First drilling of an oil well. Helpful information

: A Brief History of the Development of Drilling

1. A brief history of the development of drilling

Based on archaeological finds and research, it has been established that primitive about 25 thousand years ago, in the manufacture of various tools, he drilled holes in them for attaching handles. A flint drill served as a working tool.

In ancient Egypt, rotary drilling (drilling) was used in the construction of the pyramids about 6,000 years ago.

The first reports of Chinese wells for the extraction of water and salt brines are contained in the works of the philosopher Confucius, written around 600 BC. The wells were constructed using percussive drilling and reached a depth of 900 m. This indicates that prior to this, the drilling technique had been developing for at least a few more hundred years. Sometimes, while drilling, the Chinese stumbled upon oil and gas. So in 221 ... 263 years. AD in Sichuan, gas was extracted from wells with a depth of about 240 m, which was used to evaporate salt.

Documentary evidence of drilling techniques in China is scarce. However, judging by ancient Chinese painting, bas-reliefs, tapestries, panels and embroidery on silk, this technique was at a fairly high stage of development.

The drilling of the first wells in Russia dates back to the 9th century and is associated with the extraction of solutions table salt near the town of Staraya Russa. Salt mining was greatly developed in the XV..XVII centuries, as evidenced by the discovered traces of boreholes in the vicinity of the city of Solikamsk. Their depth reached 100 m with the initial well diameter up to 1 m.

The walls of the wells often collapsed. Therefore, for their fastening, either hollow tree trunks or pipes woven from willow bark were used. At the end of the XIX century. the walls of the wells began to be fixed with iron pipes. They were bent from sheet iron and riveted. When deepening the well, the pipes were advanced after the drilling tool (bit); for this they were made of a smaller diameter than the previous ones. These pipes were later called casing. Their design was improved over time: instead of riveted, they became seamless with threaded ends.

The first well in the United States was drilled for the extraction of brine near the city of Charleston in West Virginia in 1806. Kentucky accidentally found oil.

The first mention of the use of drilling for oil exploration dates back to the 30s of the 19th century. On Taman, before digging oil wells, they carried out preliminary reconnaissance with a drill. The eyewitness left the following description: “When they plan to dig a well in a new place, they first try the earth with a drill, pushing it in and adding a little water so that it goes in more easily, and after removing it, if there will be oil, then in this place they begin to dig a quadrangular hole ".

In December 1844, a member of the Council of the Main Administration of the Transcaucasian Territory V.N. Semyonov sent a report to his leadership, where he wrote about the need ... to deepen some wells by means of a drill ... and re-exploration for oil also by means of a drill between the Balakhani, Baybat and Kabristan wells. As V.N. Semenov, this idea was suggested to him by the manager of the Baku and Shirvan oil and salt fields, mining engineer N.I. Voskoboynikov. In 1846, the Ministry of Finance allocated the necessary funds and drilling began. The results of drilling are mentioned in the memorandum of the Governor of the Caucasus, Count Vorontsov, dated July 14, 1848: "... a well was drilled in Bibi-Heybat, in which oil was found." It was the first oil well in the world!

Shortly before this, in 1846, the French engineer Fauvel proposed a method for continuous cleaning of wells - their washing. The essence of the method was that from the surface of the earth through hollow pipes, water was pumped into the well, carrying pieces of rock up. This method gained recognition very quickly, because. did not require drilling to be stopped.

The first oil well in the United States was drilled in 1859. This was done in the area of ​​Titesville, Pennsylvania by E. Drake, who worked on instructions from the Seneca Oil Company. After two months of continuous work, E. Drake's workers managed to drill a well only 22 m deep, but it still gave oil. Until recently, this well was considered the first in the world, but the documents found about the work led by V.N. Semenov restored historical justice.

Many countries attribute the birth of their oil industry to the drilling of the first well that yielded commercial oil. So, in Romania, the countdown has been going on since 1857, in Canada - since 1858, in Venezuela - since 1863. In Russia, for a long time it was believed that the first oil well was drilled in 1864 in the Kuban on the banks of the river. Kudako under the leadership of Colonel A.N. Novosiltsev. Therefore, in 1964, the 100th anniversary of the domestic oil industry was solemnly celebrated in our country, and since then every year the “Day of the Oil and Gas Industry Worker” has been celebrated.

The number of wells drilled in the oil fields at the end of the 19th century grew rapidly. So in Baku in 1873 there were 17 of them, in 1885 - 165, in 1890 - 356, in 1895 - 604, then by 1901 - 1740. At the same time, the depth of oil wells increased significantly. If in 1872 it was 55 ... 65 m, then in 1883 it was 105 ... 125 m, and by the end of the 19th century. reached 425...530 m.

At the end of the 80s. of the last century near New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) was applied rotary drilling for oil with flushing of wells with clay solution. In Russia, rotary drilling with flushing was first used near the city of Grozny in 1902 and oil was found at a depth of 345 m.

