Scientific and technological progress over the last century has led to an enormous increase in the consumption of minerals, including energy resources. Most of the exploited oil and gas fields are already considerably depleted, so it is necessary to search for new hydrocarbon resources, particularly at great depths. Deep drilling plays a special role in solving this problem. The article considers the world and Russian experience of ultra-deep wells drilling. The methods and technologies used in the construction of wells, as well as complications and accidents occurring during their drilling were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the existing limitations for drilling parameters of deep and ultra-deep wells are caused by the technical characteristics of surface and bottomhole drilling equipment, which do not meet the extreme drilling conditions. The directions for development of deep and ultra-deep well drilling machinery and technologies are suggested. The notion of extreme rock and geological drilling conditions is introduced, which describes drilling in conditions of hydrostatic pressure of flushing fluid column and high bottomhole temperature both at stable and unstable wellbore conditions, coming close to the upper limit of operating technical characteristics of bottomhole assembly, the drill string and flushing fluid.
Comprehensive interpretation of the results for regional seismic operations and reinterpretation of archived seismic data, their correlation with the drilling data of more than 30 deep wells, including Severo-Novoborsk parametric well, made it possible to clarify the structural maps and thickness maps of all seismic facies structures developed in the territory and water area in the junction of the north of Izhma-Pechora depression and Malozemelsko-Kolguevsk monocline of Timan-Pechora oil and gas province. Data obtained were used at basin modeling in TemisFlow software in order to reconstruct the conditions of submersion and transformation of organic substance in potential oil and gas bearing formations. Modeling made it possible to get an idea of the time and conditions for the formation of large zones of possible hydrocarbons accumulation, to establish space-time connections with possible sources of generation, to identify the directions of migration and on the basis of comparison with periods of intense generation, both from directly located within the operation area and outside them (taking into account possible migration), to identify zones of paleoaccumulation of oil and gas. Work performed made it possible to outline promising oil and gas accumulation zones and identify target objects for further exploration within the site with an ambiguous forecast and lack of industrial oil and gas potential.
