In January 2026, a Team of production engineers and scientists from the "Oil Resource" Scientific and Technological Center conducted a series of working visits to leading industrial enterprises of the People's Republic of China. The purpose of the trip was a comprehensive assessment of technological capabilities and production potential in two key areas: the production of high-temperature industrial ceramics and the manufacture of equipment for thermal enhanced oil recovery methods (TEORMs) including an inspection of a plant for the production of a coolant generator, familiarization with the technological competencies of companies for the development and manufacture of insulated pipes (IPs) and downhole tooling.
The visit included visits to factories, R&D centers and specialized institutes in Shanghai, Zibo and Dongying.
If we talk about the manufacture of ceramic pipes, it was found that today there is a technology limit – the maximum guaranteed length of a single pipe section without violating the geometry of a product capable of operating at 500 bar and +600 °C is no more than 200 mm (according to the Institute in Zibo). To validate the technical solutions of Chinese manufacturers, the STC specialists plan to produce test samples followed by a series of bench tests.
During the business trip, the STC delegation managed to visit a cluster of enterprises in Shandong Province specializing in the production of surface hook-up, borehole equipment and IPs.
As a result of communication with technical services and familiarization with the production sites of IPs manufacturing plants, a high degree of automation was noted and critical aspects of production were identified, in particular, Chinese industrial partners demonstrate a number of progressive solutions:
- improved connection design of inner and outer pipes (without welded bushings);
- a more compact and reliable vacuum system;
- presence of thermally insulated couplings in the range which is a significant advantage for reducing total heat loss;
It is worth noting that when considering technical solutions for downhole equipment, the STC specialists proposed to make a number of improvements to the design of the IPs and packer, in particular, the need to replace PTFE sealing materials with a higher-temperature graphite-based material (such as graflex) for the packing unit and high-temperature compensator as well as metal hollow heat-insulated rings for IPs. The Chinese partners reacted with interest to the proposal of the STC specialists to improve the current IPs design and confirmed their readiness to develop and test high-temperature borehole assembly elements with improved performance characteristics for the MTT technology.
To get acquainted with the infrastructure solutions used in the fields of China, the STC team also visited the existing steam injection facility in the oil-bearing bed. This made it possible to obtain a complete configuration of infrastructure solutions including a boiler, a water treatment system, automation and surface hook-up. The data obtained has a high applied value for the design and implementation of such facilities.
"The exchange of experience with our Chinese colleagues is extremely important for us in terms of increasing our expertise and establishing strong partnerships. This trip helped us to study in detail the production technologies of oil and gas equipment used at advanced factories in China: insulated oil-well tubing, packers, temperature compensators and other basic and auxiliary equipment used in MTT technology. This information will make a great contribution to the work on the introduction of multifluid thermal technology for the extraction of hard-to-recover oil reserves in the Russian Federation," said Konstantin Prochukhan, Deputy Director General for Technological Development of Kirillitsa Group of Companies, Director General of the "Oil Resource" LLC STC.
The next stage of the work will be the formation of a roadmap for further actions and the adoption of final decisions on the choice of technologies and partners.
