Improved Recovery Week articles from April 1995

Improved Recovery Week archives from April 1995

Possibilities studied for microbially enhanced coalgas.
April 10, 1995... There is more than just a chance that if they can get their research furthered, a team of geologists at Texas University's Bureau of Economic Geology can prove that creation of coalbed methane can be enhanced by microbial activity. And if...

Egyptian E-R well finaled. (extended-reach Ras El Ush Well No. 2)
April 10, 1995... A wildcat well directionally drilled in Egypt from shore to a point beneath the southern Gulf of Suez has netted Marathon Petroleum Egypt new reserves. The Ras El Ush Well No. 2 was drilled on the Gebel El Zeit concession, on which Marathon...

Amoco DOE LSU test air injection for IOR. (Amoco Production Co., Department of Energy and Louisiana State University conduct injection of air project)
April 10, 1995... An air injection IOR project - the first of its kind in the world - has begun in a portion of the venerable West Hackberry field in Cameron Parish, La., about 30 miles southwest of Lake Charles. Amoco Production Co., the Dept. of Energy and...

Elan hedges heavy oil spending. (Elan Energy Inc.)
April 10, 1995... Calgary, Alta.-based Elan Energy Inc. says it has lowered its 1995 capital budged from C$86 million to C$60 million so that it can better make debt payments following its recent acquisition of heavy oil properties from Amoco Canada Ltd. The...

Coiled tubing record set.
April 10, 1995... A new record for the use of coiled tubing in a well workover was set recently by Statoil in the Statfjord field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. According to Statoil, the operation involved running 1.5" coiled tubing down its Well No....

Suncor expects oil sands license renewal. (Suncor Inc. Oil Sands Group)
April 10, 1995... The Oil Sands Group of Suncor Inc., Toronto, Ontario, expects the operating license for its Western Canada oil sands mining and upgrading operation to be renewed this year both by provincial and federal government regulators. The company the...

Pride buys horizontal firm. (Pride Petroleum Services Inc. buys Horizon Directional Systems Inc.)
April 10, 1995... Pride Petroleum Services Inc., Houston, has signed a letter of intent to purchase Horizon Directional Systems, Inc., a horizontal and directional drilling company also Houston-based. Pride Chairman and CEO Ray Tolson said the acquisition is...

Alberta Research Council set.
April 10, 1995... The Alberta government has established a 13 member Energy Research Council to coordinate energy-related research in that western Canadian province. Alberta Energy Minister Patricia Black said research is the key to further energy development,...

Benton ups Russian work; sells some interests. (Benton Oil & Gas Co.)
April 10, 1995... Benton Oil & Gas Co., Carpenteria, Calif., is moving to increase the scope of its project in Russia, while relinquishing some of its interest in a South Louisiana field that gave it its first big break. At the Howard, Weil, Labouisse,...

Class 4 demo project announcement pends. (oil recovery demonstration)
April 10, 1995... Solicitation for the fourth round of cost-shared oil recovery demonstration projects is expected to be announced late this month by the Dept. of Energy, with winning projects to be nominated by late June. The Energy Dept. created the oil...

Okla. oil, gas production keeps declining.
April 10, 1995... The Oklahoma Corporation Commission says preliminary statistics indicate Sooner oil production declined more than 6% - its lowest point in 75 years - and natural gas production dropped more than 8.5% in 1994 from year-earlier figures. The...

EOR Inc., now Fountain Oil, becomes producing company. (Electromagnetic OIl Recovery Inc.; Fountain Oil Inc.)
April 17, 1995... What used to be known as Electromagnetic Oil Recovery Inc. (EOR), Tulsa, Okla., is now Houston-based Fountain Oil, Inc. The company, which began as a marketer of patented electrically improved oil recovery technology, is now involved in...

Niakuk waterflood slated by BP. (Niakuk, Alaska; BP Exploration Inc.)
April 17, 1995... In Alaska, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. says it plans to begin waterflood operations at the offshore Niakuk field sometime this month, with a mixture of sea water and produced water being injected at up to 50,000 b/d. The waterflood will...

Industry likes proposed AMT phase-out. (petroleum industry; alternative minimum tax)
April 17, 1995... The passing of the $189 billion tax cut/spending cut bill by the House of Representatives last week has sections that please the petroleum industry. The bill would phase out the alternative minimum tax (AMT) by 2001. It also would modify the...

WRT Energy closes buy. (WRT Energy Corp.)
April 17, 1995... Houston-based WRT Energy Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Tesla Resources Inc. has closed on the $20 million purchase of a 43.75% working interest in 5,892 gross acres of producing leases in the West Cote Blanche Bay field in St. Mary...

UPRC to drill 165 Chalk wells. (Union Pacific Resources Co.; Austin Chalk, TX)
April 17, 1995... Fort Worth, Texas-based Union Pacific Resources Co. says its plans for the Austin Chalk play of Texas and Louisiana include the drilling of 165 horizontal wells and acquiring vertical wells that can be drilled horizontally. The company says it...

Firm to buy Western Atlas' hardware ops. (Input/Output Inc.; Western Atlas Inc.; seismic products operations)
April 17, 1995... Houston-based Input/Output has reached an agreement in principle to purchase virtually all of the seismic products operations of Western Atlas Inc. When completed, the $120 million deal will take Atlas' Western Geophysical division out of the...

