Improved Recovery Week articles from August 1996

Improved Recovery Week archives from August 1996

Dry holes dampen - but don't snuff - Newfoundland Exploration. (dry hole reports at St. George's Bay, Newfoundland)
August 5, 1996... The hot and cold nature of how much oil and gas lies beneath the waters of St. George's Bay off western Newfoundland seems to be cooling off again. The recent dry hole announcement by Hunt Oil Co. and PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. on their...

Malaysian well goes sideways. (horizontal wells drilled at the Bunga Kekwa Well No. A-2 in Malaysian waters.)
August 5, 1996... Canadian exploration company International Petroleum Corp. (IPC) recently announced what must be one of the few horizontal wells to be drilled so far in Malaysia. The company is part of a consortium that operates a 233-square-mile offshore...

Steam wells dominate Calif. drilling. (California)
August 5, 1996... Notices to drill new wells in California climbed sharply during the first half of 1996, and the focus was on Kern County and wells for thermally enhanced oil recovery. Statewide, says the Div. of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, a total of...

Senate backs fossil energy.
August 5, 1996... If the Senate had the final say, it would increase, rather than cut, funding for the fossil energy research and development budget requested by the Energy Dept. for fiscal year 1997. In fact, under the Senate Appropriations Committee's recent...

ARCO sets pipeline reversal. (ARCO Pipe Line Co.)
August 5, 1996... ARCO Pipe Line Co. has begun ordering long-lead-time equipment for use in reversing the direction of flow on its Line 90 pipeline, which will bring heavy crude oil from the San Joaquin Valley into the Los Angeles area. The 16[inches] diameter...

Seafloor sensors aid Faroe seismic survey. (Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic)
August 5, 1996... Sensors placed on the seabed have been used in a novel seismic shoot which explorationists hope will give an insight into prospects for hydrocarbons beneath layers of hard basalt in Europe's North Atlantic. The results are at present being...

Venezuelan field turns 60. (Bachaquero oil field, Venezuela)
August 5, 1996... The Bachaquero heavy oil field in Venezuela marked its 60th anniversary of continuous production recently. One of Venezuela's most prolific oil fields and operated by the Maraven unit of Petroleos de Venezuela, Bachaquero had produced an...

Ocean-bottom surveys set. (seismic surveys off the waters of Trinidad and Venezuela)
August 5, 1996... PGS Ocean Bottom Seismic, a unit of Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, will shoot two marine 3-D seismic surveys using ocean-bottom cable for Enron Oil & Gas International (EOGI). The surveys will be made in shallow water off Trinidad and Venezuela....

Heavy oil upgrader mulled. (Exxon Services (Venezuela) plan to upgrade its refinery)
August 5, 1996... An Exxon Corp. subsidiary is considering building a $730 million upgrading plant in eastern Venezuela for heavy and extra-heavy oils and oil sands bitumen. Intevep, the Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) research and technological center,...

Cave Gulch drilling okayed as EIS is made. (environmental impact study)
August 5, 1996... The Bureau of Land Management is allowing Chevron and Barrett Resources, along with two other producers, to drill 14 development wells in east/central Wyoming's gas-rich Cave Gulch field. The producers earlier feared a temporary shutdown of the...

3-D seismic stimulates drilling on, offshore. (3-d seismic imaging in oil exploration)
August 5, 1996... The oil and gas industry today is in a better position to increase its profitability than at any time since the boom years of 1978-1981. This is due primarily to new technology such as 3-D seismic imaging and others, which reduce exploration and...

API says '96 completions down; oil wells hard hit. (American Petroleum Institute)(Industry Overview)
August 5, 1996... Oil and gas completions declined 7.2% during the first half of the year, says the American Petroleum Institute. According to API figures, 9,878 oil and gas wells and dry holes were completed during the first six months, compared with 10,641...

