Engineers from Yakutia have abandoned the old drilling ways; they have made a multibranch well using innovative technology no one ever used before.
The 12,792 meter-deep well was drilled by Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha, a Rosneft subsidiary. The well is also the longest in Russia in terms of reservoir penetration, 10,310 meters.
Unlike conventional ‘fishbone’ wells (a system of lateral wells drilled in sequence from a main horizontal well giving it a shape like a fish skeleton), the new well uses an innovative technology, which was previously applied as stimulation to increase production as a more efficient alternative to hydraulic fracturing.
The well in Yakutia has a more complex structure – it involves 15 ‘laterals,’ each split into two more branches.