Vol 2, No 3 (2020)

Regardless of the direction of development and changes in the energy sector, the World’s economies will rely primarily on natural resources for at least the next 20 years and very likely beyond. Actually, the resources of hydrocarbons «in place» in comparison with consumption are almost inexhaustible, so the question is only in the cost of production. For this reason, the exploration for new commercial fields that can «withstand» price volatility over a long period of time will play a critical role. At the same time, one of the most promising areas is the exploration of the new super-deep (more than 6000 m.) oil and gas accumulations.

The information presently accumulated by geologists allows a high probability of finding profitable reserves, including liquid hydrocarbons, in ultra-deep horizons that were previously considered non-perspective due to extremely adverse thermobaric conditions. Commercial oil and gas potential of various sedimentary formations in such conditions is established for more than 70 basins around the world. There are large and giant gas, gas condensate, oil and mixed «phase-heterogeneous» fields, of which more than 1,200 are already being developed. Over the past 10 years, the most significant success has been achieved in the Gulf of Mexico (USA, Mexico), the Tarim and Sichuan basins (China), the South Caspian basin (Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan), the Santos basin (Brazil), and the Arab basin (Middle East). More than 120 hydrocarbon fields were discovered and most of them have yet to prove their commerciality.

Pre Caspian basin is one of the most prospective regions, where deep horizons are poorly explored. For a better understanding of its potential, statistics on 106 clastic and 36 carbonate fields was collected, and 22 Paleozoic basins were considered as analogs. Data from 15084 documents with varying degrees of significance was taken into consideration; and elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing were applied. Their simultaneous interactive analysis allowed to identify several possible analogues for Pre-Caspian basin and to justify the exceptionally high perspectives of its ultra-deep horizons.

Many analysts identify three strategic directions for E&P activities. The first type includes new perspective horizons in new basins, the second direction is associated with new reservoirs in already known oil and gas basins, and the last, third type includes prospects in already known productive sections of previously explored basins. Pre Caspian basin to some extent, corresponds to all three groups, but mainly – to the second and third. Main interest is associated with well-studied Devonian reservoirs on the periphery, rapidly dropping towards the center of the basin, or with almost unexplored to date lower Paleozoic horizons. This article opens a series of publications devoted to the topic of discovery and development of ultra-deep hydrocarbons.

Most of Kazakhstan’s oil fields are mature ones. However, wells are still drilled in these fields (annually ~ 500 wells in JSC NC “KazMunayGas”). Well drilling forms a certain well spacing density at the fields.

This article is concerned with the influence of well spacing density on the oil recovery factor in channel sandstones. The problem of how well spacing density (WSD) influences oil recovery factor (ORF) is one of the most studied and debated in forecasting oil production levels. In the course of studying existing scientific works on this topic, we understood that there is no uniform function of well spacing density and oil recovery factor. Today, when developing a field, it is relevant to search for new approaches to choose the optimal WSD taking into account all aspects of the geological structure based on hydrodynamic modeling. This article provides verification for the optimal WSD in channel sandstones choosing as an example sector model of horizon 13 of the Ozen field in two stages.

During modeling we analyzed the current conditions of field development, and identified WSD with high values. Then a list of highly watered (unprofitable) wells was identified and recommended for shutdown. According to simulation, it is possible to maintain the base level of oil production by shutting off high water cut wells thereby decreasing well spacing density and optimizing fluid production on the remaining stock.

To make decisions and ensure successful field development, oil companies use numerical simulation tools, including hydrodynamic simulators. This work is devoted to the development of a reservoir simulator based on a new formulation of partial differential equations of the chemical compositional model, as well as its testing by comparing the results of traditional and ASP flooding simulation with similar results of well-known simulators.

The article presents the results of applying the strategy for drilling new wells in the fields of Ozenmunaygas JSC, developed at the end of 2019, using the algorithm for planning and ranking the project fund taking into account the lower prospective productive horizon, drilling in the marginal zones of fields previously not covered by the development. This work is aimed at solving such a strategically important task as increasing the efficiency of drilling new wells in mature fields in the long term in the face of a decrease in the quality of reserves.

This article provides a reasonable explanation for Exxonmobil’s unprecedented expulsion from the Dow Jones Industrial Average on August 31, 2020 based on the Kondratieff Wave Concept and Capital Overaccumulation Theory.

Authors of this paper suggest that the crisis in the oil market in 2020, triggered by the coronavirus, was expected and could be explained by the economic origins of development, namely, the change of the 5th technological mode to the 6th one. Taking into account the fact that oil is the main energy source of the 5th technological mode, it is obvious that its change will affect the oil market. At the same time, the process of the oil market losing its positions is not spontaneous, since the intensive development of new technologies and a sharp increase in renewable energy investments have led to a decrease in oil consumption.