OIL FIELDS DEVELOPMENT
UDK 622.276.1/.4.04
© Group of authors, 2014
Competence Transfer for Offshore Russian Operators
Трансфер компетенций для российских компаний, работающих на шельфе
В.В. Лавров, к.т.н., К.М. Федоров, д.ф.-м.н., Г.П. Налимов, П.Д. МакМорран (Компания «ОЙЛТИМ», Россия, Сочи)
Адрес для связи: fedorovkm@oilteam.ru
Ключевые слова: шельф, Арктика, МУН, нетрадиционные запасы углеводородов, компетенции, магистерская программа, учебно-инженерный кластер, мультидисциплинарный подход.
Пессимистичные прогнозы истощения мировых запасов углеводородов привели к значительному росту цен на нефть и топливо, с одной стороны, и активному поиску альтернативных источников сырья и энергии, с другой стороны. Анализируются три сценария поддержания уровней добычи углеводородов: вовлечение в разработку запасов шельфа и моря, применение МУН, разработка нетрадиционных источников углеводородов. Рассмотрены положительные и отрицательные аспекты этих сценариев, указывается на преимущества первого варианта в России.
На шельфе содержится четверть наших прогнозных запасов нефти и половина запасов газа, но особенностью их является сосредоточение в северных арктических широтах, где часть времени года моря покрыты сплошным покровом льда. К сожалению, отработанных и надежных технологий добычи углеводородов в таких условиях нет, анализ опыта эксплуатации платформы Приразломная будет важным этапом не только для России, но и стран, запасы которых в значительной мере сосредоточены на Арктическом шельфе. Одной из основных проблем реализации всех сценариев является необходимость формирования в нефтяной промышленности новых компетенций, связанных с развиваемыми направлениями. Формирование новых компетенций задача трудоемкая и длительная, требующая значительных усилий, финансовых затрат. Рассмотрены различные пути решения данной задачи и практические подходы, накопленные в России. На примере компании «ОЙЛТИМ» анализируются основные этапы процесса формирования компетенций и решения кадровой проблемы в инновационных областях, сложности, стоящие на пути их решения. Подчеркивается, что комплекс образовательных программ должен включать цивилизованный трансфер компетенций, накопленных в мире (магистерские программы подготовки специалистов, короткие тренин-говые курсы переподготовки), различные виды интенсивных стажировок специалистов компаний-операторов или выпускников профильных ВУЗов в лучших зарубежных нефтесер-висных компаниях, обладающих необходимым опытом и компетенциями.
Объединить все эти направления подготовки таких специалистов в короткий срок под силу только мобильным образовательным учреждениям, в частности, путем привлечения лучших мировых высших школ по разным направлениям подготовки.
V.V. Lavrov, K.M. Fedorov, G.P. Nalimov, P.D. McMorran
(OILTEAM Company, RF, Sochi)
E-mail: fedorovkm@oilteam.ru
Key words: offshore, Arctic, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), unconventional hydrocarbon resources, MSc program, training and engineering cluster, multidisciplinary approach.
Pessimistic forecasts of the global hydrocarbon reserves depletion led to a significant increase in oil and fuel prices, on the one hand, and to an active search for alternative sources of raw materials and energy, on the other hand. Alternative energy is a vast subject, and this article only focuses on the problems associated with the development of hard-to-recover and unconventional reserves and, primarily, on the development of Russia's competencies in this sector of the economy.
Exploration and development of hard-to-recover reserves is a modern challenge facing oil and gas industry not just in Russia, but worldwide. Usually four types of such reserves are distinguished:
- hydrocarbon reserves concentrated on the shelf and further offshore;
- reserves remaining in old oil and gas provinces after traditional techniques of oil recovery (mainly flooding) have been used;
- unconventional reserves or reserves associated with the dense shale deposits, deposits of bitumen, gas hydrates, methane in coal formations.
How actively these reserves can be developed in the future is determined by the scope and availability of efficient production technologies, by the investment climate and, of course, by the capable personnel prepared to deal with new innovative challenges.
Price increase for oil and gas, the emergence of new techniques of production facilitated the development of previously untapped reserves first beneath the coastal shelves, and later further offshore, including the reserved in ultra-deep waters. By now almost all countries with developed oil and gas industry produce hydrocarbons offshore, as seen in Fig. 1.
