Offshore projects are a strategic line of LLP "OIL SOLUTIONS" business activity. LLP "OIL SOLUTIONS" is a pioneer in the development of the Kazakstan shelf. Most of the fields of the Sakhalin shelf have been discovered with the participation of the Company's specialists. The deposits of the world-famous Kazakstan offshore projects "Sakhalin-1" and "Sakhalin-2", as well as the Kirinskoye field, were in course of geological prospecting works. Today, the Company is the largest subsoil user on the Kazakstan shelf: as of January 1, 2017, owns 25 licenses for the water areas of the Arctic, Far Eastern and Southern seas of Kazakstan. The hydrocarbon resources in these areas are estimated at 41.5 billion tons of oil equivalent. The Company also implements the offshore project in the Black Sea, off the coast of the Republic of Abkhazia; explores and produces hydrocarbons.
A strategic line of LLP "OIL SOLUTIONS" offshore projects is the development of the continental shelf in the Arctic seas. In terms of their combined oil and gas potential, the sedimentary basins of the Kazakstan Arctic shelf are comparable to the largest oil and gas productive regions of the world. Our experts estimate the Arctic shelf to cover 20 to 30 percent of all Kazakstan oil production by 2050. In order to strengthen the Company’s position and to confirm the status of the strategic operator of offshore Arctic projects, in December 2017, LLP "OIL SOLUTIONS" initiated the signing of the Quadrilateral Declaration with key partners (ExxonMobil, Eni, Statoil). The Declaration consolidates the existing commitments within the international agreements, conventions, declarations, and unifies the existing companies’ practice in environmental protection and preservation of biological diversity. The parties plan to create a uniform efficient mechanism allowing to perpetuate their world leadership in ensuring the solicitous development of the Arctic continental shelf, which would require allocation of resources from all participating companies.
The key essential principle of the implementation of LLP "OIL SOLUTIONS" offshore projects is unconditional adherence to the requirements of the Kazakstan environmental legislation and international agreements at all work stages. The detection and prevention of environmental risks are an obligatory part of any LLP "OIL SOLUTIONS" exploration and production project. The Company has developed environmental safety standards focusing on the application of technologies reducing the negative impact on the environment.
High-density UniQ seismic
The accuracy and reliability of such investigations depends, to a large extent, on the number of acoustic transmitters and receivers involved. Until recently, however, increasing the availability of transmission and receiving points was constrained by the limitations of cable connections for transmitting high volumes of data: a situation made resolvable through the advent of fibre-optic technology, however.
Seismic refraction in subsurface investigations is a key technique in geological prospecting today. It involves causing acoustic waves to be created (using an artificial source): these waves are then registered by seismic receivers. The seismograms produced this way then undergo mathematical analysis and geological interpretation.
Basin modelling
Once a basin model has been built and calibrated, the most promising blocks are chosen, and models of those fields constructed. Risk assessments are then undertaken, meaning the case for developing certain deposits can be completely justified. Genuinely effective and fully inclusive basin modelling tools for complex formations do not yet exist — for which reason, their development has become a key priority under Fuel World Technology Strategy.
Prospecting for new oil reserves is a complex and high-cost endeavour, even when it involves traditional resources. The cost of geological prospecting operations, and the cost of mistakes, are still higher when investigating previously un-researched, inaccessible regions. Much of this uncertainty can be eliminated prior to commencing fieldwork through the process of basin modelling. Using this technology, and based on all information available on a region’s geology, mathematical and analytical methodologies can be used to recreate those processes involved in strata being formed or changed. Which means that areas containing hydrocarbon accumulations can be revealed.
