Yet Another Record Broken: Russian Engineers Drill World’s Deepest Oil Well

Another record, this time set by the Russian petroleum engineers. Rosneft managed to drill a 15 km well on the Orlan platform. During the Sakhalin-1 operation in the Sea of Okhotsk our oilmen managed to beat a number of world records.

Another record, this time set by the Russian petroleum engineers. Rosneft managed to drill a 15 km well on the Orlan platform. During the Sakhalin-1 operation in the Sea of Okhotsk our oilmen managed to beat a number of world records. Reporting from the unique Orlan platform, Alexander Lukyanov.

Every passenger gets a wetsuit and a compressed air tank — one of the strict safety requirements on an oil platform. In order to get to the Orlan platform, built by Rosneft as a part of Sakhalin-1 project, one must take a helicopter. Every visitor gets a mandatory fire safety training. Even cell phones are forbidden in the facilities, due to the risk of producing sparks.

 

Pavel Kaluzhskikh, drill runner: "Here are the drills. They are extremely heavy. The bits are made of diamond. These are the exact tools we drill our wells with".

After drilling a 5 km well the diamond teeth of the drilling bit wear down so the industry is extremely costly tells Pavel Kaluzhskikh, the drill runner. He's been here since day one.

He started getting familiar with the equipment in South Korea when the platform was only being built: “Our sancta sanctorum, the driller's cabin. This panel controls the top drive that spins the whole drill rod.

The concrete island easily withstands collisions with icebergs and hummocks. The platform weighs 19 tons. Its living quarters can accommodate up to 120 people. Since 2005, Orlan has gathered a collection of world drilling records. For instance, the well over there is 13.5 km deep. And now a new record — a 15 km well.

Says Kaluzhskikh: “Here's the deepest well in the world. Our pride. The result of our efforts. We've been drilling it for about 4 months”.

The 05-RD well has a 14.129-meter drain. It belongs to the "extra difficult" tier. Entirely new technologies were implemented in the process of drilling. Now there's no need to build another platform, in order to reach the far-out deposits. It saves finances, that will fund future drilling, as well as pipelines that helps preserve the environment.

Alexey Zernov, Exxon Mobil drill supervisor: "We're living in a new century of new technologies and new achievements and one of those achievements is drilling ultra-long, ultra-deep wells when being not so far from the coast, you can drill a 15 km-long drain".

The initial design of the platform implied drilling 20 wells including 17 recovery wells and 3 technical. Later, 3 slots for multilateral wells were added. The platform has the latest equipment and the most powerful power plants.

Although the oilmen claim, they are only half the battle.

Сomments Pavel Kaluzhskikh: “Our greatest asset isn't the equipment even though its role is important it's the people, the ones we are working with — starting from the riggers working on the upper deck, and ending with the guys in the rotary unit”.

The produced oil goes to the De-Kastri loading terminal in the Khabarovsk Region. Its greatest advantage is that the harbor doesn't freeze in winter. The Sokol oil produced only in the Sea of Okhotsk is famous for its superior quality. The supreme oil is even called "sweet". It is sold in South Korea, Thailand, and Japan. More than 900 tankers with the capacity up to 100,000 tons have been shipped since the project's launch. Russia's budget has already received 838 billions of rubles.

Alexander Lukyanov, Arslan Aytekov. Vesti, Sakhalin.