Initially, rotary drilling was carried out by rotating the bit together with the entire drill string directly from the surface. However, at a large depth of wells, the weight of this column is very large. Therefore, in the 19th century the first proposals for the creation downhole motors, those. motors placed at the bottom of the drill pipes directly above the bit. Most of them remained unrealized.

For the first time in world practice, a Soviet engineer (later a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences) M.A. Kapelyushnikov in 1922 was invented turbodrill, which was a single-stage hydraulic turbine with a planetary gear. The turbine was driven by the washing liquid. In 1935...1939. the design of the turbodrill was improved by a group of scientists led by P.P. Shumilova. The turbodrill proposed by them is a multi-stage turbine without a gearbox.

In 1899, it was patented in Russia electric drill, which is an electric motor connected to a chisel and suspended on a rope. The modern design of the electric drill was developed in 1938 by Soviet engineers A.P. Ostrovsky and N.V. Aleksandrov, and already in 1940 the first well was drilled with an electric drill.

In 1897, in the Pacific Ocean in the area of ​​\u200b\u200babout. Somerland (California, USA) was first implemented offshore drilling. In our country, the first offshore well was drilled in 1925 in Ilyich Bay (near Baku) on an artificially created island. In 1934 N.S. Timofeev on about. Artem in the Caspian Sea was carried out well drilling, in which several wells (sometimes more than 20) are drilled from a common site. Subsequently, this method became widely used in drilling in confined spaces (among swamps, offshore drilling platforms, etc.).

Since the beginning of the 60s, in order to study the deep structure of the Earth, the world began to use ultra-deep drilling.

Vladimir Khomutko

Reading time: 4 minutes

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When was the first oil well found?

Everyone knows that oil is extracted using wells drilled in the ground. And when did the first such well appear and who drilled it? We will consider the answer to this and other interesting questions regarding oil drilling in this article.

It's worth saying. that the first mention of attempts at exploratory drilling (not to be confused with commercial drilling) dates back to the thirties of the nineteenth century. According to the descriptions of an eyewitness of those years that have come down to us, on Taman, before digging oil wells, they previously explored the bowels of the so-called "drill".

In other words, to determine the best place to dig a well, from which oil was extracted at that time, the earth was first drilled. So it can be called the first exploratory wells, but they cannot be called commercial. Yes, wells, in fact, they were not.

In December 1844, V.N. Semenov, who was a member of the Council of the Main Directorate of the Transcaucasian Territory, sent a report to the higher authorities, in which he substantiated the need to deepen several existing oil wells by means of a drill, as well as the need to explore new oil-bearing layers by drilling in the area lying between the Baibaytsky, Balakhani and Kabristansky wells . This idea, according to Semenov himself, was suggested to him by the Russian mining engineer Voskoboinikov N.I., who managed the Shirvan and Baku fields at that time.

Taking into account the report, the Russian Ministry of Finance in 1846 ordered the allocation of the necessary funds for drilling, the results of which in 1848 were reported by the governor of the Caucasus, Count Vorontsova, in his memorandum. The essence of the report boiled down to the fact that a well had been drilled on Bibi-Heybat, from which they began to receive oil. This was the very first industrial oil well! The Bibi-Heybat field is located near the city of Baku in Azerbaijan. It is geographically located on the Absheron Peninsula.

The depth of the first exploratory well, which was drilled a year earlier (in 1847), was 21 meters. The first oil was obtained by impact, using wooden rods, and it was on July 14, 1848. 1847 is considered the year of discovery of the Bibi-Heybat deposit.

Shortly before this moment, in 1846, the French engineer Fauvel proposed a method that allows you to continuously clean the well with flushing. The essence of the proposed technique was to pump water from the earth's surface into a well through hollow pipes, which brought pieces of rocks to the surface. This outstanding invention quickly gained wide recognition, since it did not require the drilling itself to be stopped.

First oil wells drilled in other countries

In the United States of America, the first oil well was drilled in 1859 near the city of Titesville, Pennsylvania. This was done by E. Drake on the instructions of the Seneca Oil company.

For two months of continuous work, the workers under his leadership managed to drill a well, the depth of which was 22 meters, and it began to produce oil. Until recently, it was believed that it was Drake's well that was the first in the world, but the historical documents found, which we spoke about above, made it possible to restore historical justice.

The date of birth of their oil industry in many countries of the world is considered to be the drilling of the first industrial production well. For example, in Romania this event took place in 1857, in Canada - in 1858, and in Venezuela - in 1863.

On the territory of our country, the first successful oil drilling was carried out by workers, under the leadership of Colonel Novosiltsev A.N. It happened in 1864 on the banks of the Kudako River (Kuban Territory).

It is from 1964 that the Russian oil industry.

