ASP Pilot in West Salym Field - Project Front-end Engineering

Salym Petroleum Development N.V. (SPD) is a 50/50 Joint Venture of Shell and Gazpromneft. SPD is the License holder and operator of the Salym Group of fields in Western Siberia (Upper Salym, West Salym and Vadelyp Work on maturation of Enhanced Oil Recovery option for Salym Petroleum Development (SPD) has began in 2007 and after initial screening, the ASP (Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer) technology has been chosen for further work. Follow-up work involved laboratory and field tests, subsurface modelling and surface high-level concept design. High-level assessment demonstrated production potential of 30+ mln tones additional oil and a significant potential value to be shared between SPD and Russian Government. At that stage work began on Production Pilot as a Separate Project with Pilot Concept selected and Front-End Engineering work completed in 2012.Construction and opperation is expected in 2013-2014. The chosen concept for the Pilot involves a single 100x100m square pattern with 4 injectors and one producer. Since the primary objective of the Pilot is to demonstrate technology and to collect data for further optimization, 2 additional observation wells will be drilled within the pattern to provide information about the effectiveness of the process. Wells will be drilled from a dedicated well pad in the Northern area of West Salym field. The same location will host standalone mixing and production facilities. Produced fluids will be collected in the tank farm at the well pad and analysed. Logistics and planning for assurance of quality control of chemical mix has provided a separate challenge, also exacerbated by remoteness of location, but also by rheology properties of viscous surfactnat concentrates. In addition all storage and mixing facilities have to survive harsh Siberian conditions with temperatures ranging from -50 to +40 deg C. The paper describes some subsurface, chemical and engineering solutions for Salym pilot that might be of value for other groups contemplating cEOR pilots and small-scale production in a similar area