SANY drilling rigs join Gazprom in exploring gas resources in Arctic

Located deep in the Russian Arctic, Yamal used to be an unknown village with huge reserves of natural gas. The unknown village became famous when the abundant natural gas has been detected. Gazprom, one of the world’s largest natural gas companies, began the world-renowned Yamal project of arctic natural gas pipeline construction, which could send gas to European and Asian customers.

SANY rotary drilling rigs were chosen to take part in the project, facing the biggest challenge of extreme low temperature. The Arctic Circle is usually ice-bound for nearly nine months with the average temperature of -40°C but the general working temperature for SANY’s rotary drilling rigs exceeds 0°C. If the weather is extremely cold, they might stop work since the rotary drilling rigs’ engine can’t supply enough power.

In order to achieve the rotary drilling rigs’ stable operation in Arctic, R&D engineers from SANY and the Russian Dealer RTC completely adjusted and refitted them. For the initial half year, engineers analyzed the data and improved the design according to the design drawing day and night in Russia. Three major adjustments were made to redesign the operation procedures and main components. Every adjustment was followed by an examination when real site working condition was simulated. Finally more than 20 units of rotary drilling rigs successfully passed the check of the Russian company, Gazprom and started to work in Arctic.

SANY’s engineers also worked in Arctic to make regular data analysis and comprehensive check to ensure the smooth operation of these rotary drilling rigs. As a result, even in extremely cold environment, these machines can work continuously for six hours.