New large field – Semakovskoye – enters operation in Arctic

The Semakovskoye gas field was launched in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area today.

The new major gas production facility was created by Gazprom and RusGazDobycha in the extremely challenging conditions of the Far North and at a considerable distance from the existing infrastructure. As part of the first phase of the Semakovskoye field pre-development, the following facilities and systems were built: a production well stock (consisting of 19 wells), a comprehensive gas treatment unit (CGTU) with an annual capacity of 7.5 billion cubic meters, and a gas pipeline stretching for 122 kilometers from the field to the Unified Gas Supply System of Russia.

Most of the Semakovskoye field's reserves lie in the waters of Taz Bay of the Kara Sea. Therefore, the option of building a system of extended-reach wells (ERD wells) was chosen for the field development. This ensured the possibility of access to the reserves from the shore and eliminated the need for the construction of expensive offshore infrastructure.

Semakovskoye has become the first-ever offshore gas field in the history of Russia's gas sector to be developed with the use of such wells.

During the works, a record was set for the drilling of extended-reach wells. According to international classification, well No. 1104 has an ERD (Extended Reach Drilling) ratio of 4.48, which is the maximum result recorded for Cenomanian deposits in the territory of Russia.

The newly created wells feature some technological innovations, for instance, intelligent systems are employed to monitor the parameters of wells being operated and hydrocarbons being produced.

During the next stage of pre-development, the annual gas production of the Semakovskoye field will be brought to its design level of 14.2 billion cubic meters.

“Gazprom and RusGazDobycha are jointly implementing a number of major projects which are of strategic importance for Russia. The successful launch of the Semakovskoye field is a vivid example of our fruitful cooperation. The first phase of the field's pre-development was completed strictly on schedule, although the schedule was quite tight.

This tells a lot about how high the professional level of our specialists is, how hi-tech our facilities are, and, of course, how good we are at providing successful and effective solutions for even the most complicated tasks.

With the launch of the Semakovskoye field, we lay a solid technological groundwork for the development of a new production cluster in the region. This includes the group of Parusovoye fields which are under the responsibility of RusGazAlyans, as well as a number of other fields.

All of them form an important part of the extensive resource base serving to secure further reliable gas supplies to our consumers for many decades to come, and, of course, to pursue gas infrastructure expansion in our country,” said Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.

“The Semakovskoye gas field is the first production project for the RusGazDobycha Group. Importantly, we succeeded at forming a tight-knit and ambitious team at the project. It is due to the concerted effort that we managed not just to implement the project but to complete it ahead of schedule.

The expertise and experience we have gained will be useful in further stages of the Semakovskoye project. And I am convinced that our newly acquired skills will also provide the basis for new joint endeavors.

The Semakovskoye field is our first joint project with Gazprom. Currently, our companies are also jointly building the Complex for processing ethane-containing gas in the Baltic area and performing the works at the huge Tambey cluster.

For RusGazDobycha, the launch of the Semakovskoye field is the start of the company's own hydrocarbon production history,” said Konstantin Makhov, Chief Executive Officer of RusGazDobycha.