Institute’s newest tech in enhanced oil recovery presented to RITEK

For two days, RITEK, a research and development subsiidary of LUKOIL, learned about enhanced oil recovery technologies developed at the Institute.

The large delegation visiting KFU included Dmitry Sleptsov, Deputy General Director for Geology and Field Development and Chief Geologist; Denis Labutin, Head of the Development Department; Stanislav Yanochkin, Head of the Oil and Gas Field Development Department; Arsenty Ryazanov, Head of the Enhanced Oil Recovery and Enhanced Oil Production Department; and others.

At the beginning of the meeting, Danis Nurgaliev, Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences, gave a presentation about the university and then introduced the activities of the Institute. He noted that Kazan University has been among the top 100 in the world for oil and gas for several years now, as evidenced by its high positions in global rankings.

Next, Ildus Chukmarov, Deputy Director for Continuing Education and Industrial Partnerships, spoke about the Institute’s advanced training programs.

“We offer advanced training and retraining programs for managers and specialists, and we also invite you to individual internships. You can come with your own samples and fluids and intern in our laboratories,” he noted.

Chukmarov reported that since the Center for Advanced Training’s inception, approximately 15,000 people have been trained there. He cited an example of successful collaboration with companies: in 2025, 409 employees of Rosneft Oil Company were trained here, bringing the total number to 2,500.

He then described a project he had developed to integrate the company’s internal personnel assessment and development system with Geosynergy external educational space.

“We would like to work with you to create a unified educational space for students across Russia. We call this learning environment a combined integrated simulator of a digital oilfield. It has no analogues. We are ready to expand our cooperation with LUKOIL,” said the Deputy Director.

During his speech, he invited everyone present to a unique program on integrated modeling, organized by the Center for Advanced Training once a year.

The subsequent presentations presented technological solutions for increasing well productivity and oil recovery, the most advanced methods for enhanced oil recovery, and other innovations. For example, Mikhail Varfolomeev, Director of the KFU Small-Tonnage Chemical Technology Park, spoke about KFU’s developments and technological capabilities in the field of low-tonnage chemicals for oil production, while Vladislav Sudakov, Deputy Director for Marketing at the Gazpromneft-KFU Scientific and Educational Center, delivered a presentation on digital solutions for basic production.

“The two-day session is dedicated to knowledge-intensive technologies for enhanced oil recovery, ranging from core analysis and modeling to chemical reagents and enhanced oil recovery methods. We will also present technologies for monitoring the application of enhanced oil recovery methods,” Sudakov said during a break between sessions. “RITEK is a long-standing partner of ours. For example, we have a number of research and development projects on cutting-edge thermal reservoir stimulation methods for producing high-viscosity oil. RITEK has now decided to expand its collaboration with Kazan Federal University. Based on the results of this session, a roadmap will be developed, and we will work accordingly going forward.”

At a meeting with the company’s management, priority areas of work in chemistry for the oil and gas industry were identified, said Mikhail Varfolomeev. According to the scientist, the company has a need for chemical reagents for well treatment.

“I’d like to highlight the high level of KFU specialists. They’re knowledgeable about the material, answer any questions, and are ready to collaborate,” said Maxim Badlyuk, Project Manager at LUKOIL-Engineering LLC. “One of the most pressing issues for us is combating water flowing through wells. We discussed behind-the-casing circulation and isolating water influx in wells. We also learned a lot of important information about working with high-viscosity oil.”

The visit concluded with a tour of the institute’s laboratories.

“RITEK is Russia’s advanced innovative company; we’ve been working with them for a long time, and we have quite a few joint projects, including large ones,” said Dr Nurgaliev. “The company’s specialists learned about our developments in oil exploration, production, treatment, and transportation, as well as enhanced oil recovery. We discussed all the company’s current challenges and presented our proposals, which our colleagues were very pleased with. They noted the high level of our specialists. Prospects for joint work were outlined on dozens of issues. I believe several agreements will be concluded as a result of the visit.”