Kara Sea). continental shelf Far East contains approximately 12-14% reserves. A number of deposits have also been noted on the shelves of the Baltic, Caspian, Black, and Azov seas ( diagram 4 ).

Although most of the continental shelf is located in the northern and arctic regions, offshore mining oil and gas in Russia is highlighted as a priority activity contributing to the development of the oil and gas industry and the economy as a whole. State plans provide for increasing offshore oil production by 5 times by 2030 - from the current 13 million tons. up to 66.2 million tons; Gas production is planned to be increased 4 times - from 57 billion m 3 to 230 billion m 3. The government's Shelf Development Program until 2030 will contribute to the achievement of these indicators. Economic effect from its implementation is calculated in the amount of 8 trillion rubles.

Success on the shelf is forged on land

1. Technological platform with equipment for oil and gas preparation.
2. Onshore installations for natural gas dehydration and TEG regeneration.

Oil production on the continental shelf is carried out using special hydraulic structures - drilling platforms. These platforms are divided into three types: jack-up, semi-submersible and gravity-type drilling platform. Drilling ships, technological platforms and floating complexes for oil production, storage and loading are also used. The choice of platform type depends on operating conditions (distance from the coast, sea depth, climate) and field development methods (well drilling pattern, oil flow rate).

Despite the differences in the design of the platforms, they are all similar in one thing - they are extremely compact structures with the necessary production equipment “on board”. For each field, its own drilling platform configuration project is developed. At the same time, in conditions of limited space, the placement of drilling, production, technological and power equipment is carefully optimized.

Oil and gas industry professionals consider technological support for the preparation of extracted oil and gas to be a priority task. Oil and gas treatment is a mandatory stage preceding the transportation, storage and processing of hydrocarbons. As a rule, preparation consists of a number of operations: separation of oil and gas, separation, drying, removal of sulfur compounds, mercury, carbon dioxide and salts, compression, etc.

For example, to achieve high commercial quality, APG is removed from reservoir oil. Before transportation for processing or use as fuel, APG is purified from impurities, water and hydrogen sulfide. The gas dew point temperature for water and hydrocarbons is calculated and determined calorific value APG and its component composition.

Technological experience accumulated on land is consistently implemented in the development of offshore fields.

World experience comes to Russia

1. Modular gas drying unit COMART.
2. System for cleaning offshore gas from sulfur compounds COMART.
3. Modular installation COMART for TEG regeneration.

Success in industrial hydrocarbon production largely depends on proven technological equipment, created on the basis of original design developments and engineering solutions. World experience in implementing such projects forms the basis for the creation of oil and gas treatment systems for fields in Russia and the CIS countries.

In the context of the deployment of industrial oil production on the shelves, it is the use of effective oil and gas treatment technologies that helps to achieve the required quality of marketable products, reduce costs and increase the economic attractiveness of specific fields. The well-known engineering company COMART is working in this direction - a recognized leader in the development of modern systems oil and gas preparation.

The fields of leading producing companies are equipped with COMART equipment, including: ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Eni, Saudi Aramco, Repsol YPF, Petrobras, NIOC, Maersk Oil, ONGC, etc. 32 oil and gas treatment projects have been successfully implemented on the offshore shelves alone, which allows us to guarantee a solution the most complex technical tasks both in equatorial waters and in the northern seas.

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The project to produce the first Russian Arctic oil entered its active phase in mid-2013. Prirazlomnaya ensures that all technological operations, including drilling wells, production, storage, preparation and loading of oil onto tankers. “Prirazlomnaya” is the world’s first stationary platform from which they began to produce oil on the Arctic shelf in the difficult conditions of drifting ice fields.

The supporting base of the platform - the caisson - is a unique development: it bears the main load and the reliability of the entire platform depends on its reliability. It is the caisson part that allows Prirazlomnaya to successfully withstand the Arctic climate, protect all equipment and ensure the safe operation of personnel. The height of the caisson is 24.3 meters, i.e. almost equal to the height of a nine-story building.

In the caisson of the Prirazlomnaya offshore ice platform there is an oil storage facility consisting of 16 compartments, and all other technological complexes and platform systems are located above it. Oil storage tanks use a “wet” method of storing oil – that is, they are constantly filled with either oil or water. This storage method eliminates the formation of any explosive atmosphere, which is an additional condition for the safety of the platform.

The Prirazlomnaya offshore platform is equipped with two sets of direct oil loading devices (DOC), operating on the basis of a crane system and allowing tankers to be loaded from the platform's oil storage facility. COUPONS are located at opposite ends of the platform, which makes it possible for tankers to easily approach the platform in any weather and navigation conditions.

COUPON devices are equipped with a special nasal receiving device. Oil is shipped through one of the devices depending on the direction of external loads (waves, ice drift, currents, wind). COUPON tracks tanker movements in a 180° sector. If it deviates from the sector served by one device, the tanker is unmoored and moved to another COUPON.

Oil loading scheme

Particular attention is paid to safety issues: oil shipment begins only if 30 necessary conditions. The oil transfer line to the tanker is equipped with an emergency stop and closure system, which, if necessary, allows the shipment to be stopped almost instantly - in a maximum of 7 seconds.

Before the start of loading operations, the shuttle tankers "Mikhail Ulyanov" and "Kirill Lavrov", equipped with a bow loading system, carry out contactless mooring, during which the distance from the tanker to the Prirazlomnaya offshore ice sheet is 80 ± 6 m. To prevent an involuntary collision with the platform, they are equipped with a system dynamic positioning, which, despite the wind and waves, allows you to keep the tanker in place. The tanker loading speed can reach up to 10 thousand m3/hour, which allows loading a tanker with ARCO oil in 8-9 hours. Specialized vessels equipped with the latest powerful emergency oil-gathering equipment systems for working in winter conditions are constantly on duty near the platform.

New variety The oil produced at the Prirazlomnoye field is called ARCO - from the initial letters of the English words “Arctic” and “oil”. The new grade of oil first entered the world market in April 2014.

ARCO oil has a high density (about 24 API) and a sulfur content of about 2.3%, as well as a low wax content. Relatively heavy compared to conventional Russian export crude, ARCO is well suited for deep processing at refineries in northwestern Europe. It produces unique chemical products that can be used in road construction, tire production, the space and pharmaceutical industries.