Improved Recovery Week articles from July 1995

Improved Recovery Week archives from July 1995

Canadian heavy oil study flags lower '94 operating costs.
July 3, 1995... A comprehensive study of Western Canadian heavy oil operations, released last week, shows that average operating costs in 1994 were substantially lower than they were even a year earlier. According to the study, Heavy Oil 2, prepared by Ziff...

Gullfaks flows a billion barrels. (North Sea Gullfaks oil field)
July 3, 1995... The Gullfaks field in the Noah Sea recently became the third Norwegian field to reach the 1-billion-bbl. stage of oil production. Only the Statfjord and Ekofisk fields have produced more, says Statoil, the Norwegian national oil company....

Utah firm pushes soil-washing for tar sands. (BuenaVentura Resources)
July 3, 1995... A small Utah energy company claims field demonstration tests last year proved that oil can be extracted from tar sands with a simple soil-washing technique for less than $9 per barrel. The company, BuenaVentura Resources, says it's now working...

Texas tax breaks discussed.
July 3, 1995... Some 3,300 wells that might not have been drilled in Texas will be drilled from 1997 through the turn of the century due to recently passed legislation extending tax incentives for drilling deep natural gas wells that tap deep or very dense...

Chemical IOR methods sought. (improve oil recovery)
July 3, 1995... The Energy Dept. has began circulating a Program Research and Development Announcement (PRDA) for development of innovative, cost-effective methods for employing chemicals to improve oil recovery. The PRDA is being issued by BDM-Oklahoma Inc.,...

U.K. coalbed methane development told.
July 3, 1995... Plans are being made for Britain's newest coalbed methane project, which could be underway by late 1996 using U.S.-designed equipment. Initially, six wells are proposed by Coalbed Methane, Ltd. (CML), a Scottish company registered in Falkirk,...

Future of NIPER improves. (National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research)
July 3, 1995... A move to preserve the Energy Dept.'s oil and natural gas exploration and production laboratory at Bartlesville, Okla., even if the DOE itself is dissolved, got a leg up last week. The phased dissolution of DOE, contained in a recently...

N. Sea boycott averted. (Western Atlas North Sea services)
July 3, 1995... A union boycott of the Norwegian unit of Houston-based Western Atlas Inc. was dropped almost as soon as it was threatened last week. The Norwegian Union of Oil and Petrochemical Workers had threatened to boycott Western Atlas for allegedly...

Texas E&P technical forums scheduled.
July 3, 1995... A series of technical forums to be held this month in three Texas cities will discus past production histories and future reserve growth opportunities in Frio, Wilcox and Permian sandstone and carbonate plays. The forums - in Houston, Corpus...

Seismic world not just for the geophysicist.
July 3, 1995... Innovative technology not only has infused the domestic petroleum industry with new life, it has spawned a whole new approach to the search for hydrocarbons. Today, optimal reservoir characterization is being achieved via the concentrated...

Texaco cuts Louisiana horizontal drilling costs in half. (Texaco Inc.)
July 17, 1995... A unit of Texaco Inc. is making good on the vow it made a year or so ago to increase exploration and production activity in South Louisiana. What's more, current horizontal drilling activity in the Pelican State by Texaco E&P Inc. (TEPI) is...

H2O injected, oil produced from same well. (BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd. introduces new technique for simultaneous oil production and water injection)
July 17, 1995... Techniques developed by British Petroleum Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. in the North Sea have shown it is feasible to produce oil and conduct water injection simultaneously through a single borehole. The company is claiming a world first in...

N. Sea heavy oil field said big. (Chevron UK Ltd. continues oil well drilling operations in North Sea)
July 17, 1995... Heavy oil development may be big in Canada and Venezuela, but if Chevron U.K. Ltd. has its way, the North Sea also will be the wellspring for significant heavy oil production. The company says its Bressay field in the British Sector of the...

Firm eyes Argentina output. (Vintage Petroleum Inc.)
July 17, 1995... Vintage Petroleum Inc. has agreed in principle to acquire 50% working interest in three producing concessions in Argentina for US$37 million. If the agreement with a unit of British Gas PLC, goes through, Vintage, based in Tulsa, Okla., will...