Kern River field on track to equal peak production.
August 12, 1996... The 97-year-old Kern River field in California may match its all-time production record at the end of this year. Based on first-quarter rates, the field - located on the outskirts of Bakersfield - may produce more than 50 million bbls. of oil...

Duri gas supply project starts. (Corridor Block Gas Project in Sumatra, Indonesia)
August 12, 1996... Site construction for a gas plant and related field facilities have been completed for the $600 million Corridor Block Gas Project in south Sumatra, Indonesia. The project will transport natural gas from the Corridor Block Production-Sharing...

ESP to allow flow from remote N. Sea well. (electric submersible pump)
August 12, 1996... The Shell/Esso partnership is claiming a first in downhole technology with plans to operate an electric submersible pump (ESP) in a subsea well about 10 miles from control equipment on a host platform in the North Sea. The project is included...

Syncrude tops '95 flow by 200,000 bbls. (Syncrude Canada Ltd.)
August 12, 1996... Syncrude Canada Inc. set a number of production records in the first half of 1996. Shipments climbed to the highest volume ever for the first half of a year. Year-to-date production came to 34.8 million bbls., or 200,000 bbls. more than in the...

DOE privatizes Bartlesville facility. (Department of Energy's energy research laboratory in Bartlesville, Oklahoma)
August 12, 1996... The Energy Dept. has announced detailed plans to privatize its principal energy research laboratory in Bartlesville, Okla. According to Energy Sec. Hazel O'Leary, DOE has reached an agreement with BDM-Oklahoma, Inc., its petroleum program...

U.S.-Venezuelan seismic merger told. (merger between Universal Seismic Associates Inc. and Suelopetrol S.A.)
August 12, 1996... Houston-based Universal Seismic Associates Inc. has signed a letter of intent for what officials say will be the first merger between U.S. and Venezuelan 3-D seismic companies. The deal calls for Universal Seismic to issue about 4.8 million...

Friends of the Earth attack EOR on Internet. (Enhanced Oil Recovery)
August 12, 1996... It's no secret: It's always open season on the petroleum industry, at least in the sights of the Friends of the Earth. Forget that they're rabid about keeping rigs out of ANWR. Never mind that they almost single-handedly were responsible for...

Fina, Phillips off joint Permian Basin CO2 project. (Fina Oil and Chemical Co. and Phillips Petroleum Co.'s carbon dioxide flood project)
August 19, 1996... In the spirit of the Shell-Amoco merger into Altura Energy Ltd., another innovative arrangement between two major oil companies is behind the latest carbon dioxide injection IOR project in Texas' portion of the Permian Basin. Fina Oil &...

CO2 pipeline sale broached. (Enron Corp.'s gas liquids business)
August 19, 1996... Last week, Houston-based Enron Corp. said it had received an unsolicited inquiry about the possible purchase of its gas liquids business. The potential sale would include Enron's ownership of the Central Basin Pipeline, which distributes...

World Bank favors Azerbaijan field rehab. (oil fields)
August 19, 1996... Helped by funding from the World Bank, efforts are starting to improve recovery from Azerbaijan's older oil fields, some with wells dating back to last century when the former Soviet republic supplied almost half of the world's oil. Since the...

Permeability simulator in development.
August 19, 1996... The Energy Dept., BDM-Oklahoma Inc. and Dowell Schlumberger Inc. are working on a three-year, $1.4 million project to develop a new tool that will both predict and improve secondary oil recovery. The tool under study is called the Improved...

Phillips named Ven. deal. (Phillips Petroleum Co.; extra-heavy oil upgrading project in Venezuela)
August 19, 1996... Phillips Petroleum Co. is talking with fellow U.S. company Arco Chemical and Venezuela's national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) about becoming the third partner in the US$3.5 billion Hamaca extra-heavy oil upgrading project for the...

Mobil Canada plans SAGD expansion. (Mobil Oil Canada Ltd.; steam-assisted gravity drainage)
August 19, 1996... A steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) pilot project using a horizontal well seems to be successful enough for Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. to expect to increase spending on SAGD technology for at least two of its heavy oil properties. The SAGD...

