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Russkoye heavy oil field is located in the northern part of Siberia. The field was discovered in 1968. It is characterized by the huge reserves: more than 1.3 billion tonn of oil in place and remote location (the field is located to the north from the polar circle). Main challenges for the field development are: unconsolidated formation, gas cap, high heterogeneity of formation, permafrost zone and heavy oil. This paper covers latest experience (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) obtained during field development pilot project implementation at the representative part of the Russkoye field. Pilot stage results will be used for the further field development strategy building. Effectiveness of different approaches has to be estimated, considering specifics of the field. Traditional field instrumentation did not provided reliable data for the analysis. New technologies (such as fiber optic distributed temperature sensors, specifically adopted multiphase metering etc.) were implemented for the building of the proper data acquisition system. During the pilot stage specific injection schedules, cold and hot water injection, various well completion applications were implemented. Depletion rate estimation based on real production data, determination of critical drawdown and numerous well testing activities including conventional buildup/drawdown pressure transient analysis and interference testing were made. Special attention is paid to the comparison of the cold and hot water injection and to the methods of control/monitoring of the well production. Monitoring and effectiveness estimation of the tested technology should be based on flow rate measurements data (MPFM), distributed pressure and temperature sensors (DP/TS) in horizontal production wells. Numerous new technologies were used for the pilot project. Paper describes approaches for integrated data acquisition implementation; development techniques comparison and new technologies adaptation workflow to the specific field conditions. New technologies application allowed to see specific field behavior and to estimate effect of various field development and management approaches tested. The results obtained during the pilot project will be used for the Russkoye field development planning, technical solutions will be implemented for the field monitoring and managing. Successful development of the first biggest heavy oil field should lead to initiation of development of other numerous challenging heavy oil fields in Russia.

Relative permeability data are very important for reservoir engineering, because these parameters highly influence waterflooding efficiency, oil/liquid production forecast and therefore economics of an asset.Core experiments for determination of relative permeability curves are point-wise and do not completely reconstruct formation conditions. Application of core relative permeabilities on field scale may lead to inadequate modeling of real flow conditions and result in actual production not complying with forecast during commercial exploitation.Current structure of Russian Federation oil resources is such that most of the promising oil and gas regions are at full autonomy conditions, with lack of year-round road connection and infrastructure for production transfer. Thus, new techniques are required for acquisition of parameters important for reservoir engineering (including in-situ relative permeabilities), which are well-suited to production limits during pilot field study program.A promising approach to in-situ determination of flow parameters is well testing. A well test technique for determining oil and water relative permeabilities developed at OGRI RAS is based on generation of multidirectional two-phase flows and provides data for determination of an extended set of formation characteristics. Interpretation includes special algorithms and software with application of numerical methods for direct problem solution and optimal control methods for inverse problem solution.Well test for determination of in-situ relative permeabilities described in the paper has been performed at an oilfield in Western Siberia at conditions of arctic climate and full autonomy.Results of the well test led to: ♦ correction of relative permeability data earlier obtained from core analysis, ♦ establishing higher water mobility in full range of water saturations and probably no increased threshold of water mobility (critical saturation); ♦ adjustment of oil and liquid production plan for full field development project, which resulted in more reasonable estimation of asset investment attractiveness and optimal decision on recovery strategy.

This paper describes the specifics of oil production and the recommendations developed for the operation of horizontal wells (hereinafter Hz wells) in unconsolidated reservoirs with highly viscous oil with the purpose to increase the efficiency of reserves recovery, based on the interpretation of pilot project results.

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