Improved Recovery Week articles from April 1999

Improved Recovery Week archives from April 1999

Suncor gets nod on C$2.2 billion oil sands expansion; signs separate deal to set up new cogeneration plant.(Suncor Energy Inc.)
April 5, 1999... Despite all the bad petroleum industry news through all of the last 8-10 months, the "big picture" - at least for Canadian oil sands bitumen and, to a lesser degree, heavy oil - is one of expansion. And assembling of the frame for this...

DOE, producer consortium post $1.7 million for capillarity project; 3-year study directed at IOR.
April 5, 1999... A three-year, $1.7 million study of capillarity in fractured oil reservoirs has been galvanized by money from the Energy Dept. as part of the ongoing DOE campaign to help find better ways to produce oil from domestic fields. The agency...

Statoil tries two hydrates mitigation methods in offshore fields; Gullfaks South to use hot water.
April 5, 1999... As its offshore oil and gas development becomes more and more a subsea operation, with wellhead templates and gathering lines on the sea floor, Norway's Statoil has become more aggressive in devising ways to inhibit formation of gas hydrates...

Despite BP Amoco buyout, ARCO set to begin production this month at Villano field in Ecuador.(Atlantic Richfield Co.)
April 5, 1999... Amid all the hoopla of last week's announced acquisition of ARCO by BP Amoco Corp., the news did make slight mention of what could be a major breakthrough for oil exploration/production in Ecuador's Oriente rainforest region, where ARCO has...

Company arranges deal to lease portable steam, gas injection equipment for marginal properties.(U.S. Crude Oil Ltd.)
April 5, 1999... Colton, CA-based U.S. Crude Ltd. is delineating its oil reserves in Oklahoma's Osage Hills area, and acquiring new infusions of cash to help finance its operations. And the company also has cut a deal with Aetna Capital so that qualified...

FETC to solicit cost-shared R&D on fracture detection in tight reservoirs; multiple awards likely, says DOE.(Federal Energy Technology Center of the Department of Energy)
April 12, 1999... The Energy Dept.'s Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) at Morgantown, WV, plans to issue two solicitations on a new cost-shared research program into gas production from tight sands. The solicitations will be for Program Research and...

Oklahoma firm drills horizontal re-completions in Big Horn Basin; could rival Red River "B" play.(Continental Resources Inc.)
April 12, 1999... Enid, OK-based Continental Resources Inc. says the experience it has gained in drilling horizontal wells in the Red River "B" dolomite play in the Williston Basin is serving it well in a new drilling area in northern Wyoming. The company...

Emulsion separation system tested by Texaco on upstream sludge at Midway-Sunset field.(Texaco Inc. uses Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corp. Microwave Separation Technology)
April 12, 1999... Houston-based Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corp. (IPRC) says it completed a recent two-week test of its Microwave Separation Technology to process oil-water emulsions resulting from heavy oil steam flooding operations at the Midway-Sunset field...

Regulators okay Shell's Scotford upgrader; final Muskeg River decision expected in fall.(Shell Canada Ltd.'s oil sands project in Alberta to be approved in 1999)
April 12, 1999... As far as permitting goes, Shell Canada Ltd. needs only regulatory agency approval of its 220-mile Corridor Pipeline to gain the right to build its C$3.8 billion Muskeg River oil sands project in Alberta. That's because last week, the...

CO2 floods in oil, gas reservoirs, deep coalbeds get most coverage in new DOE report on carbon emissions storage.
April 19, 1999... In its just-released draft report on carbon sequestration - capturing and securely storing carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel combustion - the Energy Dept. stresses that oil, natural gas and coalbed methane formations likely will provide...

U.K. firm refines electric CT drilling system; field-testing motor, BHA for 3-3/4" bit set-up.
April 19, 1999... The second phase in development of an electric coiled tubing drilling system is nearing completion in the U.K. According to the London-based Centre for Marine and Petroleum Technology (CMPT), XL Technology Ltd. (XLT), London and Aberdeen,...