Gazprom Neft’s digital system identifies new oil strata in the Yamalo-Nenets AO

St.Petersburg, June 6 - Neftegaz.RU. Gazprom Neft has been able to produce additional oil revealed following the digital processing of geological data at the Vyngarupovskoye field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YANAO).

These new strata, which were previously difficult to locate using traditional methods, were 1st identified via a self-learning programme developed by the Gazprom Neft Science and Technology Centre, in collaboration with IBM Services. With the help of the programme, Gazprom Neft has been able to produce oil from these strata without extra drilling costs or the need to create additional infrastructure.

This system is the only one of its kind currently available on the market. The programme was developed based on the specialist experience of Gazprom Neft Science and Technology Centre employees, and the pilot project involved the repeated analysis of data from over 3,000 wells in the Vyngapurovskoye field and the identification of new areas of potential. Commercial operations have confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons in these target zones. As a result of testing, oil-inflows have been obtained without the need for additional infrastructure.

The programme processes hundreds of gigabytes of data from thousands of wells across the field, simultaneously analysing around 60,000 outputs from geophysical investigations. Using a combination of both historical and newly available geological data, the neural network searches for patterns which indicate where strata - previously unidentified due to their small size or complex structure - might be located. Work on electronic data processing and the search for additional reserves in the field takes under a month.

Vadim Yakovlev, 1st Deputy CEO, Gazprom Neft, commented: “Together with our partners, we developing and implementing cognitive systems which can support us with drilling, interpreting geological information and conceptual design. Artificial intelligence, which has been trained in line with the experience of Company specialists, is able to process huge volumes of industry information, and enables us to extract oil that would once have been inaccessible.”