The article is devoted to the issues of justifying the unit cost of well construction when preparing project documents for the development of hydrocarbon deposits. Existing approaches to calculating capital investments for drilling wells are reviewed and analyzed, and the main disadvantages and advantages are identified. The analysis carried out by the authors showed that the actual drilling costs of the subsoil user differ significantly from the calculated ones, which significantly affects the assessment of drilling costs and the assessment of the volume of economically recoverable reserves. In order to increase the accuracy of calculations, the authors made proposals for improving approaches to justifying the cost of drilling. The article discusses the main types of services and cost items that form the cost of well drilling, and shows the structure of drilling costs in various geographic regions. Based on the analysis, the main drivers for each cost item that forms the cost of well construction were identified. The authors propose to use price groups of wells when justifying the cost of drilling, which increases the justification of the projected investment in drilling. A practical example shows the calculation of the cost of well drilling, a comparative analysis of the use of various approaches is made, on the basis of which the authors conclude that the maximum correspondence of the projected costs to the actual data is ensured by the approach proposed by the authors. As an evidence base, an example is considered showing the change in the volume of profitable reserves, capital investments, income of the subsoil user and the state over a profitable period using the traditional approach to justifying the cost of wells drilling proposed by the authors.
References
1. Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 30, 2021 No 2127 “O poryadke podgotovki, soglasovaniya i utverzhdeniya tekhnicheskikh proektov razrabotki mestorozhdeniy poleznykh iskopaemykh, tekhnicheskikh proektov stroitel’stva i ekspluatatsii podzemnykh sooruzheniy, tekhnicheskikh proektov likvidatsii i konservatsii gornykh vyrabotok, burovykh skvazhin i inykh sooruzheniy, svyazannykh s pol’zovaniem nedrami, po vidam poleznykh iskopaemykh i vidam pol’zovaniya nedrami” (On the procedure for the preparation, coordination and approval of technical projects for the development of mineral deposits, technical projects for the construction and operation of underground structures, technical projects for the liquidation and conservation of mine workings, boreholes and other structures related to the use of subsoil, by type of mineral resources and type of subsoil use).
2. Pravila podgotovki tekhnicheskikh proektov razrabotki mestorozhdeniy uglevodorodnogo syr’ya (Rules for the preparation of technical projects for the development of hydrocarbon deposits): approved by order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia No. 639 on September 20, 2019, URL: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_334817/
3. Metodicheskie rekomendatsii po otsenke effektivnosti investitsionnykh proektov (Methodical recommendations according to efficiency of investment projects), Moscow: Publ. of Ministry of Economics RF, Ministerstvo finansov RF, 2000.
