The Ojak gas field was the cause for the formation in 1966 of the center of Turkmen gas workers – the town of Gazojak near the village of Shiharyk. By the end of 1970, 19 large and small gas and gas condensate fields had been discovered on the territory of South-Eastern and North-Eastern Turkmenistan. Of these, the Kukurtli and Minara (Maysk) gas and condensate fields were put into operation in 1970.

Thus, in 1971–1976, the Northern Ojak gas condensate fields with small resources and Naýyp with large resources and the gas condensate fields with huge gas resources – Eastern (Şehitli) and Western (Jojukly) Şatlyk were put into operation in Eastern Turkmenistan in 1973.

As a result, the number of fields exploited during this period increased to 7, and the volume of natural gas production in 1976 increased 4.7 times compared to 1970. In the same year, the Maysk–Ashgabat–Buzmeyin main gas pipeline, intended for domestic consumers, was built, starting from the Maysk gas field discovered in 1964. Natural gas began to be transported to Ashgabat along this route.

For the first time in world practice, the Ojak gas condensate field used a method of simultaneous and separate exploitation (SSE). It has been proved that the development of the field by the SSO method makes it possible to reduce the cost of hydrocarbon production by reducing the cost of operation and maintenance of production wells, to accelerate the process of development and extraction of raw materials and to increase the possibility of commissioning new productive formations.

This method was used in the development of the multi-layer gas condensate fields of Kukurtli and Naýyp, which were brought to their design capacity 3-4 years ahead of schedule. In exploration and production wells at these and other multilayer exploration fields, casing columns with a diameter of 148 millimeters were replaced with columns of 168 millimeters, as a result of which the productivity of wells was increased by 50-70%.

It should also be noted that a separate processing line was built at three gas processing facilities of the Kukurtli, Ojak and Naýyp fields for each of the production wells, however, several wells were connected to one processing line at subsequent gas processing facilities of the Ojak and Naýyp fields, and, as a result, hundreds of tons of metal were saved.

For services to the successful introduction of the SSE method into production and the extraction of tens of billions of cubic meters of natural gas for the national economy through the use of this method, a group of specialists from the Turkmengazsenagat Production Association was awarded the title of laureate of the State Prize of Turkmenistan in the field of science and technology in 1972.

The above-mentioned method of simultaneous and separate exploitation of several productive horizons of multilayer deposits in practice had its drawbacks, which can be eliminated. For example, when simultaneously exploiting two productive formations in one well, it is impossible to accurately determine the mode of operation of wells (to separately determine the volume of gas of each of the simultaneously exploited formations, to determine the pressure created in the bottomhole zone of wells during gas production, etc.), applying the usual method. This caused the need to find new ways to control the operation of reservoirs. In addition, in order to increase the efficiency of field development, the rational use of this method to increase the gas productivity of reservoirs and to raise the productivity of gas wells, through the joint efforts of specialists from enterprises and researchers from research institutes, dozens of effective proposals and methods were introduced into production, due to which tens of billions of cubic meters of natural gas were extracted and put at the service of the people, exceeding the volumes of gas provided for by the project.

Oraznazar HESHDEKOV,

Ussatnews.com.