Eastern Siberia is a relatively new and intensively developing oil and gas production region in Russia. One of the largest fields is the Verkhnechonskoye oil-gas-condensate field in the Irkutsk region. This field was launched into commercial development in 2008. With increasing oil production, there arose a question of associated petroleum gas utilization. The first design documents provided for the use of gas for own needs such as power and heat generation and oil treatment. However, that required only insignificant portion of produced associated petroleum gas. Building a commercial power plant to provide electricity to the north of the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as supplying gas to the Sibur’s gas processing plant in Kirensk were also considered as possible solutions to the problem. However, significant amounts of power were unclaimed in the region, and the need to build an extended export gas pipeline threatened the project economics. To prevent air pollution by flaring and to preserve valuable fluids, it was decided to organize temporary underground gas storage by injecting the produced associated petroleum gas into a reservoir with the potential for future sales when the gas infrastructure of the region is developed enough. The accumulated experience, developed approaches and technological solutions can be applied to objects in Eastern Siberia with similar geological and physical characteristics.
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