GRI testing downhole jet-assisted drilling. (Gas Research Institute)
July 17, 1995... A major study of downhole pumps as a means of jet-assisted drilling is nearing completion under a joint study funded by the Gas Research Institute and the Energy Dept. The project is part of GRI's six-year advanced drilling program, which it...

Water injection gets response. (Nuevo Energy Co.)
July 17, 1995... A quick response to water injection begun in May has resulted in an increase in estimated recoverable reserves for Nuevo Energy Co. in its North Frisco City Field-Wide Oil Unit in Monroe County, Alabama. Nuevo, based in Houston, said the water...

Team signs $40 million pact. (NAM signs two-year contract with service companies)
July 17, 1995... NAM, the Netherlands-based company owned by Royal Dutch/Shell and Exxon, recently signed a two-year contract with a team of service companies worth more than $30 million for well servicing work in the Netherlands, both onshore and in the North...

EG&G gets Morgantown contract. (EG and G Technical Services will provide support services for Morgantown Energy Technology Center)
July 17, 1995... EG&G Technical Services of West Virginia, a unit of EG&G Inc., Wellesley, Mass., has been awarded the site-support contract for the Energy Dept.'s Morgantown, W. Va., Energy Technology Center. The contract, with a potential value of more than...

Venezuela opens reserves to multinationals.
July 17, 1995... Despite the prospect of heavy taxes and a proviso that if OPEC says so, they will have to cut production commensurate with Venezuela's allotment, multinational oil companies have been given the go-ahead to participate in producing oil reserves in...

Old approach gives a handle on the new. (3-D seismic coverage of South Louisiana's West Bay oilfield)
July 17, 1995... The giant West Bay field in South Louisiana's Mississippi Delta region has given up about 237 million bbls. of oil and 735 bcf of gas since its discovery in 1941. Yet, this highly faulted, complex piercement salt dome field - with 75...

PTTC launches Internet oil and gas information system. (Petroleum Technology Transfer Council)
July 17, 1995... The Petroleum Technology Transfer Council has joined the multitudes vaulting onto the on-ramp of the "information highway." The Washington, D.C.-based PTTC - a national clearinghouse for information on U.S. exploration and production technology...

New robot drilling tool being developed by Shell in UK. (Shell Exploration and Production Ltd.)
July 24, 1995... Shell Expro, Ltd. has started work on a robot drilling system with built-in intelligence to find the best course through rock formations. The system could reduce well costs radically by also carrying out logging while it drills, though it is...

Amoco nitrogen flood opens. (Amoco Production Co.'s pilot nitrogen-enhanced coalbed methane project)
July 24, 1995... Amoco Production Co.'s commercial demonstration pilot nitrogen-enhanced coalbed methane project - the first of its kind - got underway late last month in New Mexico's Rio Arriba County. The company hopes the project, which involves nitrogen...

CO2 pipeline to supply Mobil IOR project. (Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S. Inc.)
July 24, 1995... Construction operations will get underway soon for a 120-mile, $25 million carbon dioxide pipeline from the Bravo Dome area of northeastern New Mexico to the Oklahoma panhandle. Once completed, the line initially will deliver C[O.sub.2] to...

E&P spending on the rise. (exploration and production spending by oil companies)
July 24, 1995... In the past, if domestic independent producers have come to be known as ultra-conservative when it comes exploration and production spending, then they're apparently acting completely out of character these days. Major companies also are...

Turbo drill field trials set. (turbo drill testing in the Dutch sector of the North Sea)
July 24, 1995... Field trials are planned in the Dutch sector of the North Sea for a new 3-3/8[inches] SBS turbo drill developed by the Scottish-based Neyrfor-Weir as an addition to its present range of oil industry tools. The new design - which has attracted...

Michigan drilling surges in past 18 months. (horizontal well drilling in Michigan)
July 24, 1995... Through June, a total of 15 horizontal wells had been drilled in the state of Michigan, says Michigan Oil & Gas News, the official publication of the Michigan Oil & Gas Assn. This compares with 15 such wells drilled in Michigan in the whole of...

