Gazprom Neft begins exploratory drilling at Ayasksky block, Sea of Okhotsk
MOSCOW -- Gazpromneft Sakhalin (a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft) has begun drilling the first exploratory well at the Ayashsky licence block, located on the continental shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk. The program of works to be completed during the 2017 ice-free season envisages well drilling, core sampling, the completion of extended geophysical investigations, and testing at target intervals. Detailed analysis of existing experience in implementing works on the continental shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk were analyzed in detail in developing the basis for the drilling program, as was experience in Arctic fields being developed by Gazprom Neft as operator.
Leading Russian and international companies have been engaged in implementing the project, and extensive preliminary activities essential to project completion successfully undertaken. Drilling and well testing in 2017 will be performed by a semisubmersible drilling rig (the HAKURYU-5), delivered to the field in mid-June, its equipment having undergone extensive modernization and further adaptations in line with the climatic conditions of the Sea of Okhotsk in 2016.
Cutting-edge technologies will be utilized in constructing the well, with drilling fluids (drilling mud) used in drilling from the very beginning — i.e., “rathole” drilling, allowing the use of an innovative system for riser-free sludge disposal, in order to improve wellbore stability. A rotary steerable system will provide automatic support in hole straightening, reducing drilling time as well as volumes of drilling sludge, and minimizing run-in-hole operations. In order to ensure “zero emissions” all waste drilling mud, sludge and cuttings will be shipped onshore for recycling. Innovative downhole testing technologies create scope to speed-up investigations into promising strata and take high-precision measurements in the safest and most effective way possible. The results obtained will allow a subsequent field investigation program to be developed and preparations made for test drilling during the 2018 ice-free season.
