The First Drilling Rig of Naftagaz Started Work at the Tazovskoye Field for Meretoyakhaneftegaz

Today, on March 5, the oilfield services company Naftagaz commenced drilling operations at the Tazovskoye oil and gas condensate field in the north of Yamal under a new five-year contract with Meretoyakhaneftegaz. A second drill rig is under installation on the same well pad. Twelve wells are scheduled to be constructed this year by the two rigs involved in the project.

A total of 77 wells are planned for construction. The project will drill both conventional horizontal wells with a large displacement (more than 2,000 m) and hole depths of more than 4,000 m (IRD index (ratio of drilled depth to vertical) is 3.5, DDI complexity factor is 5.5-6), as well as two-lateral wells (TAML-1 level). Drilling of multilateral wells using Fishbone technology is also envisaged. To minimize incidents with drill pipes when drilling complex wells, a new drilling equipment will be used, and an automated drill pipe time recording system will be tested.

The project is using 225 t drilling rigs manufactured in 2021 and complete with TIPEC DQ-50 top drives, GKSh-8000 hydraulic wrench, Triplex mud pumps, drill pipes of strength not less than S, and other modern equipment. The automatic drilling control system based on the Digital Drilling Project will also be used. It allows selecting optimal drilling modes and decreasing the probability of emergency situations during the work by reducing the human factor. This is Naftagaz in-house development to reduce well construction duration and improve operational safety and quality performance.

The Tazovskoye oil and gas condensate field is the center of Gazpromneft's new production cluster with about 1.1 billion tons of reserves in place. By its geological structure, this field is one of the oil company's most complex assets. Wells of the Tazovsky OGCF are equal to offshore wells by their complexity and uniqueness and are one of the most complex wells in the world practice.

Naftagaz is a Top-5 independent drilling contractor accredited by Russian oil and gas majors. Its primary customers are Gazprom Neft PJSC and Rosneft PJSC subsidiaries. Since its foundation, the company has drilled over 3.6 million metres (900 wells). From 2014 to 2021 the company's investments in capital assets will amount to more than 6.8 billion rubles. The number of employees is approximately 2,000. The company’s production base is in Noyabrsk (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area).