Crude processed underground can drastically boost production, according to researchers
A team of Russian and foreign experts and scientists at Kazan Federal University have developed and started to successfully apply the revolutionary concept of refining oil underground. The idea was presented at the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow on Thursday.
Specialists from Mexico, Yemen, China, and Chad are part of a laboratory that developed the idea of combining two processes – oil extraction and refining, according to Mikhail Varfolomeyev, the head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the university.
”Essentially, we created a new industry. We learned how to partially process oil underground and significantly increased oil recovery,” Varfolomeyev said at a session on chemistry.
The research into underground refining is particularly important for the Republic of Tatarstan, where Kazan University is located, as half of the region’s oil reserves consist of heavy crude, a highly viscous substance that cannot easily flow from production wells, Varfolomeyev noted.
Tatneft, a major oil and gas company headquartered in the republic, has helped put the concept into practice.
“Experiments in wells exceeded expectations several times over. We anticipated a 40-50% increase in oil production, but it reached 200%. This goes beyond import substitution, rather becoming a case of innovative import substitution, or leapfrogging industrial development,” Varfolomeyev said.
Import substitution is a term that refers to replacing foreign imports with domestically produced goods or equipment, something that Russia has made strides in since 2022, when Western-imposed sanctions severely limited the country’s foreign trade.
Russia is going through “hard times,” as it cannot freely buy technology and goods it needs, according to another participant at the forum, Presidential Aide for Science and Education Andrey Fursenko, who added that the country has the resources to overcome the issue.
The Russian Science Foundation, a state-funded organization that supports scientific research and innovation, has contributed to the funding of the research. Russia’s largest integrated petrochemical company, Sibur, and Gazprom Neft, the oil subsidiary of energy giant Gazprom, have also come on board, Varfolomeyev said.
Russia is one of the world’s top three crude producers, vying for the top spot with Saudi Arabia and the US, according to the International Energy Agency.
In January, the US imposed new sanctions against Russia’s oil production and exports, aiming, among other things, to limit the provision of technical know-how and equipment to the country’s oil industry.
The Future Technologies Forum is taking place in the Russian capital February 20-21.
