Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the technology of multifluid thermal technology which is able to "discover" huge oil reserves and change the structure of oil production in Russia.

In the bowels of Western Siberia, at depths of up to four kilometers, lies the Bazhenov group of oil source rocks - a suite in the language of geologists. The Bazhenov suite which name comes from the village of Bazhenovo in the Omsk region is 150 million years old. It has accumulated huge reserves of hydrocarbons. But only a small part of these reserves is involved in industrial production today. The reason is simple: most of the oil is in hard-to-reach forms which cannot be extracted by traditional methods. For a long time, scientists and oilmen have been trying to find a way to "discover" the Bazhenov suite. Today, one of the promising technologies for oil production in the suite is being developed by "Oil Resource", a member of Kirillitsa Group of Companies.

The main difficulty of this task is that standard drilling and production methods are practically useless here. The rock layers are too dense, the oil is bound to minerals, and a significant part of it is in a solid or viscous state. However, in recent years, there has been a real chance to change the situation: the multifluid thermal technology (MTT) has been developed and is being prepared for testing. It is called by many the "technology key" to the Bazhenov suite which can open access to huge oil reserves and change the structure of oil production in Russia.

The layers of the Bazhenov suite contain three types of organic carbon. The first is mobile, light oil which is already taken into account when calculating reserves and is being developed using modern methods. The second is bituminous oil, viscous and immobile in natural conditions. The third and most difficult one is kerogen, a solid organic substance from which oil has yet to be obtained.

It is in the latter two forms that Bazhenov suite's main potential lies. According to scientists, their reserves are 5-8 times higher than the volume of mobile oil that is being produced today. But there are no approved methods for calculating these resources yet because their extraction has so far remained technologically impossible.

Currently, American technologies are used in Russia to extract oil from the Bazhenov suite: drilling of long horizontal wells (up to 1500-2000 meters) and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing (MSHF, up to 40-45 stages). But this approach allows to extract only a minimal amount of oil — about 3-5 kilograms per cubic meter of rock. At the same time, Bazhenov suite's potential is estimated to be ten times higher. Therefore, experts have long been looking for a different way, a technology that will turn viscous and solid hydrocarbons into mobile light oil directly in the bowels, without the need for complex and expensive operations on the surface.

The essence of the "technology key" is to reproduce in the bowels those processes that took nature millions of years, but to do it in a matter of hours.

The MTT technological complex includes above-ground and underground equipment that generates special working agents (SWA). In total, at least 15 types of them have been developed: from superheated steam to supercritical water with a temperature above 374 °C and a pressure above 22.1 MPa. The most efficient of them operates at a temperature of about 550 ° C and a pressure of up to 55 MPa.

After injection of the SWA into the layer, the process of in-situ catalytic retorting is started. In its course, viscous and solid organic matter (bituminous oil and kerogen) is converted into light oil, and already mobile oil is improved in quality.

The MTT makes it possible to extract oil in the bowels turning previously inaccessible deposits into a source of valuable hydrocarbons without building a huge number of horizontal wells and having to carry out dozens of stages of hydraulic fracturing.

The development of the MTT was mostly completed in 2017. From that moment until today, leading scientific establishments are engaged in its research. During this time, the MTT has undergone a full cycle of research: laboratory tests, hydrodynamic and economic modelling.

The results turned out to be promising: the model showed that the technology is capable of involving the entire hydrocarbon potential of the Bazhenov suite, including hard-to-recover reserves, in industrial development. The next step was pilot testing. Their training is currently in an active phase.

At the same time, experts are discussing the creation of a testing ground for technology maturation, the development of an industry-specific testing methodology and the formation of regulatory documents. As soon as the tests are completed, it is planned to start creating official methods for calculating all types of the Bazhenov suite hydrocarbons.

The MTT does not displace existing methods but rather complements them. Thus, when using horizontal wells, their length will be reduced to 300-400 meters, and the number of hydraulic fracturing stages will be reduced to five. In some cases, the latter will not be required at all: it will be replaced by radial uncased sidetracks with a small diameter of up to 50-70 millimeters and a length of up to 100 meters.

Energy saving is one of the advantages of the multifluid thermal technology. If the traditional approach allows to obtain only a few kilograms of oil from a cubic meter of a layer, then, with an organic carbon content above 20 percent, it is capable of producing 80-100 kilograms. This is changing the economics of field development — oil, which was previously considered unprofitable, is becoming available for commercial production.

The introduction of the "technology key" also opens up new opportunities for machine industry: the production of specialized installations, pumps, heating systems and other components will be required which will create new jobs and industries.

In April 2025, the Russian government, in Order No. 908-r, directly pointed out the need to create technology for the in-situ conversion of kerogen. This confirms that the MTT is considered as a strategic direction for the development of the country's oil industry. As noted by Alexander Novak, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, this technology is not import-substituting but import-leading since today none of the existing technologies can involve the entire hydrocarbon potential of the Bazhenov suite in industrial development.

The development and implementation of the technology requires the efforts of several participants: developers, the scientific community, government agencies and major oil companies. The joint work will bring the MTT to the industrial level and ensure Russia's technological independence in the field of extraction of hard-to-recover reserves. Today, "Oil Resource" offers a number of steps to master the technology. Thus, it is planned to create the testing ground for new technology, manufacture the MTT technological complex as well as begin forming an industry-specific methodology for testing the key to undeveloped reserves and work out the possibility of conducting pilot testing in the status of industry testing. Further development of this technology will be carried out in accordance with the "Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex until 2050".

If the MTT is successfully implemented, Russia will receive several strategic advantages at once:

• growth of oil reserves due to the involvement of huge resources of bituminous oil and kerogen in the development;
• extraction of heavy oils — previously inaccessible due to the depth of occurrence and high viscosity;
• improving the efficiency of developing new fields including an increase in the oil recovery rate to 55-60 percent;
• development of machine industry, creation and production of equipment for this technology;
• entering the global market with new technology. The countries of the Persian Gulf, Latin America and Mexico are already showing interest in such solutions.

The MTT is an import-leading solution capable of setting new standards for oil production. According to experts, its emergence could be a turning point for the entire industry. If the project is successfully implemented, Russia will not only be able to meet its own oil needs for decades to come but also offer the world a fundamentally new way to develop hard-to-recover reserves. The technology will strengthen energy independence and open up opportunities for the export of high technology and a new stage of industrial evolution. The Bazhenov suite remained "locked up" by nature for a long time. Now Russia has a real chance to use the previously found "technology key".

Source — Rossiyskaya Gazeta