Supervisory board of the Center for Liquid Hydrocarbons holds regular meeting

Rais (Governor) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov helmed the event.

Rector Lenar Safin spoke about the Center’s main activities, “Research is conducted in three main areas. It is about developing technologies for prospecting and exploration of large fields on the shelf and unexplored territories, creating new technology for the development of giant fields that have been exploited for many decades, as well as for the extraction of unconventional reserves using digital technologies and new physical and chemical methods.”

The Rais emphasized that Tatarstan’s petroleum reserves will for a long time be key to the province’s economic growth, and the Center is among the primary drivers of this industry.

“The world-class research center occupies a special place among the variety of advanced research and innovation infrastructure facilities. Thanks to the work of the center, the research and development sector has received about 1 billion rubles from the federal budget over the past 4 years. And, of course, it is important to remember that the recipients of subsidies assume serious obligations to implement development programs and achieve specific targets. We must promptly assess the results of the Center’s activities and timely respond to emerging challenges,” said he and gave the floor to Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences Danis Nurgaliev.

The Vice-Rector paid attention to the Center’s cooperation with local and overseas partners and the practical significance of its research.

“The Center successfully works with all major oil and gas production and service companies not only in our country, but also abroad. Everything we develop, we test and put into practice together with them. A significant part of our developments is carried out with Tatneft and small companies of the Republic of Tatarstan. The list of our partners also includes all major companies of the Russian Federation, Cuba, China, Vietnam, India, Kuwait, Oman and other countries. The consortium also provides about half of the annual graduation of oil and gas specialists in the country, and more than 5 thousand specialists undergo advanced training,” noted Dr Nurgaliev.

He added that the Center is among the world leaders in the research of giant reservoirs and in underground catalyst-based oil refining. This allowed KFU to enter the world’s top 40 institutions in QS Rankings by Subject in petroleum engineering.

In 2023, a center for industrial engineering of enhanced oil recovery reagents was established. As of now, 15 tests have been conducted. A low tonnage production facility is under construction in cooperation with Tatneftekhiminvest (Tatarstan Petroleum Chemistry Investment Holding).

“A large number of developments – surfactants, catalysts, polymers – are now of interest to leading Russian and foreign oil and oilfield service companies. Our infrastructure, interesting projects, our leadership in the most promising areas attract talented young personnel – students, postgraduates and young scientists. A significant part of them go to companies and bring our ideas and technologies to them. By 2025, more than sixty percent of such young specialists will be at the center. This is our most important task,” continued the speaker.

Starting autumn 2023, a joint master’s program is launched with China University of Petroleum (East). “International educational programs usually go in tandem with research. This widens our partner network and information about global science,” commented Danis Nurgaliev.

Among other developments mentioned by the participants are Russia’s only research team in chemoinformatics, chemical screening techniques for enhanced oil recovery, and new achievements in well drilling technology.