Smedvig buys consultancy. (Smedvig A.S.'s purchase of Prodrill Ltd.)
July 24, 1995... A unit of Stavanger, Norway-based Smedvig A.S. has acquired Prodrill Ltd., an international petroleum engineering firm based in Aberdeen, Scotland. The acquisition furthers the parent company's strategy of becoming a leading provider of well...

Suncor records 11th earnings increase. (Suncor Inc. profits for the second quarter of 1995)
July 24, 1995... Record synthetic oil production from tar sands helped Suncor Inc. to register its 11th quarter of improved profits with an 83% increase in earnings for the second quarter of 1995. The Canadian company recorded earnings of C$44 million, or 81...

3-D seismic rejuvenating the Tuscaloosa. (Amoco Production Co.'s drilling activities in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
July 24, 1995... Amoco Production Co. is hard at it shooting 3-D seismic and punching deep, expensive holes in the heart of South Louisiana's Tuscaloosa deep gas trend near Baton Rouge. Fifty-three wells continue active in this once-booming play, where...

IOR patent. (patent for treating downhole formations in wellbores)
July 24, 1995... M.C. Manulik has patented a method for treating a downhole formation in a wellbore having multiple porosity zones by circulating a carrier fluid downhole to the lowermost porosity zone, and then flowing an acid-soluble blocking agent into the...

BP bypasses pumps with coiled tubing at Wytch Farm field. (British Petroleum Company PLC.; oil field; U.K.)
July 31, 1995... After record-breaking efforts to boost flow by combining electrical submersible pumps with extended-reach drilling, British Petroleum Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. is pioneering techniques for intervention with coiled tubing in the same wells at...

Alaska coalgas wells planned. (Lapp Resources Inc.)
July 31, 1995... Alaska's first coalbed methane development is slated to get underway this summer. Lapp Resources Inc., Anchorage, has received permits from the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission to drill three wells near Houston, a rural community...

Solv-Ex group buys Petro-Canada lease. (Solv-Ex Corp.; Petro-Canada Inc.)
July 31, 1995... Solv-Ex Corp. and United Tri-Star Resources Ltd. have completed acquisition of the Fort Hills oil sands lease in Alberta's Athabasca Oil Sands area from Petro-Canada. The seller was Petro-Canada, and in the best of all deals, the two companies...

Research alliance formed. (Houston Advanced Research Center; Texaco Inc.)
July 31, 1995... The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and Texaco Inc. have established a geochemistry research library at HARC's facility in The Woodlands, Texas, north of Houston. Initially, Texaco will seed the laboratory by relocating its geochemical...

DOE offers R&D breaks.
July 31, 1995... The Energy Dept. is helping make it simpler for research and development projects to enter into cooperative agreements with industry. The department has come up with three new deviations from its financial assistance rule book. These, says DOE,...

Go-ahead for Elk Hills NPR sale expected. (Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve)
July 31, 1995... The Clinton administration proposal to sell the 1-billion-bbl. Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve to private industry is expected to be approved this week as part of the 1996 Defense authorization bill. The plan already has been approved by the...

Record horizontal legs drilled. (Sell Western E and P Inc.)
July 31, 1995... Apparent world record short-radius horizontal laterals were drilled recently by Shell Western E&P Inc. in Montmorency County, Mich. According to Michigan Oil & Gas News, the official publication of the Michigan Oil & Gas Assn., Swepi's State...

Multi-lateral system installed. (BP/ARCO Alaska Shared Services)
July 31, 1995... BP/ARCO Alaska Shared Services Drilling has contracted with Halliburton Energy Services to install an integrated multi-lateral drilling and completion system in a well on Alaska's North Slope. The system, which can turn an existing wellbore...

Domestic spending up; per-bbl. costs down. (oil and gas producing companies)
July 31, 1995... Capital spending by U.S. oil and gas producing companies in 1994 was at its highest in three years, while foreign spending was at its lowest in five years, says Arthur Andersen L.L.P. Oil and gas company domestic capital spending was up 9% to...

South Louisiana permitting not for the timid. (oil and gas industry)
July 31, 1995... Oil and gas industry permitting in South Louisiana has long been a bad scene in the minds of geophysical contractors, among others. Consider, for example, getting permits to acquire seismic data across oyster leases. Each crossing in a 3-D...