Horizontals slated for N. Sea Captain field. (North Sea)
April 17, 1995... Extensive horizontal drilling will be used to develop Texaco's Captain field in the British Sector of the North Sea. Development of the field was approved recently by the Dept. of Trade and Industry, and a contract has been awarded for design,...

'Friends' assail O&G 'breaks.' (Friends of the Earth; oil and gas industry tax exemptions)
April 17, 1995... A study released last week by the Friends of the Earth says the petroleum industry "and other polluting businesses" get the benefits from $4 billion in special tax breaks which FOE says conflict with national environmental goals. Chief among...

O&G forum being organized. (oil and gas industry)
April 17, 1995... A new oil and gas forum to help petroleum industry groups identify sympathetic lawmakers and apprise others of the benefits of pro-industry legislation is now being organized in Washington, D.C., and a staff person is to be hired. The...

Aussie researchers develop coalgas model. (Australian)
April 17, 1995... Australian researchers have developed a computer model to simulate gas injection and flow rates for exploiting coalbed methane. The model, which estimates how much methane can be extracted from a specified coal seam using gas injection, was...

House committee lowers OPA liability level. (House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Oil Pollution Act of 1990)
April 17, 1995... It's got a long way to go, but the move by the U.S. Minerals Management Service to boost offshore producers' level of liability from $35 million to $150 million may have been headed off by a new bill created recently by a House of Representatives...

Tipperary applies for coalgas leases in Australia. (Tipperary Corp.)
April 17, 1995... Flushed with the success of their coalbed methane exploration drilling in Queensland, Australia, Denver-based Tipperary Corp. and its partners have applied for three petroleum leases encompassing about 260 square miles. The group has completed...

IOR patent. (improved oil recovery)
April 17, 1995... A. Muradi-Araghl of Phillips Petroleum Co. has patented a method and composition for altering the permeability of a high-temperature formation. The composition is comprised of water, at least one water-dispersible acrylamide containing polymer,...

Amoco brings CO2 injection to key West Texas field. (Amoco Production Co.'s oil recovery project)
April 24, 1995... A $2.5 million, 200-acre "validation" improved oil recovery project using carbon dioxide has been started by Amoco Production Co. in a portion of the Amoco-operated North Cowden (Grayburg) Unit of the North Cowden field, located about midway...

Heavy oil royalties to be cut.
April 24, 1995... The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed a sliding-scale royalty system for heavy oil of less than 20 [degrees] API gravity produced from reservoirs beneath federal leases. The proposal was published in a recent issue of the Federal...

Fracmaster hopes to up Russ. production. (Canadian Fracmaster Ltd.; Russian oil joint-venture)
April 24, 1995... Canadian Fracmaster Ltd. expects its share of production from four Russian oil joint-venture operations to nearly double from 22,900 b/d last year to some 40,000 b/d this year. The Calgary, Alberta-based company said in its annual report that...

Madagascar heavy oil offered.
April 24, 1995... The East African island nation of Madagascar is opening up its lands for exploration for conventional oil and gas, and hopes to land some multinational companies to develop two large heavy oil fields. The government recently launched a...

Litigation delays Pride merger. (Horizon Direction Systems Inc.; Pride Petroleum Services Inc.)
April 24, 1995... That acquisition of Horizon Direction Systems Inc. by Pride Petroleum Services Inc. announced recently (IRW, 4/10) will be delayed. Pride says litigation recently was filed against Horizon, and that it does not anticipate proceeding with its...

Record output helps up Suncor earnings. (Suncor Inc.)
April 24, 1995... Production of oil sands bitumen by Suncor Inc. was up 18% in the first quarter of 1995, which helped the Calgary-based company post a 43% increase in earnings for the year. The company said its Oil Sands Group produced an average of 78,400 b/d...

AGA recommends ending OCS drilling ban. (American Gas Assn.; Outer Continental Shelf)
April 24, 1995... The American Gas Assn., Washington, D.C., is pressing a key Congressman to back an effort to lift existing moratoria on oil and gas drilling on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf(OCS). AGA President and CEO Michael Baly recently wrote Rep. Ralph...

BJ-Western merger finaled. (Western Co. of North America; BJ Services Co.)
April 24, 1995... The nearly $519 million merger of Western Co. of North America into BJ Services company was completed last week in Houston. BJ Services said Western Co. common shares were no longer transferable and ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange...

Cross Timbers buys wells. (Cross Timbers Oil Co.)
April 24, 1995... Cross Timbers Oil Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is well on its way to doubling its gas reserves this year through a series of acquisitions, including a recent purchase for $130 million of producing properties and related facilities from Santa Fe...

Arco hopes to tap small Alaska fields. (Arco Alaska Inc.; oil fields)
April 24, 1995... Arco Alaska Inc. will base its development plans in Alaska on small to medium-sized fields, particularly since Gov. Tony Knowles and the state legislature may enact new royalty legislation that will make state royalty terms more flexible....

1st qtr. crude output falls, says API. (American Petroleum Institute)
April 24, 1995... U.S. domestic crude production fell 1.5% in the first quarter of 1995 to 6.625 million b/d, says the American Petroleum Institute. API said the production figure was 1.1% below year-ago levels in March, at 6.610 million b/d. However, the API...

1st-qtr. Texas horizontals reported. (horizontal wells)
April 24, 1995... The Texas Railroad Commission granted permits to drill a total of 165 horizontal wells in the state during the first three months of 1995. That compares with 151 such permits granted by the RRC during the first quarter of last year. In...