KAZAKHSTAN UPSTREAM OIL AND GAS technology and R&d ...

1.4 Core analysis and data interpretation
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Solutions commentary
There is much to be gained by building a
specialised SCAL services capability (focused
on the study of sour reservoirs) in Kazakhstan.
The country has the potential to become a
regional centre for such work, possibly even
the world’s leading centre in the long term.
Kazakhstan’s complex rocks and fluids dictate
the need for special measurements that require
the displacement of sour in-situ fluids to be
performed on a core from the same formation.
These measurements are only available in
Canada, which serves as the world’s centre of
excellence for such measurements.
By adopting such technologies in Kazakhstan,
and by the sheer magnitude of its application
in Kazakhstan, the country could become,
in time, the new centre of excellence for this
work.
There are other issues in this area, for example,
surrounding solid hydrocarbons (bitumen)
present in abundance in the pore space. Core
NMR measurements are needed to study this.
However, owing to the low porosity of some
carbonate rocks in Kazakhstan, NMR logs
cannot resolve such issues. More research
is needed here; cooperation between IOCs,
ISCs and NOCs would be valuable in
establishing this work in the top universities in
Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan Upstream oil & gas technology and R&D roadmap