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At the international conference "Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan - 2024" in Ashgabat, Irina Luryeva, head of the laboratory of the Scientific Research Institute of Natural Gas of the State Corporation "Turkmengas", made an interesting presentation. Three target questions were formulated, to which the doctor of technical sciences gave compact, clear and precise answers.

Question 1: At what stage is the development of the Galkynysh field and what is its uniqueness?

• At this stage of exploration of the Galkynysh field, the forecast calculations of the development indicators provide for 7 stages of development.

The uniqueness of the Galkynysh field lies not only in its gigantic reserves and large area, but also in the fact that the gas-bearing floor is on average more than 700 m, the depth of occurrence is more than 5000 m, abnormally high reservoir pressure, the presence of reefs and dense carbonate formations within one horizon, the gas composition is about 10% acidic components.

The first stage of the field development is in pilot operation. The operating fund of production wells is 52 units. More than 10 wells are in active drilling.

At the same time, Luryeva drew attention to the fact that the average design gas flow rate is 1.5 million cubic meters per day, and the potential capabilities of the reservoir allow for a long time to operate wells with a flow rate of more than 2 million cubic meters per day. According to forecasts made by Turkmen specialists together with experts from GaffneyCline, the period of continuous gas extraction at each stage will be more than 30 years.

Within the framework of the first stage of development, there are 3 wells, the original design and correct placement of which made it possible to achieve a design gas flow rate of about 3 million cubic meters per day, which has been stably maintained for a year and a half of their operation.

Question 2: What are the prospects for further development of the field?

This slide shows a development history chart and forecast showing annual gross gas extraction for the field as a whole. The field is at the stage of pilot production and gas extraction rates will increase in the future. Next in line are stages 2, 3 and 4 of field development with targeted use of gas. Currently, active discussions are underway on investment proposals for the development of these stages. During the period of continuous extraction, it is planned that the gross annual gas production for the entire field will reach almost 200 billion cubic meters.

It is the strategy of stage-by-stage development of the field that will allow regulating the investment flow, as well as taking into account technological experience and geological and field data obtained from wells already in operation during the implementation of each subsequent stage of development.

Question 3: Apart from drilling wells and building gas preparation plants for transportation at the Galkynysh field, what else requires potential investment?

Experience in developing the Galkynysh field has led us to a correct understanding of the formation opening strategy, the advantages of various well designs, and the specifics of drilling wells in reef deposits. However, there are still many areas for improving the technologies used at the Galkynysh field.

One of these relevant areas, both from a technological and environmental perspective, is the use of sulfur and carbon dioxide.

One of the optimal solutions is to inject acid gases into underground formations. Our Natural Gas Research Institute has considered several options, namely, injecting carbon dioxide into aquifers both within the field itself and into nearby structures, as well as injecting into depleted deposits of neighboring fields. The main idea of ​​in-situ utilization of carbon dioxide is to use regionally developed highly porous deposits of the Bukhara horizon of the Paleocene to form an acid gas deposit or to use depleted productive sandstone formations, also to form a man-made deposit.

We know that in many countries, high-sulfur gas deposits are under development. We would be interested in discussing the experience of other companies and the solutions they have found, as well as attracting interested investors to the problem of hydrogen sulfide utilization and the use of sulfur and carbon dioxide.

Irina Luryeva is a Doctor of Technical Sciences with over 20 patents and over 200 scientific and educational publications. After graduating from the Turkmen Polytechnic Institute in 1988 with a degree in Technology and Complex Mechanization of Oil and Gas Field Development, she began her career as a research fellow and teacher. Since September 2006, she has been working at the Natural Gas Research Institute under the State Concern “Turkmengaz”. She is currently the head of the laboratory for Development of the Galkynysh Gas Field and International Gas Pipelines and a mentor for young scientists and specialists. Her research interests include hydrodynamic modeling of gas field development, improvement of field development technologies and well operation.

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