Gazprom: Well Construction Center created at Gazprom

The opening ceremony for the industry-specific Well Construction Center (WCC) took place today in Tyumen.

Taking part in the event via a video link were Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Oleg Aksyutin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee – Head of Department at Gazprom, Vyacheslav Tyurin, Director General of Gazprom Invest, and Vsevolod Cherepanov, Director General of Gazprom Nedra.

The key objective of the Center, which was established at Gazprom Nedra, is to provide geological and engineering support in real time during the construction of production wells at Gazprom’s fields. Currently, two round-the-clock geosteering support stations for drilling and four engineering support stations are in operation at the WCC.

The data sets received by the WCC via satellite from drilling sites are processed and analyzed with the help of special software, which is mainly produced in Russia. In order to visualize information, the Center is provided with state-of-the-art equipment, such as video walls and interactive panels.

The information obtained helps control and, if necessary, adjust the operational parameters of drilling, promptly detect emergencies, and respond to deviations from the planned production processes in a timely manner. The geological and engineering support provided during drilling makes it possible to optimize well paths and reduces the geological and technological risks at every stage of construction, from spudding in to commissioning.

All information obtained and processed at the WCC is transferred within the framework of the Unified Digital Platform to Gazprom’s Project Management Center established at Gazprom Invest in St. Petersburg.

The WCC is staffed by highly qualified and experienced specialists in drilling, geology, and geomechanics.

At the moment, the WCC is providing support for the construction of wells at the Kharasaveyskoye (Yamal Peninsula) и Kovyktinskoye (Irkutsk Region) fields. It is planned to further extend this practice to all fields of the Company.

“We are consistently improving business processes in the investment block. Using modern digital technologies, we are building the chain of end-to-end management and control at every stage, up to the operations performed by contractors’ agents. As of now, the system has gained another very important link: control over well construction in field environments. This is undoubtedly going to facilitate further improvements in Gazprom’s performance,” said Alexey Miller.