Over time, the number of oil-producing workings in the fields began to grow rapidly. At the end of the nineteenth century, a huge number of new workings began to be drilled.

For example, in Baku this growth went like this:

• 1873 - 17 pieces;
• 1885 - already 165;
• 1890 - 356;
• 1895th - 604;
• 1901 - 1740!

At the same time, the depth of drilling also increased. If in 1872 the maximum drilling was carried out to a depth of 55 - 65 meters, then in 1883 this figure reached 105 - 125 meters, and at the end of the nineteenth century, the maximum depths already reached 425 - 530 - ty m.

At the end of the eighties of the nineteenth century, in the vicinity of New Orleans (an American city located in the state of Louisiana), rotary drilling was first used with simultaneous flushing of the trunk with a clay solution.

In our country, such drilling was first used in 1902 near the city of Grozny. Oil was found at a depth of 345 meters.

Initially, rotary drilling was performed by rotating the bit from the surface along with the entire drill string. However, the deeper the workings became, the heavier such a column became, and it was impossible to rotate it.

In this regard, already at the end of the nineteenth century, the first proposals began to appear regarding the creation of downhole motors. These motors were supposed to be placed at the bottom of the drill string just above the bit. However, most of these proposals remained on paper.

The world's first turbodrill was invented in 1922 by the Soviet engineer Kapelyushnikov M.A. It was a hydraulic single-stage turbine equipped with a planetary gear. The rotation of the turbine was carried out with the help of a washing liquid. Later, the turbodrill was improved by a group of scientists led by P.P. Shumilov. The turbodrill, which they proposed in 1939, was already a multi-stage turbine without the use of a gearbox.

The first electric drill was patented in Russia in 1899. Its design was an electric motor suspended on a rope, which was connected to a chisel. A modern electric drill was developed in 1938 by Soviet engineers Ostrovsky A.P. and Alexandrov N.V., and two years later they had already drilled the first well.

However, oil drilling was carried out not only on land, but also under water.

The first offshore oil wells were built by the Baku merchant Kassymbek back in 1803. They were located 18 and 30 meters from the shore near the village of the village of Bibi-Heybat. From the ingress of water, they were protected by log cabins, which were made of boards tightly fitted to each other.

For most people, having their own oil or gas well means solving financial problems for the rest of their lives and living without thinking about anything.
But is it so easy to drill a well? How is it organized? Unfortunately, few people ask this question.

Drilling well 39629G is located not far from Almetyevsk, in the village of Karabash. After a night rain, everything around in the fog and in front of the car now and then ran hares

And finally, the drilling rig itself appeared. There, the drilling foreman was already waiting for us - the main person on the site, he makes all operational decisions and is responsible for everything that happens during drilling, as well as the head of the drilling department.

Basically, drilling is called the destruction of rocks at the bottom (at the bottom point) and the extraction of the destroyed rock to the surface. A drilling rig is a complex of machinery such as a drilling rig, mud pumps, mud cleaning systems, generators, living quarters, etc.

The drilling site, on which all the elements are located (we will talk about them below), is a zone cleared of the fertile layer of the earth and covered with sand. After completion of the work, this layer is restored and, thus, significant harm to the environment is not caused. A layer of sand is required, because. clay at the first rains will turn into an impenetrable slurry. I myself saw how multi-ton Urals got stuck in such a slurry.
But first things first.

At well 39629G, a machine (rig itself) SBU-3000/170 (stationary drilling rig, maximum load capacity 170 tons) was installed. The machine is made in China and compares favorably with what I have seen before. Drilling rigs are also produced in Russia, but Chinese rigs are cheaper both in purchase and in maintenance.

Pad drilling is carried out at this site, it is typical for horizontal and directional wells. This type of drilling consists in the fact that the wellheads are located at a close distance from each other.
Therefore, the drilling rig is equipped with a self-traveling rail system. The system works on the principle of "push-pull" and the machine, as it were, moves itself with the help of hydraulic cylinders. It takes a couple of hours to move from one point to another (the first tens of meters) with all the accompanying operations.

We rise to the working platform of the drilling rig. Here, in fact, most of the work of drillers takes place. The photo shows the pipes of the drill string (left) and the hydraulic tong, with the help of which the string is extended with new pipes and continues drilling. Drilling occurs due to the bit at the end of the string and the rotation that is transmitted by the rotor.

I was especially delighted workplace driller. Once upon a time, in the Komi Republic, I saw a driller who controlled all processes with the help of three rusty levers and his own intuition. To move the lever from its place, he literally hung on it. In the end, the drill hook nearly hit him.
Here the driller is like a captain spaceship. He sits in an isolated cabin surrounded by monitors and controls everything with a joystick.

Of course, the cabin is heated in winter and cooled in summer. In addition, on the roof, also glass, there is a protective net in case something falls from a height and a janitor to clean the glass. The latter causes genuine delight among drillers :)

Let's climb up!

