The key factor affecting the Company's crude oil production last year was the government-ordered production cuts as part of the new OPEC+ deal taking effect in May 2020. As a result, the 2021 hydrocarbon production amounted to 256.2 mmtoe, which is 10.2% lower than in 2019.
In Q4 2020, liquid hydrocarbon production was 3.98 mmb per day (49.46 mmt), up 1.9% quarter-on-quarter, as production restrictions under the OPEC+ deal eased in August. In 2020, liquid hydrocarbon production amounted to 4.14 mmb per day (204.5 mmt), down 11.4% from 2019, as a result of the government-ordered production cuts under the OPEC+ deal.
Previous production cuts provided Rosneft with invaluable technological expertise that allows it to manage production quickly and efficiently. The Company relies on the following instruments: limiting flow rates without well suspension, intermittent well operation, and optimization of well interventions at the existing wells. This strategy facilitates flexible production management and prompt increase in production, if necessary.
Despite external constraints, the Company continues to develop brownfields and maintain leadership in the Russian oil industry in terms of launching new high-margin projects.
In 2020, the Company’s share in the total production of liquid hydrocarbons as part of new major projects launched since 2016 (including Erginsky license area and Severo-Danilovskoye field) amounted to 19.9 mmt (403 kbpd), up 4.8% year-on-year. In Q4 2020, the Company produced 5.23 mmt (421 kbpd) of liquid hydrocarbons as part of these projects, with their share reaching 10.6% of total production of liquid hydrocarbons.
In the context of production constraints, the Company monitors and streamlines its existing development systems to improve the efficiency of reserve recovery at mature fields. The Company continues to implement new technologies to improve the well productivity rate, the scope of reserves under development, and economic efficiency of projects.
The Company primarily focuses on construction of high-tech wells. Horizontal wells accounted for 70% of over 3.2 thousand new wells commissioned in 2021, while the number of new commissioned horizontal wells drilled using multi-stage hydraulic fracturing techniques amounted to 1.4 thousand, retaining its share at 44%. Advanced planning, drilling, and development technologies facilitated new well’s average annual flow rate of 38.4 tpd (against the plan of 37.5 tpd) and 18.4 mmt of incremental production.
Multilateral wells are applied to improve the recovery and reservoir penetration quality for projects with high geological complexity. This method of pay zone penetration was successfully piloted and implemented at the Company’s fields, with 162 multilateral wells commissioned in 2021 (+40% against 2020) and incremental production around 1.9 mmt (+500 kt against 2020).
Along with drilling in new areas, the Company conducts infill drilling to augment production by transforming and expanding the development systems.
In order to increase production and achieve target recovery factor the Company carries out sidetracking operations in existing wells. In 2021, such operations covered 1.4 thousand wells (retaining the level achieved in 2020), resulting in an incremental production of around 3.4 mmt of crude oil (+9% against 2021).
Advanced approaches and sidetracking technologies allow for improved production at mature fields with a long development history. Horizontal sidetracks enable extraction from formation intervals that have not been reached by previously drilled directional wells.
In line with the approved Strategy, the Company keeps improving the efficiency of its well interventions. In 2021, the Company performed 4,000 well interventions for incremental production (excluding production drilling and sidetracking). The well intervention translated into 6.1 mmt of incremental oil and gas condensate production.
8,000 well interventions attributable to base production recovery were performed in 2021, resulting in a recovered production of 10.2 mmt. Production per well following well interventions attributable to base production recovery was up 2.7% against 2020, from 1.23 kt to 1.27 kt per well. Production per well following well interventions attributable to base production recovery increased primarily due to higher efficiency of bottom-hole zone treatment and well optimization. In 2021, the Company performed 3,355 bottom-hole zone treatment operations with a total production recovery of 2.8 mmt and 3,245 well optimizations with a total production recovery of 5.4 mmt.