Rosneft to Inject Associated Gas

Messoyakhaneftegaz, a joint venture of Russian oil giants Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, has permission to use the West Messoyakha oil and gas field as a storage site for associated gas produced at East Messoyakha, Rosneft said April 17.

Messoyakhaneftegaz will build the necessary infrastructure facilities in two licensed areas: a compressor station with a capacity of 1.5bn m³/yr  in East Messoyakha; and two cluster sites with nine wells for injecting associated gas into the reservoir in West Messoyakha. The two fields will be connected by a 54-km pipeline. All the equipment and parts will be be Russian-made, as an economy measure, as is the norm.

The development of the field followed the decision to build the Zapolyarye-Purpe pipeline, connecting northerly fields in the Tyumen Oblast to the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline system. The East Messoyakha field has 343mn metric tons of oil and 113bn m³ gas in-situ reserves. The field produces 6mn mt/yr and production will reach 6.5mn mt/yr by 2020, Gazprom Neft reported.

Associated gas produced from Messoyakha is used to run a power plant and to provide heating. The transportation and subsequent injection of gas from East Messoyakha into the gas cap of the neighbouring West Messoyakhskoye field will make it possible to store gas for future use. East Messoyakha does not have the right geology for storing a large amount of gas.

"Using associated gas is a high priority for an oil producer. Building underground storage for associated gas and gas infrastructure will allow us to use Messoyakha as as efficiently as possible and enable a non-standard project for Russia that has much significance for the environment," said Messoyakhaneftegaz.

"This is the first time we are using underground storage facilities to address the issue of associated gas. For the company, this is a new practice and if it is successful, we will be able to replicate this technology in other enterprises," said Gazpromneft-Development.