In addition to the rotor, the drilling rig is equipped with a top drive system (made in the USA). This system combines a crane block and a rotor. Roughly speaking, this is a crane with an electric motor attached to it. The top drive system is more convenient, faster and more modern than the rotor.

Video how the top drive system works:

The tower offers a great view of the site and the surrounding area :)

In addition to beautiful views, at the top of the drilling rig you can find the workplace of a riding pombur (assistant driller). His responsibilities include pipe installation and general supervision.

Since the rider is at the workplace for the entire 12-hour shift and in any weather and at any time of the year, a heated room is equipped for him. This never happened on the old towers!

When emergency situation, the rider can evacuate with the help of a trolley:

When the well is drilled, the wellbore is washed several times from drilled rock (sludge) and a casing string is lowered into it, which consists of many pipes twisted together. One of the typical internal casing diameters is 146 mm. The length of the well can reach 2-3 kilometers or more. Thus, the length of the well exceeds its diameter by tens of thousands of times. Approximately the same proportions have, for example, a piece of ordinary thread 2-3 meters long.

Pipes are fed through a special chute:

After running the casing, the well is flushed again and cementing of the annular space (the space between the well wall and the casing) begins. Cement is fed to the bottomhole and forced into the annulus.

After the cement hardens, it is checked with a probe (device lowered into the well) ACC - acoustic cementing control, the well is pressure tested (check the tightness), if everything is OK, then drilling continues - the cement glass is drilled at the bottomhole and the bit goes further.

The letter "g" in the well number 39629G means that the wellbore is horizontal. From the mouth up to a certain point, the well is drilled without deviation, but then with the help of a hinged whipstock and / or a rotary whipstock, it goes horizontal. The first is a pipe with a hinge, and the second is a bit with a directional nozzle, which is deflected by the pressure of the drilling fluid. Usually, in the pictures, the deviation of the trunk is depicted almost at an angle of 90 degrees, but in reality this angle is about 5-10 degrees per 100 meters.

To ensure that the wellbore goes where it needs to be, special people are watching - "crookers" or telemetry engineers. According to the indications of the natural radioactivity of rocks, resistance and other parameters, they control and correct the course of drilling.

Schematically, it all looks like this:

Any manipulations with something at the bottom (bottom) of the well turn into a very exciting activity. If you accidentally drop a tool, a pump or several pipes into a well, then it is quite possible that you will never get the dropped one, after which you can put an end to the well worth tens or hundreds of millions of rubles. After digging into the cases and stories of repairs, you can find real pearl wells, at the bottom of which there is a pump, on top of which lies a fishing tool (for extracting the pump), on top of which lies a tool for extracting fishing
tool. With me, they dropped, for example, a sledgehammer into the well :)

In order for oil to enter the well at all, holes must be made in the casing string and the cement sheath behind it, as they separate the reservoir from the well. These holes are made using shaped charges; they are essentially the same as, for example, anti-tank ones, only without a fairing, because they do not need to fly anywhere. The charges penetrate not only the casing string and cement, but also the formation itself rock several tens of centimeters deep. The whole process is called perforation.

To reduce the friction of the tool, carry out the destroyed rock, prevent shedding of the walls of the well and compensate for the difference in reservoir pressure and pressure at the wellhead (at the bottom the pressure is many times greater), the well is filled with drilling fluid. Its composition and density are selected depending on the nature of the cut.
The drilling fluid is pumped by the compressor station and must constantly circulate in the well to avoid shedding of the walls of the well, sticking of the tool (situations when the string is blocked and it can neither be rotated nor pulled out - this is one of the most common drilling accidents) and other things.

We get down from the tower, we go to look at the pumps.

During the drilling process, the drilling fluid brings cuttings (cut rock) to the surface. By analyzing the cuttings, drillers and geologists can draw conclusions about the rocks that the well is currently passing through. Then the solution must be cleaned of sludge and sent back to the well to work. For this, a system of treatment plants and a “barn” are equipped, where the cleaned sludge is stored (the barn is visible in the previous photo on the right).

The vibrosieve solution is taken first - they separate the largest fractions.

The solution then passes through the sludge (left) and sand separators (right):

And finally, the smallest fraction is removed using a centrifuge:

Then the solution enters the capacitive blocks, if necessary, its properties are restored (density, composition, etc.) and from there, using a pump, it is fed back to the well.
Capacitive block:

Mud pump (made in Russia!). The red thing on top is a hydraulic compensator, it smooths out the pulsation of the solution due to back pressure. Usually, drilling rigs have two pumps: one is working, the second is standby in case of a breakdown.

All this pumping facilities are managed by one person. Due to the noise of the equipment, he wears ear plugs or ear protectors for the entire shift.

“And what about the life of the drillers?” - you ask. We haven't missed this one either!
At this site, drillers work in short shifts of 4 days, because drilling takes place practically within the city, but residential modules are practically no different from those used, for example, in the Arctic (except perhaps for the better).

