The award was given for a new complex of wide range spectral noise logging.
The ceremony was held in the White House in Moscow on 14th March.
The subject of the prize, spectral noise logging, is a popular topic of research for many petroleum engineering centers. In particular, Russia has several of those.
Dr. Nurgaliev’s work involved the use of a device produced by TGT Oilfield Services. The production facility is located in Kazan and exports to 17 countries. Full infrastructure has been created for testing, calibration, and acoustic database management.
The winner himself commented, “A significant advantage of this work, the one that allowed to present it for a nomination, was that the complex was effectively used to highlight gas movement zones in near-well space – an important task for many applications in gas industry. For example, underground gas storage is widely used in the world. There is a leak problem in such reservoirs, especially when a depleted deposit with many old wells is used for such storage. Wide spectral noise logging can obtain information to effectively adjust wells and monitor gas migration to higher horizons. The economic effect from correct adjustments is several million rubles per one well.”
TGT Oilfield Services traces its roots to Kazan University, where it was in a large part kickstarted by Professor Nikolay Neprimerov (1921 – 2017). He was a major expert in geophysics and, in particular, noise logging. His ideas are in wide use today and continue bringing benefits to many people.
Over 220 individuals involved in 21 projects received prizes for the year 2018.