Today, Bashneft Group opened a state-of-the-art Drilling Support Centre (DSC) in Ufa designed and constructed by Schlumberger, the world’s leading supplier of a full range of modern technologies, project management services and IT solutions for the oil and gas industry. The DSC is designed to provide professional real-time drilling support maximizing operational and economic efficiency. Bashneft’s investment in the creation of the DSC totalled 165 million roubles.

‘We intend to use Schlumberger’s expertise in drilling support to further increase the productivity of wells by integrating drilling and geology, and to improve the quality of decision-making when managing the efficiency of field development,’ stated Mikhail Stavskiy, Bashneft’s First Vice President for Upstream and Geology. ‘I am convinced that advanced technologies introduced in the Centre and a high level of proficiency of our geological services and the Group’s research centre, BashNIPIneft, will enable us to successfully achieve these objectives.’

‘Bashneft’s Drilling Support Centre was constructed using the most advanced technologies,’ emphasized Gokhan Saygi, the President of Schlumberger Russia and Central Asia. ‘This is a unique environment providing information and analytical support of projects, which includes geological interpretation, updating geological models, geosteering, geological risk management, monitoring and optimizing drilling, monitoring the strength of borehole walls and using the acquired knowledge.’

Regardless of where drilling is conducted (the Republic of Bashkortostan or the Nenets Autonomous District), intelligent drilling support will enable Bashneft to obtain necessary information on the formation structure in real time, make informed decisions concerning well design and placement, as well as drill a smaller number of wells and reduce the amount of horizontal drilling when developing formations. Thus, the Group expects to reduce geological risks, ensure that the productivity of new wells is several times higher than the current level and increase the recovery factor.

In recent years, Bashneft has considerably increased the efficiency of geological and engineering operations, including drilling new production wells. In 2012 alone, commissioning of new wells accounted for 19% of production growth related to geological and engineering operations (over 284 thousand tonnes).

In 2012 the average initial production rate of Bashneft’s newly drilled wells totalled 60.5 tonnes per day compared to 19.2 tonnes per day in 2011 and 15 tonnes per day in 2010.