An innovative project to increase oil production was developed by NU student
At the 2020 SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference in Moscow, Russia, Damir Karimov, a graduate student of the School of Mining and Geosciences won 1st place in the Russian and Caspian Regional Student Paper Contest. The winning presentation based on Damir’s thesis examined the potential effect of combining two independent methods and the development of a hybrid low salinity water/polymer flooding method to enhance oil recovery. The study focused on experimental work to evaluate synergy between low salinity water and polymer flooding in carbonate formations for Kazakhstani reservoirs. Through a series of experiments, he determined the optimum concentration of active chemical ions in Caspian Water that increases the effectiveness of polymer in the hybrid low salinity water-polymer flooding technique for the potential increase in oil recovery.
Now, Damir will have a chance to proudly present our region and university in the 2020 International Student Paper Contest at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in Denver, Colorado. This achievement indicates that School of Mining and Geosciences at Nazarbayev University is one of the best educational institutions in petroleum engineering in the CIS region. “At this moment, my goal is to show at the international level that our university prepares the best specialists in this field and we are ready to compete with the best universities in the world” – says Damir.
– My future plans are closely related to the development of petroleum engineering in Kazakhstan. Therefore, I hope our government and petrochemical companies will contribute to the development of young specialists, especially in the oil and gas industry. In my humble opinion, oil and gas companies operating in Kazakhstan should pay more attention to further collaboration with our university. Nazarbayev University provides an excellent opportunity to learn from world-class specialists and to conduct the research in state-of-art laboratories.
– Finally, I would like to thank my highly respected professors Muhammad Rehan Hashmet and Peyman Pourafshary for their guidance, consultations, and feedback that provided the success of my work.
