Case Study: Lukoil achieves 82% NTG in a thin reservoir with SLB drilling and geosteering services

LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft Achieves 82% NTG in 2.5-m-Thick Sweet Spot with PeriScope HD Service

SLB worked with Lukoil-Nizhnevolzhskneft on a challenging offshore extended-reach well in the Caspian Sea, where the goal was to place a long horizontal section inside a very thin reservoir only 2–2.5 m thick while staying above a nearby oil/water contact and avoiding nearby wells. The project required tight trajectory control, high drilling efficiency, and accurate geosteering in a reservoir with limited offset data and complex geology, using SLB tools such as PeriScope HD service, PowerDrive Xceed RSS, and EcoScope service.

SLB integrated geosteering, drilling, telemetry, drillbit optimization, and wellbore stability services to drill the 3,694-m horizontal section in one run and land the well 6 days ahead of the section AFE. The result was an average ROP of 48 m/h and an overall 82% net-to-gross ratio, with 86.7% reservoir exposure in the first 2,936 m before geosteering was stopped to control torque; SLB’s solution also set records for the longest PeriScope HD geosteering run and longest 9½-in section drilled in a single run in the project.

Lukoil