Development. Siberian oil Discovery of Siberian oil

The history of the discovery of Siberian oil began long before it became a world-famous symbol of the region. For several centuries, a number of researchers assumed the presence of oil wealth in the Western Siberian region. Thus, back in the 18th century, the Croatian scientist and public figure Yuri Krizanich, exiled to Tobolsk, wrote about the release of oil satellites - bitumen shale in the Ob River basin. Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the expedition D.G. Messerschmidt wrote in his book “The Northern and Eastern Part of Europe and Asia”, published in 1730, about the presence of flammable bituminous material on the Irtysh.

An outstanding role in the discovery of oil and gas resources in Western Siberia was played by the founder of Soviet petroleum geology, academician Ivan Mikhailovich Gubkin (see Fig. 1).

Fig.1. Ivan Mikhailovich Gubkin

In 1932, he put forward a working hypothesis about the existence of oil fields in the region of the West Siberian Lowland. THEM. Gubkin actively sought the deployment of comprehensive petrogeological research here. However, for another two decades, work to find oil in this area did not produce the expected results.

The turning point from which, as a rule, the history of the West Siberian oil and gas province begins, was a powerful gas release that occurred in 1953 at a drilling site located near the ancient outpost of Russian development of Siberia - the village of Berezovo. This event was the impetus for large-scale geological exploration work in a number of regions of the Tyumen North. On the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, systematic geophysical and drilling work began in 1954. In 1958, a comprehensive geological exploration expedition was created in Salekhard, headed by V.D. Bovanenko (see Fig.2) . Its goal was to prove the predictions of Academician I.M. Gubkin about the oil and gas potential of the Yamal region.

Fig.2. Search for Siberian oil in the mid-twentieth century

(based on materials from the site http://www.ikz.ru/siberianway/library/index.html)

An important result of the geological exploration work that began was the discovery in 1959 near the village of Shaim (near the modern city of Urai) of an oil and gas bearing formation with a daily oil production volume of over one ton. In subsequent years, such large oil and gas fields as Megionskoye, Ust-Balykskoye, Zapadno-Surgutskoye, Punginskoye, etc. were discovered. In 1962, a fountain of natural gas was obtained from a well drilled near the village of Tazovskoye with a flow rate of more than a million cubic meters per day . The Tazovskoye field became the first large gas field discovered in the Arctic.

In 1963, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a decree “On the organization of preparatory work for the industrial development of open oil and gas fields and on the further development of geological exploration work in the Tyumen region.” Preparations began for trial exploitation of proven reserves, and by 1964 they totaled about 300 million tons of oil and 176 billion cubic meters of gas in 8 oil and 2 gas fields [Essays on the history of the Tyumen region, 1994]. In the same year, construction began on the first main pipelines: gas Igrim - Serov and oil Shaim - Tyumen and Ust - Balyk - Omsk.

The year 1965 became a new milestone in the history of the development of the West Siberian oil and gas province. This year, the Samotlor oil field was discovered, which in terms of proven reserves became the largest in the Soviet Union, and one of the ten largest in the world. In the same year, the Berezovskaya group of gas fields was discovered, which produced from 500 thousand to 1.5 million cubic meters of gas per day, as well as the Zapolyarnoye gas condensate field, colossal in its reserves. A year later, the world's largest oil and gas condensate field was discovered. In 1967, the Nadymskoye and Medvezhye gas fields were discovered, and in 1969, a new world giant was the Yamburg gas condensate field.

In 1972, construction began on the country's largest oil pipeline, Samotlor - Almetyevsk, the length of which was about 1,850 kilometers. After its completion, West Siberian oil began to flow to other countries through the Druzhba oil pipeline system. By that time, due to a significant increase in world oil prices and the “energy crisis” that had begun in a number of Western countries, the Soviet Union quickly began to gain the role of a major global “resource power”, and in the state’s economy, funds received from sales of energy resources.

One of the most pressing and complex tasks of that time was the need to develop deposits that were unique in their scale, located in hard-to-reach, sparsely populated, and sometimes completely deserted areas, located mainly in the taiga and tundra zones. This process of arrangement was associated not only with the problems of transporting and installing heavy equipment into regions of the North with extreme climatic conditions, but also with laying pipelines and other utilities through them. One of the most pressing problems was the organization of working and living conditions for a significant number of people involved in the process of “new industrial” development. One of the widely implemented options for solving this problem was the organization of work at the fields on a rotational basis. Most often, it boiled down to the fact that teams of specialists from large cities located at a considerable distance (received in the North the name “mainland”) were delivered to the sites of field development. Here they performed the necessary work during a shift that lasted from several weeks to several months, living in minimally comfortable conditions, most often in special temporary trailers. However, carrying out work on a rotational basis alone could not fully satisfy the demands of the rapidly developing administrative and technological infrastructure of the emerging oil and gas production complex. Therefore, from the mid-1960s, an intensive process of urbanization of the Tyumen North began, which resulted in the emergence in a short period of time of a specific settlement system, consisting of cities and workers’ settlements that met the various tasks of the industrial development carried out here. In 1964, oil workers' settlements were founded in Urai and Surgut. A year later they received the status of cities. In 1967, the city of Nefteyugansk appeared on the map of the Soviet Union, and in 1972 - Nizhnevartovsk and Nadym, which became outposts for the development of a number of major oil and gas fields. In 1980, the city of Novy Urengoy was formed, which was formed on the site of the Urengoy gas condensate field and became the support base for the development of a number of other promising fields, mainly located in the polar regions of Yamal. In 1982, in a similar way, on the site of a workers’ settlement, the city of Noyabrsk was formed.