There are 15 wagons in total on the site.
Some of them are residential, in which drillers live 4 people each. The trailers are divided into a vestibule with a hanger, a washbasin and cabinets and a living part directly.

In addition, a bathhouse and a kitchen-dining room were placed in separate trailers (in local slang - "beams"). In the latter, we had a wonderful breakfast and discussed the details of the work. I will not retell, otherwise you will accuse me of quite frank advertising, but I will say that I immediately wanted to stay in Almetievsk ... Pay attention to the prices!

We spent about 2.5 hours at the rig and I once more made sure that such a complex and dangerous business as drilling and oil production in general can only be done by good people. They also explained to me that bad people do not stay here.

Friends, thank you for reading to the end. I hope now you imagine the process of drilling wells a little better. If you have any questions - ask them in the comments. I myself or with the help of experts - I will definitely answer!

For the first time in the world, in 1803, Bakuvian Gadzhi Kasymbek Mansurbekov began offshore oil production in the Bibi-Heybat Bay from two wells 18 m and 30 m from the shore. The existence of the first marine industry ceased in 1825, when a strong storm in the Caspian destroyed the wells.

In 1834 Nikolay Voskoboynikov (1801-1860), director of the Baku oilfields, invented a special distillation apparatus for obtaining kerosene from white and black oil.

In 1837, in Balakhany, Nikolai Voskoboinikov's first oil refinery in Absheron and in the world began to operate (the first similar plant in the United States would be built in 1855 by Samuel Kayer). At this plant, for the first time in the world, oil distillation was used along with water vapor, and the oil was heated with natural gas.

In 1846 in Baku on Bibi-Heybat, at the suggestion of a member of the Main Directorate of the Transcaucasian Territory Vasily Semenov (1801-1863), the world's first well 21 m deep was drilled for oil exploration; that is, for the first time in the world drilling for oil was carried out with a positive result. The work was carried out under the leadership of the director of the Baku oil fields, the Corps of Mining Engineers, Major Alekseev.

In 1847, on July 8-14, in his documents, the governor of the Caucasus, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov (1782-1856), officially confirmed the completion of drilling of the world's first oil well on the shores of the Caspian Sea (Bibi-Heybat) with a positive result.

In 1848, a well was laid in the Baku village of Balakhani, which produced 110 poods of oil per day.

In 1849, industrialist M.G. Selimkhanov laid a well on the slope of Mount Bibi-Heybat, from which he extracted 17-18 thousand poods of oil per year.

In Russia, drilling of oil wells was officially prohibited until 1869 (the government listened to the conclusions of foreign experts proving the unsuitability and futility of drilling for oil production). For example; when in 1866 the Transcaucasian Trading Society applied to the government for permission to start drilling, it was refused.

In 1869, the farmer I.M. Mirzoev drilled his first well, 64 m deep, in Balakhany, but unsuccessfully. In 1871, almost at the same place, he drilled a second well 45 m deep, which turned out to be very productive: it produced an average of up to 2 thousand poods of oil per day.

From 1872, intensive construction of wells up to 45-50 m deep began, which led to an almost complete cessation of the construction of new wells in the Baku region.

With the abolition of the lease in the Baku region, intensified drilling of oil wells began. Their number increased rapidly: in 1872 there was one well, in 1873 - 17, in 1874 - 50, in 1875 - 65, and in 1876 - 101 wells. Powerful fountains appeared, showing the abundance of oil in Balakhany, Romany, Sabunchi, Zabrat, Bibi-Heybat.

The first wells were drilled by hand in a rotary way. Then they began to use percussion rod drilling with a steam drive. When drilling in hard rocks, a balance bar was used, to one end of which a drilling tool was attached. The other end of the balancer was connected to the drive pulley by means of a crank. The pulley was rotated by a steam engine. When drilling deep wells, sliding rods, or scissors, were used. Deep wells were fixed with casing pipes.

The descent and retrieval of the drilling tool and casing pipes, the chiselling of the rock, the descent and retrieval of the bailer to extract the drilled rock was provided by a drilling rig, the main shaft of which was rotated by a steam engine. From the main shaft, the chain drum received movement, with the help of which the drilling tool was raised and lowered. The balancer was driven by a connecting rod with a crank mounted on a slotted shaft.

The first rotary drilling rig with a drilling rig 15 m high appeared in Baku in 1902. Its machine tool consisted of a transmission shaft and three gears. To one gear, the movement was transmitted from the steam engine in a single gear, from the other two gears, the movement was transmitted to the winch drum and rotor. The slurry for the removal of drilled rock was supplied to the drill pipes by a steam pump.

Oil was extracted from boreholes using cylindrical buckets up to 6 m long. A valve was arranged in the bottom of the bucket, opening upwards. Such a bucket, intended for cleaning wells, was called a bailer, and the method of extracting oil with a bailer was called tart.