NUMAR, Sperry-Sun to joint-venture tool. (NUMAR Corp.; Sperry-Sun Drilling Services Inc.; formation-evaluation-while-drilling tool)
August 19, 1996... NUMAR Corp. and Sperry-Sun Drilling Services are poised to develop and market a formation-evaluation-while-drilling (FEWD) tool based on NUMAR's magnetic resonance imaging logging (MRIL) technology. Such a FEWD process would measure the...

DOE upstream grants scarce. (Department of Energy; work on upstream oil recovery)
August 19, 1996... Only one of seven historically black colleges and universities named as recipients of Energy Dept. research grants for 1996 will work on upstream oil recovery. The grants, totaling some $1.1 million, will focus chiefly on advanced methods for...

New recording system said 'mysterious.' (Grant Geophysical Inc.'s Citation telemetry seismic recording system)
August 19, 1996... Grant Geophysical Inc. is nearing completion of the first big 3-D seismic survey using its somewhat mysterious new Citation telemetry seismic recording system. The system has been field-tested, but this shoot - across 57 square miles of South...

UK firm bids to up recovery from Azerbaijan field. (Ramco Energy in joint venture with Schlumberger Logelco for reservoir in Azerbaijan)
August 26, 1996... Scottish-based Ramco Energy has teamed up with Schlumberger Logelco to provide expertise in horizontal drilling and other techniques which could boost recovery from a large but complex reservoir in Azerbaijan. But the plans to improve recovery...

Steam propels Calif. field at record pace. (Cymric field)
August 26, 1996... The 87-year-old Cymric field in California's San Joaquin Valley is on its way to a new production record this year. Major factors in the quest for the new record at Cymric are increased drilling activity and stepped-up steaming. Producers at...

Energen buys coalgas reserves. (Energen Corp.)
August 26, 1996... Energen Corp. last week said neither of two eligible partners elected to participate in its acquisition of Burlington Resources Inc.'s coalbed methane reserves in Alabama. So, the company noted, its Taurus Exploration Inc. unit retains sole...

Research ups Norway's reserves 2.5B bbls.
August 26, 1996... A hard-cover book dealing with a four-year IOR study of Norwegian oil fields that has increased potential recovery there by some 2.5 billion bbls. is available from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), Stavanger. The 450-page book deals...

Plugging solvent announced.
August 26, 1996... An Iranian scientist apparently has invented a new substance for dissolving asphalt that accumulates as sedimentary residue in oil wells. The product, called AH-1, was invented by Alireza Mohammadi Peykani, following two years of experiments at...

Bugs help save electricity. (Statco Engineering and Fabricators Inc. adds oil-scavenging microbes to salt water tanks to control oil carryover)
August 26, 1996... For about $150/month, Statco, Inc., operator of the New Diana field in Upshur County, Texas, has reduced injection pressures in two of their disposal wells. As a result, says a recent bulletin from the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council...

BP plans WAG injection programs at fields. (Wytch Farm field operator British Petroleum outlines water-alternating-gas plans)
August 26, 1996... Plans are being made to recover an extra 80/0 of oil reserves from one of the reservoirs at the Wytch Farm field in southern England by alternating miscible gas injection with water flooding. Details of the water-alternating-gas (WAG) plans...

Deep gulf 3-D surveys getting underway. (Gulf of Mexico)
August 26, 1996... Independent producers are inching their way into deepwater development in the Gulf of Mexico. New drilling technology and subsea production hardware - and especially 3-D seismic imaging - are making deepwater operations more affordable for...

Production equipment sales go on the Internet. (oil and gas production equipment)
August 26, 1996... Owners of idled oil and gas production equipment - and those who might be in the market to buy it - share a new option, thanks to the Internet. In still another new on-line service aimed at the petroleum industry, a Houston company is using...