The oil reserves of the Lutseyakhskoye field are concentrated in the low-permeable Achimov formations. Horizontal wells with multi-stage fracturing are seemed to be the only way for economically viable oil production. Few issues complicate the field development. The first issue is geological. Water-saturated layer Ach32 is located close to the oil-bearing reservoir occurs in the immediate vicinity of the oil-bearing reservoir Ach33. Thickness of the shale between layers varies from 6 to 12 m. Taking into account the total thickness of the oil-bearing formation of about 50 m, this imposes serious requirements for controlling the height of hydraulic fractures. According to estimations, breakthrough of hydraulic fractures into the aquifer leads to high initial water cut (up to 60-80%) of new wells. The second issue is economical, which consists of high capital expenditures that should be done on initial stage of the field development (pipeline and facilities construction) and high uncertainty of the production forecast due to low permeable and complicated reservoir characteristics. Optimization of hydraulic fracturing technology is the key to solving problems in both cases. The Achimov reservoir is referred to as a tight formation and is currently at the evaluation stage. Despite that, all hydraulic fracturing operations were technologically successful. In addition, this project was supported by an extensive investigation program for studying of geomechanical properties of the reservoir. This study includes core testing, construction of the geomechanical models and multiple calculations to optimize fracture parameters. Activities in the Achimov formation were complemented by specialized well logging methods like imagers and dipole acoustic and microseismic survey. This allows to orient the azimuth of horizontal sections of the wells and to calibrate the geomechanical model to the actual height of hydraulic fractures.
