Improved Recovery Week articles from December 1997

Improved Recovery Week archives from December 1997

Amoco sells Rocky Mountain properties worth $592 million-plus; buyers intend prompt exploitation. (sale of Amoco Production Co.'s properties to Howell Corp. and HS Resources Inc.)
December 1, 1997... Smaller, more mobile companies continue to buy up producing properties from Amoco Corp., viewing the purchases as excellent opportunities to enhance the properties' value through the use of new drilling/production technology. Last week, Amoco...

Koch Exploration emerges as buyer of Solv-Ex assets; deal will include technology review. (Koch Exploration Ltd.; Solv-Ex Corp.)
December 1, 1997... In the seemingly never-ending saga of Solv-Ex Corp.'s long campaign to develop oil sands reserves in north-central Alberta, Canada, the saga may have come to an end. It has been announced that Koch Exploration Ltd., Calgary, will now take over...

Latest C$3 billion Syncrude Canada expansion linked to the idea of declining conventional oil. (Syncrude Canada Ltd.)
December 1, 1997... Western Canadian oil sands developers continue to throw billions of dollars at new mines, new upgraders, and expansions of existing upgrading facilities. Obviously, with a new century dawning, they have their eye on the Big Picture as regards...

Crosswell seismic imaging gains with more testing; new player uses downhole vibrator.
December 1, 1997... Crosswell seismic imaging is producing higher and higher resolution these days, providing producers with "pictures" of subsurface features between existing wells with a resolution more than 10 times greater than surface seismic data....

Pioneer Resources inherits Spraberry Trend Class Demo Project; plans to inject water, then CO2 in pilot testing. (Pioneer Natural Resources Co.)
December 8, 1997... Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. plans to continue a Class 3 DOE Reservoir Demonstration Project in which one of its predecessor companies, Parker & Parsley Inc., was heavily engaged before it merged with MESA Inc. in August. The...

Mobil, with oil sands mine still only preliminary, could build upgrader - or use competitors'. (Mobil Oil Canada Ltd.)
December 8, 1997... Even though it really hasn't even decided where best to site its Kearl oil sands mine near Fort McKay, Alta., Mobil Oil Canada says it wouldn't rule out upgrading its bitumen in a competitor's plant. Mobil is among a number of companies...

TransTexas Gas drills first horizontal in Austin Chalk. (TransTexas Gas Corp.)
December 8, 1997... Houston-based TransTexas Gas Corp., whose main claim to fame has been deep gas production in South Texas, recently announced completion of its first well in the Austin Chalk play in the south-central part of the state. TransTexas said its...

GRI's Gulf Atlas updated with deepwater drilling data. (Gas Research Institute)
December 8, 1997... The two-volume Atlas of Northern Gulf of Mexico Gas and Oil Reservoirs, published by Gas Research Institute, Chicago, will be updated with a supplement containing the most recent deepwater drilling data. The supplement, which will be published...

'Knowledge hubs' being formed to help producers manage geoscience data, says Schlumberger. (Schlumberger Oilfield Services)
December 8, 1997... Faced with the threat of information overload from increasing volumes of reservoir and other data, Schlumberger Oilfield Services is attempting to get some order into the system by setting up its own knowledge hub. It is also working with oil...

Cross Timbers' New Mexico purchase adds 48.5 million boe for 35% reserves increase. (Cross Timbers Oil Co.)
December 8, 1997... In what it calls a "landmark" acquisition, Cross Timbers Oil Co., Fort Worth, Texas, said last week the 157,000 acres of producing properties it has purchased from Amoco Production Co. in New Mexico increases its reserves by more than 35%. The...

Rig shortage spawns new modular drilling units in Canada; talent deficit also noted.
December 8, 1997... With a growing shortage of land rigs in both Canada and the U.S., various companies are broaching new equipment solutions. Canadian drilling contractor Brinkerhoff Drilling Co., for instance, has introduced a new onshore shallow-depth drilling...

Dresser buys Westport Center; to aid parent, other clients. (Dresser Industries Inc.; Westport Technology Center International)
December 8, 1997... Westport Technology Center International, which provides commercial laboratory and consulting services to the exploration and production sector of the petroleum industry, has been purchased by Dallas-based Dresser Industries, Inc. Though the...

