He that searches, finds

OOO JV “Chernogorskoye” has been exploiting Chernogorskoye oilfield (CM) for more than 15 years. The oilfield is situated 60 kilometers north-east of Nizhnevartovsk. The history of the company bagan in 1991 when Soviet –American joint venture was set up by OAO “Chernogornaft” (at present TNK-Nizhnevartovsk”) and “Underman/Smith Overseas Inc.”(USA). The JV managed to receive from EBRD and OPIC external loans in amount of $52.5 for development of Chernogorskoye oilfield. It gave them the opportunity to intensify their work substantially.

The oilfield development was going on at high rates:10-27 wells were put into operation annually. The peak of production was achieved in 1997^ 638 thousand tons. OOO JV Chernogorskoye was successfully aoolying advanced technologies of the time in the field of well drilling and oil production and it permitted to more than double oil production.

It is necessary to mention, however, that initially CHO was being developed in the mode of depletion. The first injection well appeared here only in 1195 and only two pump stations had been functioning before 1997. When in 1997 the majority of injection wells were put into action there appeared water inrushes through high permeability channels, flooding of wells began to progress rapidly. Thus, the explored oil reserves were rapidly depleting, flooding of the product was growing, in 2004 it was more than 70%. Drilling of new wells was stopped back in 2002.   Production amounted to 333 314 tons of oil. The American party started urgently looking for a buyer for their interest in the business. The JV was abandoned by both Russian and Western shareholders. Finance allocated for the JV was minimal, hardly sufficient for the needs of production.

In summer 2004 “Underman/Smith Overseas Inc/” found the buyer/ It was OAO Oil and Gas Company “Russneft”. Taking into consideration the extent of depletion of the oilfield, “RussNeft” undertook to further develop the remaining reserves difficult for recovery. OAO “TNK-Nizhnevartovsk” having found the oilfield economically inefficient also sold its interest to the same buyer.

In 2004 CHO was already at the later stage of development the geological conditions of development were worsening, flooding was growing intensively. That is why “RussNeft” chose the strategy of rational use of the existing reserves, building up oil recovery of the formations,  efficient methods of intensification of operation conditions of producing wells. Naturally, building up of production volumes required significant investments in upgrading of equipment and introduction of new technologies. Starting from 2004 the company has assigned more than 0.5 billion rubles for development of the enterprise. Exploitation drilling at prospective areas was renewed.

As it is known, oil reserves increment depends on the volumes of drilling and putting wells into operation. from the first days of its activity at Chernogorskoye oilfield, in 2005, “Russneft” assigned money for development of multiple -well platform No 7.  After completing of drilling two wells it became evident that the hopes to build oil production up didn’t come true. Flooding of the area was too high. But the oilmen didn’t give up their efforts. In 2006 they tried to develop another area and drilled one more exploration well, 7-П. The experts were not satisfied with the results though a certain increment of reserves was still obtained. Nest year the company went on implementing its ambitious projects. It was to develop one more area, the third one. And this one was successful at last. The oilmen managed to find an oil-bearing deposit. Production indexes went up. Stabilization was reached.  At present the company is preparing to start full-scale works on drilling out the new