Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods: Challenges Facing the Petroleum Industry conference wrapped up
The event took place on 29 – 31 May; the organizers were the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies (IGPT) and the Center for Liquid Hydrocarbons (CLH).
The conference partners were Gazpromneft, SNF Vostok, POLYMER SYSTEMS, SIBUR Holding, NORCHEM Group of Companies, the Center for Advanced Training, Quality Management and Marketing, and the Eco-Geo-Neft Charitable Foundation. The three-day conference brought together more than 170 representatives of Russian and foreign companies and universities.
Foreign partners included guests from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Oman, Iran, and China.
Danis Nurgaliev, Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences, opened the conference. He told about the history of Kazan University and the main stages of its development, outlined the research interests of IGPT and CLH.
“The topic of chemical methods of enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) is extremely pertinent,” he said. “This is due to the fact that, firstly, every year an increasing part of reserves is represented by heavy and viscous oil, and to facilitate production it is necessary to use different methods of enhanced oil recovery, including chemical ones. Secondly, against the backdrop of the political situation, the issues of import substitution are becoming more and more important. Many foreign companies have left the market and it is necessary to develop domestic reagents and technologies for enhanced oil recovery. For example, the issue of production of chemical reagents for hydraulic fracturing is very pressing. Many other chemicals for hydraulic fracturing will also be unavailable or of low quality and high cost. I am sure that during the conference the participants will share their experience, find answers to their questions and get a new impetus for development in this direction.”
Olga Chebysheva, Director of Chemical EOR Development at Gazpromneft Teknologicheskie Partnyorstva LLC, thanked for the opportunity to be a sponsor and a partner of the conference.
“The topic of chemical methods of enhanced oil recovery has an industry-wide scope. That is why this year we gave the conference its tagline,” she noted. “Seeing the growth of participants, reports, and the expansion of topics, we can say that the forum is in demand.”
Anatoly Zamriy, General Director of the Inter-Industry Expert Analytical Center, speaking about the idea of the conference, quoted Albert Einstein. “It has become a good tradition to gather in Kazan for the conference on Chemical Methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery. We are glad to see the guests, among whom there are so many young people. Take advantage of this opportunity to exchange experience, communicate with interested people. And finally, I would like to quote Einstein, ‘If an idea doesn’t seem crazy, then it is hopeless’.”
After introductory words of the conference organizers and partners, Anatoly Zamriy presented medals to Danis Nurgaliev, Chair of the Department of Petroleum Engineering of KFU Mikhail Varfolomeev, and Head of the Department of the State Commission on Mineral Reserves Andrey Davydov.
A cooperation agreement was then signed by KFU and the Petroleum University of Technology (Iran).
The plenary session was opened by Andrey Davydov with the material Methods of oil recovery enhancement: yesterday, today, tomorrow and Mikhail Varfolomeev with Prospects for the development of chemical EOR: new technologies and new chemistry, as well as Olga Chebysheva Current status and prospects of chemical EOR projects in Gazpromneft.
“At the conference, we talked about trends in the field of chemical EOR and presented developments in the field of specialized chemical reagents for EOR,” shared Dr Varfolomeev. “The university has created a laboratory where new compositions are being developed to help increase oil recovery at complicated fields with hard-to-recover reserves. The reagents have already passed the development stage and are being pilot tested.”
As part of the conference, the Center for Advanced Training, Quality Management and Marketing (CdoGEO) has presented a new advanced training program, Chemical Methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery from Reservoirs. You can take the training program at any time, regardless of the conference dates. Previously, a similar companion training program was offered during the Horizontal Wells and Engineering and Ore Geophysics 2024 conferences.
“It is gratifying to see our customers and partners at the conference, among them LUKOIL-Engineering, Gazpromneft and others,” noted Director of CdoGEO Ildus Chukmarov. “We presented our opportunities to the participants and invited them to advanced training, professional retraining, and individual internships. We also offered to create courses for ourselves and students together in order to transfer knowledge to the new generation of oilers in chemical methods of enhanced oil recovery. In addition, as part of the conference, we held negotiations with representatives of Oman (Daleel Petroleum Company) and Iran (Petroleum University of Technology). We showed them the laboratories of our 3D GEO Center, the Laboratory of Petrophysics and Petroleum Reservoir Physics, and the Geochemical Center. We told them about our experience of cooperation with Islamic countries and offered to implement projects for Iran together with our partner TNG-Group.”
