1. Microtomographic researches of oil-source rocks in the Bazhen-Abalak Complex

The Bazhen-Abalak Complex includes either oil-source rocks of low permeability, where the conversion process of organic material into oil has not been finished yet, or reservoir rocks.

There are zones with abnormal sections and the entire stratum of bituminous argillites which consist of sand-argillite layers. The high oil-generating potential of the abnormal sections of the Bazhen measures has been proved. Nowadays it is the main oil-source. The main potential of the Bazhenov measures is connected with kerogen not with shale oil. Oil resources, which can be recovered from kerogen, is from 35 up to 403 billion tons. Consequently, microporosity of the rocks in the Bazhen-Abalak Complex and morphogenetic peculiarities of the rocks are of special interest. This is the research objective.

2. The catalyst adsorption research based on cobalt and nickel to refine heavy crude oil under the conditions which are similar to producing conditions.

As light and middle oil resources are depleted, heavy crude oil and crude bitumen become an important resource to supply the increasing demand for fuel and petroleum chemistry. Nowadays there are many heavy crude oil and crude bitumen recovery methods, which are proved to be practically effective. One of them is Cyclic Steam Simulation (CSS) that is widely used in the oil fields of the Republic of Tatarstan. As this method includes catalyst nano-sized systems, it refines heavy crude oil by means of hydro-cracking process. The main research objective is an adsorbability of catalyst on the surface of mineral matrix. This factor affects the time of its effective operation under the steam injection cycles.

3. Filtration researches of dynamic polymer adsorption

At the present time over 60% of oil reserve in Russia are concerned to be hard-to-recover. In view of this, physical and chemical simulation methods are of great relevance. These methods are supposed to reduce remaining oil in place maximally. The lining injection of various chemical reagents and water soluble polymer compositions is widely used as agents to support formation pressure and increase oil recovery index. The usage of this method helps to balance filtration conductivity for oil and water, to even the displacement front of oil by water, to prolong waterless period of well operation. All of this provides means of enhancing oil recovery. The important aspect of using these methods is an index of dynamic adsorption. The research objective is to create the method that helps to define adsorption size (mg/g) and  polymer adsorption type (mono-or polymolecular) under the given molecular and mass characteristics of polymer, composition varieties, mineralization of water and pH.

4. Wavelet analysis of X-ray computed tomography data for porous space determination

This method consists in marking borderlines between pores and rock matrix on the histogram of attenuation-coefficient grey-values in order to divide the initial graph into Gaussian curves (sources) and curves, which are related to porosity. The method helps to determine voxels on contact of two media with different porosities under the resolution that is smaller than their real size. These media include characteristics either pores or material. The amount of small voxels, which are related to pores, is growing. They have not been determined formerly because of insufficient resolution of X-Ray computed tomography. At the same time the porosity index can increase by a factor of between 1 and 70 in comparison with traditional methods of determination. Difference between obtained results depends on correspondence between pores size of the sample and X-Ray Computed tomography resolution. The presented method can be used to determine the constitution of material with different density in the sample, e.g. clay content.