Novatek boosts West-Yurkharovskoye field prospects

Novatek said its unit Novatek-Yurkharovneftegas completed testing the Jurassic reservoir at well 135R on the West-Yurkharovskiy license area, confirming commercial viability of the reservoir. 

The company completed a horizontal well using multi-stage hydro-fracturing at a total vertical depth of 4,100 meters with an abnormally high reservoir pressure of 820 standard atmosphere and co-mingled production from two separate Jurassic horizons.

This was the first time such a well completion for an over-pressured Jurassic reservoir was applied in Russia, the company said in a statement.

Well #135R has been naturally flowing with a gas-condensate mixture flow rate of 650 thousand cubic meters per day through 22 hours stage testing period on a 10 mm choke for a total testing time of 10 days.

The commercial viability of the deeper Jurassic deposits was confirmed, and, correspondingly, an investment decision was made to commence an exploration program and pilot production from this new project site as part of the Yurkharovskoye production center.