The first experiments on the use of deep-well pumps for oil production in Baku were made in 1876. But these pumps quickly became clogged with sand, and the oil owners returned to the usual bailer. In the 70s. 19th century V.G. Shukhov proposed a compressor method for extracting oil from wells, in which compressed air was used to lift oil (airlift). This method was tested in Baku in 1897. Another method for lifting oil from wells - gas lift - was proposed by M.M. Tikhvinsky in 1914. Of all the known methods of oil production, the main one remained tart. With its help, in 1913, 95% of all oil was produced.

With the increase in the number of boreholes in Baku, oil production increased. In 1872, 23 thousand tons were mined, in 1875 - 81 thousand tons, in 1885 - 1.9 million tons, and in 1901 - 11.6 million tons. The Baku region provided 95% of the total oil production in Russia.

The number of oil refineries in Baku also increased, even residential buildings began to be converted into factories. Oil was used as fuel in factories, using the most primitive method of combustion - on the hearth of the furnace. The city was covered in soot. The inhabitants suffocated in the smoke. As early as the beginning of 1873, the city administration forced the breeders to move their "factories" to the territory adjacent to the city, two versts from it. There, with feverish speed, the Black City arose, in which already in the spring of 1873. there were 80 factories. At the end of the 1870s. the number of small oil refineries in the Baku region has already reached 200. The technically perfect ones included the plants of the Baku Oil Society and the plant of I.M. Mirzoev. The plant of the Nobel brothers was also equipped with advanced technology.

In 1878, the firm "Bari, Sytenko and Co." was built according to the project of V.G. Shukhov the first oil pipeline from the Baku fields to the Black City. In 1879, the construction of the Baku trade railway. In 1907, kerosene began to be pumped through the world's first Baku-Batumi main pipeline.

Each country is trying in every possible way to emphasize its contribution to the global treasury of knowledge. Since many “buy” decisions are made on an emotional level, contribution to the world of science and engineering is not so much a matter of prestige of individual specialists, but of maintaining the value of the country's brand as a whole.

Therefore, the struggle for supremacy in the oil and gas industry is not only for current market share or future production, but also for past inventions. There are hundreds of examples where the same equations or approaches are called differently in different languages. Who was the first? And how important is it anyway?

First oil well

Oil has been extracted since time immemorial from the surface in places of natural seepage. There are references to oil production from built wells up to 50 meters deep (in the Baku region since 1594).

It is believed that the first industrial production well was built in 1858 by Edwin Drake. After his retirement as a railroad worker, Drake was able to travel around the country for free. This, and a chance meeting at a hotel, landed Drake a job as a prospector, a $1,000 a year salary, and several shares of Seneca Oil.

Building deep wells in Pennsylvania prior to Drake was considered an insurmountable task due to rapid ground collapse. Drake's industrial innovations were the use of a steam engine instead of a manual drive and the casing of the wellbore with a built-up cast-iron pipe in the process of deepening the wellbore. This is how the Chinese drilled wells up to 500 meters deep to extract brine 2500 years ago. According to Chinese chronicles, sometimes combustible gas or oil broke through in a well lined with bamboo. Not surprisingly, the only driller who agreed to Drake's adventure was William Smith, a specialist in drilling wells for salt.

Rod pump at a production well. The pump is driven by a steam engine that is heated by firewood. Tarr Farm, Oil Creek Valley, Pennsylvania, 1868. Photograph from the Drake Well Museum.

Meanwhile, the first exploration well is located near Baku. It was built under the guidance of engineer Vasily Semenov, at the same depth - 21 meters. From the memorandum of the Viceroy in the Caucasus, Prince Vorontsov, dated July 14, 1848: "... The director of the Baku and Shirvan mineral fields reported that a well had been drilled in Bibi-Heybat, in which oil was found."

The steam machine for drilling in Russia was first used only in 1859 near the city of Podolsk. The first production well was built in Russia in the Kuban in 1864. The lag in the use of mechanized drilling also determined the subsequent lag in the use of other oil production technologies. For the time being, they simply did not see the need.

Reservoir at break

Early drilling techniques resulted in mud filtrate contamination of the bottomhole zone several meters deep into the formation. In addition, the wells drilled by percussion cable method did not completely penetrate the entire reservoir, because otherwise, Drake's casing would seal off the pay zone. Because of this, the well flow rate could be ten times lower than possible.

In 1865, retired Colonel E. Roberts receives patent No. 59,936 for "torpedoing" the bottomhole zone of a well. The service costing $100-200 and a royalty of 1/15th of future production was so popular that a lot of covenants (“moonlighters”) appeared on the market, violating the patent and the technology for handling gunpowder and nitroglycerin. Roberts had to hire Pinkerton detectives and spend a total of $250,000 in legal fees, arranging the largest patent defense in US history. The method ceased to be used only on May 5, 1990, when stocks of discontinued nitroglycerin ran out.