In 1984, the Soviet Union took first place in the world in natural gas production - 587 billion cubic meters per year. By this time, the construction of the Urengoy – Uzhgorod gas pipeline had been completed. The opening ceremony of the transcontinental gas pipeline Western Siberia - Western Europe with a length of over 20 thousand kilometers took place in France. Through it, the export of Tyumen “blue fuel” was carried out to Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium and a number of other countries. In the 1990s, a number of large oil companies emerged with the participation of private capital, developing fields in the Tyumen North, such as: Surgutneftegaz, Lukoil, Slavneft, Yukos, Sibneft, Tyumen Oil Company " and etc.

The West Siberian region includes: the Altai Republic, Altai Territory, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk and Tyumen regions. Western Siberia occupies an area of ​​2427.2 thousand km2. Population - 15,128 thousand people, including urban - 10,741 thousand people.

Approximately 11% of the number of people employed in material production, 12% of the total gross product, 14% of fixed assets, and 20% of Russian construction products are concentrated in Western Siberia. Among the 11 economic regions of Russia, Western Siberia ranks third or fourth in terms of the scale of its economy.

In terms of industrial production, the Tyumen region ranks first in the region. (1/3 of the entire Western Siberia, and for fixed assets of industry - up to 60%). The Kemerovo region is in second place in industrial production. (more than 25% of all Western Siberia and almost 7% of the Russian mining industry). Altai Territory, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions. They are approximately the same in industrial production and share third to fifth place in Western Siberia.

The economy of the region has a pronounced specialization: 46% of the production of the Russian fuel industry is concentrated here. The region is home to Russia's largest deposits of oil and gas (Tyumen region), as well as hard coal (Kuznetsk basin) and brown coal (western part of the Kansk-Achinsk basin). Western Siberia is the largest energy-rich region in Russia, supplying with oil, gas and coal not only the needs of other regions of the country, but also the bulk of all Russian energy exports.

Industries that are integrated with the raw material base have received widespread development - the chemical and petrochemical industries, ferrous metallurgy; The construction complex is relatively developed.

The departmental approaches to the industrial development of natural resources in Western Siberia that have developed in the past, based on the ultra-intensive exploitation of the largest oil, gas and coal deposits, the residual principle of centralized financing of the development of the social sphere, the negative impact on the nature of the oil and gas and energy complexes have given rise to a number of serious problems for the territories |30|:

Low level of development of social and industrial infrastructure;

Degradation of the economic system;

Destruction of the livelihoods of the small peoples of the North.

The processes of formation of the main fuel bases of Russia here - the West Siberian oil and gas complex and the Kuznetsk coal basin - had a decisive impact on the industry and national economy of the region as a whole.

Western Siberia is rich in almost all types of fuel and energy resources: oil, gas, hard and brown coal, peat, as well as hydropower and resources of non-traditional types of energy, which retains its position as the main fuel base of Russia throughout the entire period under consideration.

Hydrocarbon deposits are confined to the West Siberian province, located within the Tyumen, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, Taimyr, Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous districts. About 58% of all-Russian initial total oil resources and 60% of gas are concentrated here |7, p. 481, their current (1995-1996) production is 68% and 90%, respectively. Despite the fact that Western Siberia has already produced (at the beginning of 1997) 6.7 billion tons of oil and 7.7 trillion m! gas, the province still has significant oil and gas potential: undiscovered oil reserves here account for 56% of the initial total reserves, and gas - 45%, which reflects the relatively low level of knowledge of the region |7, p. 62, 72|.

In the West Siberian province, there are 10 oil and gas bearing regions, 4 of them in the north of the province (Nadym-Pur, Pur-Taz, Yamal and Gydan) are predominantly gas-bearing. The Priuralskaya and Frolovskaya (in the west), Sredneobskaya and Kaimysovskaya (in the center), Vasyuganskaya and Paiduginskaya (in the east) oil and gas regions contain mainly oil resources. The main role in the current production and concentration of industrial oil reserves is played by the Sredneobskaya oil and gas region |7, p. 461.

The largest field in the province is the Samotlor oil, gas and condensate field, whose initial recoverable oil reserves amounted to 3.3 billion tons. Oil production from this field from the beginning of its development until 1996 amounted to over 2.1 billion tons. Next comes the Priobskoye oil field with initial recoverable reserves of over 0.7 billion tons, Fedorovskoye oil and gas condensate (0.7 billion tons), Mamontovskoye oil (0.6 billion tons), Russian gas and oil (0.4 billion tons), etc. The degree of depletion of the largest fields varies widely - from 0.2% (Russkoe) to 73% (Mamontovskoe). The fields with highly productive deposits have the greatest depletion, which ensured high rates of oil extraction from them (Samotlorskoye - 65%, Fedorovskoye - 59%, etc.).

In general, the degree of oil production in the province's developing fields is about 35%.

The province's oils are generally of high quality and high quality in terms of their physical and chemical parameters. The distribution of current proven oil reserves by sulfur content looks like this: up to 0.5% 8 - 30.0%: 0.5...2.0% 8 - 69.8%: more than 2.0% 8 - 0.2%. As for density, 80.0% of them have a density of up to 0.87 g/cm"; 10.4% - 0.87... 0.90 g/cm"; more than 0.90 g/cm" - 9.6%)