ROSGEO’s geotechnical vessel started the stratigraphic drilling program near the islands of Severnaya Zemlya

According to the contract between Arctic Research Center (a research and development subsidiary of Rosneft) and RosGeo, the “Bavenit” will perform a set of surveys with application of shallow drilling (from 40 to 200 m) of stratigraphic boreholes in dispersed, semi-rocky and rocky soils with a full coring and geophysical investigations of the drilled boreholes.

“The offshore drilling operations will be carried out in accordance with the highest standards of environmental safety, using the technologies that exclude a negative impact on the environment, — stressed Vitaly Khombak, the technical manager of the stratigraphic drilling project in RosGeo. “In 2019 the vessel underwent a complete upgrading, rock and semi-rock drill bits were made specially for the project, and we will use the most modern equipment for thermometery of boreholes using fiber optic cables.”

The stratigraphic drilling envisaged in the contract with application of geotechnical vessels is carried out on the shelf of the Russian Federation for the first time. The studies that have been initiated and implemented by Rosneft are of great importance for science — for understanding of geological structure of the Russian Arctic shelf.

It is planned that in 2020 the “Bavenit” will complete the geotechnical works in the Kara Sea, and then it will continue the operations in the Laptev Sea. The total scope of coring will exceed 700 meters. All core produced will be transferred to the customer for further analysis to the company Innopraktika and Geological faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, which results would be a basis for analytical studies and laboratory tests needed to improve the reliability of the forecast accuracy in terms of oil and gas potential of sedimentary basins of different ages in the Arctic.