Supervisory Board of the Center for Liquid Hydrocarbons convenes at KFU

Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov presided over the meeting.

Among the participants were Rector of KFU Lenar Safin, President of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences Rifkat Minnikhanov, Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences Danis Nurgaliev, and board members.

“The Year of Scientific and Technological Development in Tatarstan has drawn a symbolic line under the completion of the Science and Universities National Project. Many of its events were much to the benefit of the scientific development of Tatarstan,” started the Rais.

“Tatarstan firmly holds its position in the top three leaders of the scientific and technological development ranking of the country’s provinces,” emphasized the Rais. “A special place among the objects of the advanced scientific and educational infrastructure of the Republic is occupied by the Center for Liquid Hydrocarbons (CLH). Its research and development lay the foundation for the competitiveness of the foundational sector of our economy – the oil industry.”

Rustam Minnikhanov emphasized that it is oil production that will determine the pace of economic growth in Tatarstan for a long time, the dynamics of investment activity in its economic system, as well as the budget revenue both for the province and the federation.

The CLH unites leading petroleum science institutions – KFU, Ufa State Petroleum Technological University, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.

Currently, more than 40 technologies developed by its employees are being tested in the largest Russian and foreign companies, and about 20 more technologies are at the laboratory testing stage.

Deputy Chairman of the International Supervisory Board, Rector of KFU Lenar Safin noted that the CLH is one of the key centers in the country, where research is aimed at creating environmentally friendly, energy-efficient amd economical forecasting and exploration technologies for liquid hydrocarbons.

“The Center employs about 250 people, including geologists, ecologists, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. Research is carried out using advanced technologies and unique equipment. Over the past five years, a number of scientific results have been achieved, many of which are successfully used by companies. A significant amount of research work is carried out by employees in the interests of oil companies of both the Republic of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation,” the Rector summarized.

The Board then reviewed the results of the CLH’s activities in 2020-2024 and listened to the summary report; the main excerpts were presented by Vice-Rector Nurgaliev.

“Oil remains one of the main commodities on the global markets today. The goal of our CLH is to provide the country with cheap and environmentally friendly oil. Last year, more than 32 percent of the country’s budget revenues came from direct oil and gas revenues. In the next two years, approximately the same level of revenues to the Russian budget is expected,” the VIce-Rector said.

The center’s research areas include: large-scale studies of oil and gas accumulation basins to predict hydrocarbon accumulation zones using end-to-end technologies; creation of a new paradigm for field development based on innovative monitoring methods; development of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies for the development of complex structure reserves (viscous oils, carbonate, tight and source rock oils).

The main results are impressive – the current version of the oil and gas basin database has been improved, the collection, spatial referencing and digitization of deposits in Germany, Croatia, Norway, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Austria, Serbia, Albania, Romania, the Barents, Baltic, North and Celtic Seas has been carried out.

In terms of developing the Geological and Geophysical Technology for Optimizing the Selection of Locations (GGTO-SL), work has been done to refine the functionality of the basic geophysical well survey (GIS) (working title – Pyxis) and develop tools for implementing the GGTO-SL methodology.

“Today, CLH is a leader among Russian scientific centers in developing surfactant-based reagents for enhanced oil recovery. Available Russian sources of raw materials are used, including those produced in Tatarstan. The development of pure reagents is also implemented on the basis of a domestic bioproduct, the process of synthesis and testing is organized,” Dr Nurgaliev stated.

The results of the work have been praised by the Ministry of Energy of Russia and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia.

The report was approved by the Supervisory Board.

In conclusion, the participants proposed to organize a strategic session on liquid hydrocarbons at Russia – Islamic World KazanForum 2025.