Statoil's new computer system gives wide interpretive review. (Statoil A/S)
December 8, 1997... Norway's Statoil has added more bytes to its seismic interpretation facilities with a new computer system which can produce visualizations covering an area the size of four of the country's North Sea exploration blocks. The VoxelGeo system,...

Seneca Resources, heavy in Gulf, offsets costs with various onshore California property deals. (Seneca Resources Corp.)
December 8, 1997... Though it continues to develop offshore oil and gas reserves along the Louisiana-Texas Gulf Coast, Houston-based Seneca Resources Corp. is making a concerted effort to become a factor in California's heavy oil production picture, as well....

'Through-casing resistivity' technology goes to Western Atlas in recent acquisition of ParaMagnetic Logging.
December 15, 1997... Houston-based Western Atlas Inc. has acquired ParaMagnetic Logging Inc. (PML), Palo Alto, Calif., inventor and developer of the Through-Casing Resistivity Tool (TCRT), which measures formation resistivity behind casing. PML developed the...

Conoco, Ramco near agreement with Azeris on IOR for shallow-water Guneshli area. (Ramco Energy Corp.; International Offshore Rules)
December 15, 1997... Conoco Inc. seems set to pick up a major share in a joint venture which could involve investment of more than US$1 billion in refurbishing the Caspian Sea oil project, which provides 80% of Azerbaijan's present oil production. The move was...

O&G potential in W. Siberian Basin tops estimated future U.S. oil, gas resources.
December 15, 1997... Some major international oil companies may be hesitant about furthering proposed projects in Russia's vast West Siberian Basin (WSB), but a report by the Energy Dept.'s Energy Information Admin. (EIA), says that region holds as much oil and gas...

Updated field screening, risk analysis software available free soon from DOE tech office.
December 15, 1997... Upgrades of two software programs developed for the Energy Dept. by BDM Petroleum Technologies are being made available to industry free of charge by the DOE's National Petroleum Technology Office (NPTO) in Tulsa, Okla. The two programs -...

Oxy to operate 1.1-billion-bbl. 'satellite' field off Qatar; expects $450 million capex. (Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s business agreement with Qatar Petroleum Corp.)
December 15, 1997... A unit of Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. last week signed a production-sharing agreement with Qatar General Petroleum Corp. (QGPC) to develop the Idd El Shargi South Dome (ISSD) oil field in the Arabian Gulf. Occidental Petroleum...

AOSIS reports on IOR, heavy oil. (Alberta Dept. of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services; International Offshore Rules)
December 15, 1997... The Alberta Dept. of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services (AOSIS) makes the following oil sands/heavy oil/IOR technical reports and papers available to interested parties. For copies, call AOSIS in Calgary at 403-297-3631 (fax: 403-2973638)....

Horizontal drilling expert urges thorough planning; new 'rule of thumb' list can help get optimal results. (Ross Clark, manager of Corexcana Ltd.)
December 22, 1997... Ross Clark has composed a set of horizontal drilling "rules of thumb," mainly because he knows the technique like the back of his hand. Manager of new ventures for Calgary-based independent Corexcana Ltd., Clark is considered an authority in...

Suncor adds to its Alberta heavy oil leases; cites future changes in SAGD technology. (Suncor Energy; steam-assisted gravity drainage)
December 22, 1997... Furthering its goal of expanding beyond oil sands development both in Canada and overseas, Calgary-based Suncor Energy last week acquired some 67,954 acres of heavy oil properties in the Firebag area of northern Alberta. The C$17 million...

Phillips-led group gets go-ahead to launch Eldfisk gas lift-aided waterflood at Eldfisk. (Phillips Petroleum Norway Co.; Phillips Norway Group)
December 22, 1997... A US$785 million waterflood/gas injection project at the Eldfisk field in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea has been approved by the country's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. According to Phillips Petroleum Norway Co., Bartlesville,...

Wyoming back to drawing board on possible CO2 line linking Exxon source with old fields.
December 22, 1997... The much-discussed - and cussed - pipeline to transport carbon dioxide from western Wyoming for possible tertiary recovery operations in the Powder River and Big Horn basins may be a step closer to reality. The state's Natural Gas Pipeline...