The next technology was perforating the casing with a multi-shot perforator, which made it possible to lower the casing string below the pay zone and open the entire reservoir. From 1930 to 1956, Ira McCullough receives many patents for rock drills. However, the reservoir is not perforated deep enough, and production remains several times lower than potential.

To solve this problem, in 1947 Floyd Farris and Joseph B. Clark (Stanolind Oil and Gas Corporation) hired Halliburton to create an artificial fracture in the reservoir - hydraulic fracturing (HF), passing through the damage and filled with a more conductive proppant - proppant. To do this, it was necessary to raise the pressure of the liquid at the bottomhole above the rock pressure and keep the fracture open for several hours until the proppant injected with the liquid takes its place and the pumps can be turned off.

A hydraulic fracturing field experiment was conducted in 1947 in a gas field in Kansas. Calculations for the Hugoton gas field, Kansas (depth 730 meters) showed a required pressure of 50-100 atm at the mouth (130-180 atm at the bottom) and injection volumes of several cubic meters of gel based on diesel fuel mixed with river sand. The process was patented by the oil company and immediately licensed to Halliburton. First commercial operation March 17, 1949 12 miles from Duncan, Oklahoma. On the same day, a second operation was carried out in neighboring Texas.

By 1980, over 150,000 hydraulic fracturing operations had been performed on 500,000 US wells. Re-fracs were performed on 35% of them. The first operation to create a fracture for the third time in the same well (tri-frac) was carried out in 1955. The maximum number of hydraulic fracturing operations was noted in 1955 - approximately 54,000 hydraulic fracturing per year.

In the USSR, hydraulic fracturing began to be used in 1952. Long before the invention of modern computers, in 1955, Soviet scientists Khristianovich and Zheltov developed the first two-dimensional model - KGD (Kristianovitch-Geertsma-de Klerk). In 1961 a second 2D model, PKN, was developed by Perkins and Kern, modified by Nordgren (1971). Half a century later, dozens of programs for pseudo-3D design and hydraulic fracturing optimization based on the PKN model compete on the market, the vast majority are created and finalized in the USA and Canada. More precise, fully 3D simultaneous modeling of geomechanics, hydraulics and transfer process requires calculations of several months and is not used in practice.

The main vector of model development is a more accurate and faster forecast of multi-stage operations on several horizontal wells simultaneously (zip fracs). Also interesting is the description of fracture interference (stress shadowing) and proppant transport, as well as a combination of ancillary technologies, including tracer injection, fiber optics, and microseismic monitoring. In the longer term, the previously tested use of foams based on CO2 and nitrogen will need to be reinvented.

The peak of the use of hydraulic fracturing in the USSR fell on 1959. oil fields Western Siberia. The revival of the practice of hydraulic fracturing in Russia began after the fall in oil prices, in the late 1980s. For 1988-1995 in Western Siberia, more than 1.6 thousand hydraulic fracturing operations were performed.

During the division of Yukos and the transfer of its assets to Rosneft, a number of high-ranking officials called hydraulic fracturing a “barbaric” and “predatory” method of extraction, which, however, did not prevent the increase in the number and tonnage of operations at the same fields in Russia from 5,000 in 2006 to around 15,000 in 2016.

From the experience of developing US fields in Russia, there may be a potential for reperforation and re-fracturing, as is practiced 5-10 years after the initial stimulation of the well. Due to geomechanical modeling, it is possible to predict how much the new fracture will deviate from the old one, and the hydrodynamic model will show the zones that need to be flooded. And if the wings of a new fracture pick up poorly drained interlayers, the water cut and gas content in the produced fluid will sharply decrease. This will be a signal that the re-operation has not only increased the rate of recovery, but also the recoverable reserves of this section of the field. Needless to say, the “barbaric method” that a new well in Russia rarely does without has already led to a market upheaval, a collapse in prices and the start of American oil exports. Given the high water cut and low oil production in wells drilled in 2012 and earlier, the technical risks of most re-fracturing are low - there is not much to lose.

Increasing volumes

Due to the fact that oil is often lighter than water, the pressure in the reservoir is able to deliver oil to the surface in a fountain. But at the same time, the oil flow rate is five times lower than the maximum possible, and the energy of the reservoir does not last long. For traditional reservoirs - several months, for shale deposits - up to several years.

Once again, Drake was an industrial innovator, taking a hand pump from the kitchen. By creating a vacuum of one atmosphere from the surface, he increased production from 10 to 25 barrels per day, leaving the entire town of Titusville without circulating whiskey barrels. This example shows well the danger of comparing only production data. Without pressure data - financial analysts can easily be mistaken by several times when comparing a well flowing through a choke with a well operating in an empty hole (AOF).

