INTERNAL PRICE AND TECHNOLOGY KEYS TO SOVIET OIL FLOW

An important key to worldwide oil supply is future Soviet production. There is concern that the current decline in production will persist until the U.S.S.R. no longer has oil to export. But increases in internal market prices for oil could help boost Soviet reserves and production, says Pyotr A. Brodsky, director general, Sojuzpromgeophysica, Tver, U.S.S.R. The use of advanced stimulation technology will help, too, and "will be, from my point of view, a very profitable sphere for investment in

April 29, 1991

2 min read

An important key to worldwide oil supply is future Soviet production.

There is concern that the current decline in production will persist until the U.S.S.R. no longer has oil to export.

But increases in internal market prices for oil could help boost Soviet reserves and production, says Pyotr A. Brodsky, director general, Sojuzpromgeophysica, Tver, U.S.S.R.

The use of advanced stimulation technology will help, too, and "will be, from my point of view, a very profitable sphere for investment in the Soviet oil industry."

Brodsky told delegates to the SPE symposium in Dallas, "Low internal oil prices have exclusively oriented the industry to fields with high productivity wells."

Large prospects with no infrastructure and small deposits remote from pipelines have not been developed. And reservoirs that require advanced stimulation technology to be commercial have not been tapped.

Use of fracturing, acidizing, and other formation treatments is "extremely limited" due to the low internal price, Brodsky said.

Although productivity of many reservoirs is considered low, based on previous economic criteria, "they may turn out to be quite commercial, especially with the application of formation stimulation," he said. Reserves of many fields may be significantly increased with a higher internal product prices and use of stimulation, Brodsky said.