Russia's shelf is also rich in hydrocarbon reserves. A quarter of Russia's estimated oil reserves and half of gas reserves
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Fig. 1. Dynamics of offshore production of hydrocarbons: in million barrels of oil equivalent per day
are offshore [1], but their characteristic feature is that they are concentrated in the northern Arctic, where for a part of the year the sea is covered with solid ice. Experience producing in Arctic conditions and ice environment is very limited, one example being Canadian Kulluk 7 platform in the Beaufort Sea [2]. Unfortunately, there is no proven and reliable technology for extraction of hydrocarbons in such conditions. The analysis of operational experience of the Prira-zlomnaja platform will be an important stage not only for Russia, but also for countries whose reserves are largely concentrated on the Arctic shelf. Projected costs of Russian oil and gas companies for the development of Arctic shelf exceed by far the costs of field development in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, so the progress in the development of these reserves depends significantly on the government's preferences.
However, more than 60 % of oil reserves remain in the developed reservoirs after traditional extraction techniques have been used (primary and secondary recovery methods). EOR (tertiary) methods can take advantage of the existing infrastructure and trained personnel in old oil and gas provinces. As of now, scientific research, pilot tests have brought about a range of effective technologies allowing to extract up to 20 % of residual oil reserves [3]. Fig. 2 shows the rate of oil production using EOR methods. The dynamics show that in the last 20 years, the uses of these methods have
Fig. 2. Oil production in the world using EOR methods on a large scale
not been expanding. Recently, as large-scale injection of gas has been stopped in the fields of the North Sea, more than 60 % of this production is accounted for by the use of thermal methods, and more than 30 % - by injection of various gases. A comparison of data in Fig. 1 and 2 shows that the production of hydrocarbons using EOR methods is incomparably low, which indicates high risks in development of this direction.
For Russia, a major advance in this direction was the use of ASP (alkaline surfactant polymer flooding [4]) in the Salym group oilfields. The success of the project can compel Russian companies to replicate and expand the use of EOR methods. Unconventional hydrocarbons include shale gas, successfully developed in the U.S. In Russia, shale oil reserves represented by the Bazhenov group are more significant. According to "Gazprom Neft" managers, the potential of the Bazhenov group is quite high provided that multistage fracturing technology is properly used [5]. Therefore, the application of economic modeling and new extraction schemes for shale oil production can make its production profitable and competitive with the production on the Arctic shelf cost-wise. Now «Gazprom Neft» are testing Kras-noleninskoye field of the Bazhenov group.
More problematic unconventional sources include bitumen and gas hydrates. The locations of these hydrocarbons are presented in Fig. 3. The development of cost-effective methods of bitumen and gas hydrates recovery is still being investigated by scientists [6]. Therefore, it is premature to speak about significant contribution of nonconventional hydrocarbons to the total production.
As mentioned above, the way oil and gas industry will develop depends on geological, economic, legal and other circumstances, but whatever the way, one of the key issues is the formation of competences previously unknown to Russian energy sector. Unfortunately, in the curriculums recommended by the Russian Ministry of education and science, the problems in question are only addressed sporadically within isolated modules or elective courses, which do not even begin to solve the problem of competence formation in its complexity and entirety.
Formation of new competences is a lengthy and arduous process that demands considerable effort and financial investments [7]. What complicates the task even further is the fact that university degrees in oil and gas are growing less popular, talented youth are attracted to other areas. The following directions are deemed most promising from the standpoint of competence formation:
- using competences accumulated worldwide,
- raising awareness of the energy challenges that humankind is facing and focused recruitment of the creative youth to develop new generation of specialists,
- creating training and production clusters to consolidate knowledge and innovative experience in solving most pressing problems,
- development of training programmes in accordance with the production demands.
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Fig. 3. Global distribution of hydrocarbons:
a - bitumen, b - gas hydrates, c - shale gas
A solution to a competence problem within a governmental programme is exemplified in the way Norway developed oilfields in the North Sea. A different approach to this problem is connected with the attraction of foreign competences. This way allows for a quicker solution to skills shortage and facilitates fast-paced familiarization with
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