New solutions for mechanized small diameter shaft sinking for residual oil production

Abstract

The huge losses of oil in the subsurface necessitated the search for ways to extract residual oil, which led to the idea of combined use of the practice of mining and oil production. This involves drilling two vertical wellbores in the side rocks on the lying side of the oil reservoir, which are connected by two inter-hole joints. From the upper joint, a full series of wells pass along the entire strike of the formation at a certain interval with depth into the formation, into which steam supply pipes are placed with plugged ends at the bottom of the wells and lateral dispersed holes along their entire length. At the wellhead, these pipes are connected to individual high-pressure pulsating electric steam generators, and the wells themselves at the wellhead and the steam supply pipes are plugged. The electric steam generators are operated in line with a preset program. The most labor-intensive and costly in the idea of combined use of mining and oil production technologies is the sinking of vertical mine shafts, which requires new solutions in mine development technologies. In this regard, it is planned to reduce the cost of mining operations with the purpose of their use in oil production by means of non-explosive continuous mechanical-hydraulic pulse breaking of rocks of any strength and abrasiveness. Keywords: hydraulic pulse breaking of rocks; residual oil recovery technology; minimum diameter shaft sinking; two-jaw grab.