A pump at the surface can create a vacuum and add atmospheric pressure to the energy of the formation itself. You can create a greater vacuum with a pump in the well, but how to set it in motion? The first solution is a mechanical transmission from the surface, but then a long rod is needed, the stroke of which will limit the maximum flow rate. In 1865, just as the wells from the first wave of industrial drilling stopped flowing, the Americans began to massively use submersible plunger pumps, with a piston driven by an engine from the surface through a balancer from a drilling machine and a wooden rod (see Figure 1). In Russia, the innovation found its market only in 1874.

But what if the wells are getting deeper and deeper and you need to create a pressure of several hundred atmospheres? And drillers have learned to drill inclined wells at the right angle?

Then it is reasonable to place both the pump and the motor in the well itself. This requires an ultra-small device size and high power per unit volume. An electric motor was the only option at the time. In 1911, Armais Arutyunov opens his company in Yekaterinoslav and creates a high-speed compact electric motor that can operate completely submerged in water. And in 1916, he brought to mind a pair working on one shaft: a motor and a centrifugal pump. In this case, a powerful motor is located below the pump and is cooled by the oncoming fluid flow.

In 1919, Arutyunov emigrated first to Berlin, then, in 1923, to Los Angeles, where he tried to convince him to introduce his development. Everywhere there was a refusal with the words that the device was contrary to the known laws of electricity. It is noteworthy that 50 years earlier, in Austria, Graz University professor Jacob Peschl gave a lecture on the impracticability of using alternating current in electric motors to one of his students. The student's name was Nikola Tesla, and the name of Professor Peshl will forever remain in the history of engineering.

In 1928 Arutyunov moved to Oklahoma and opened his own company with his partner Frank Phillips (Director of Phillips Petroleum Co.). In 1930 the company was renamed REDA pump Co. (from Russian Electrical Dynamo of Arutunoff). Hundreds of American workers laid off during the Great Depression found work in it. By the end of the 30s, REDA had more than 90 patents, and Arutyunov did not deny himself anything until the end of his life. His portrait hangs in the Oklahoma State Hall of Fame.

The REDA brand of electric submersible pumps (ESP) was the only one on the US market until 1957, and a century after the prototype was created, it is still part of the Schlumberger product line. It is noteworthy that the North Burbank Unit, where Frank Phillips made his fortune, is still producing oil through CO2 injection (see the NGV paper "Greenhouse effect in oil production" in issue #13/14, 2017) and pressure, created by ESP REDA.

The first ESP in the USSR was launched in 1943, when 53 REDA pumps were received from the USA under Lend-Lease. The domestic analogue was lowered on March 20, 1951 into well No. 18/11 of Grozneft. The West Siberian province began to be developed much later than the Oklahoma and Texas fields, so the flow rates remain higher than in the USA and require powerful pumps. Until now, more than 80% of oil is produced in Russia by ESP. More than 80,000 wells are equipped with them.

The shale revolution sharply increased the flow rates of US wells, and cheap oil sharply reduced wages in Russia, so for Russian ESP producers: Borets (Lysvaneftemash LLC), Novomet (the company of the same name, Perm), Almaz (Raduzhny, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug) and Alnas (Riemera Group of Companies - part of ChTPZ Holding) opens a unique window of opportunity. But only if they can compete with REDA (Schlumberger) and Centrilift (Baker Hughes) in terms of high GOR rate range and price with Chinese producers. One of the barriers to entry will be, oddly enough, the lack of experience in installing and maintaining ESPs among the Americans. For them, the era of mass use of ESP ended in the 1970s, but begins again, and in the same oil production areas as half a century ago.

New technologies and pilot samples often appear outside the United States, but in a surprisingly systematic way, the states become a place for their mass application, refinement and transformation into a mass export product. Lucky inventors may be making one unique breakthrough, but the true revolutions in the industry are made by people who have systematically tried hundreds and thousands of approaches and found the right combination of previously known technologies. Therefore, it is not very important where the technology was born, it is important who first guessed to cross it with several already known ones and bring the product to mass use.

Americans associate the birth of the oil industry with Drake, not because he was an outstanding inventor or even a successful businessman. He had no business acumen and the drilling method remained unpatented. After losing on the stock market in 1863, he was forced to live in old age on a special state pension of $1,500/year (an unimaginable generosity at the time), one and a half times his starting salary from Seneca Oil.

Drake became famous because he went against the opinion of the experts in water drilling, rode 90 miles in search of a salt driller who would take on a crazy job. In addition, he combined the well-known drilling method with the well-known water pumping technology. Production increased many times and became commercial.

The user needs to optimize for a dozen scenarios, and not fight with an inconvenient tool in everyday work and guess at incomprehensible parameters and initial data. There is an alternative to new methods - this is the good old principle, known in all languages ​​- "we have always done it this way." Therefore, in order not to fall behind, it is worth working for the future, and not clinging to the great past.