Challenges in the Development of Saline Terrigenous Reservoirs of Eastern Siberia Field

Abstract

At present, Russia's oil production in a number of large Eastern Siberia fields (Verkhnechonskoye, Talakanskoye, Yaraktinskoye) has reached or approached its maximum designed levels, therefore, the fields have progressed to the second stage of development or to the beginning of the third stage experiencing production declines. Thus, these fields can be categorized as brownfields. At the Verkhnechonskoye oil and gas condensate field, for the first time in the history of domestic oil and gas production the geologists came across a highly mineralized productive cross-section with the pore space partially or completely filled with salt. This determined the distinctive development features of the main target - the Verkhnechonsky horizon (Vch) (99.8% of the field's production). A distinctive feature of this paper is the description of the approaches to the development of the Verkhnechonsky horizon associated scaling formation and control using a wide range of geological and geophysical tools. The value of the work lies in the summary of lessons learned when managing reserves production and well operation processes at a large Eastern Siberia field, the development of which is complicated by the presence of salts in the pore space, which was the starting point of accumulating the knowledge on salt reservoir development. The experience based on a range of approaches and technical solutions can be applied to similar Eastern Siberia reservoirs with similar geological and physical characteristics.