Improved Recovery Week articles from June 1998

Improved Recovery Week archives from June 1998

Corridor farms out Anticosti Island drilling to Shell Canada; first drilling there since 1960s. (Corridor Resources Inc)
June 1, 1998... It took a while to make the deal work, but Corridor Resources Inc., a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based independent, will this month see exploratory drilling take place on acreage licensed to it on Anticosti Island, Quebec. Corridor holds more than...

DOE core workshop shines light on Permian Basin data deemed 'secret'; now in public domain. (Dept of Energy)
June 1, 1998... A recent Midland, Texas workshop that highlighted drill cores from various Energy Dept. cost-shared projects in the Permian Basin gave attendees a rare look at reservoir information that, under normal circumstances, would have been considered...

Drilling contractors beware: big oil service firms announce new technologies for head-on competition.
June 8, 1998... If drilling contractors and downstream processors don't already know it, a number of the really big oilfield service companies have their eyes not only on drilling, completing and producing oil and gas wells, but even on producing endproducts -...

Core Labs to acquire Owens Oil Tools for $55 million; to expand StimGun output. (Core Laboratories Inc.)
June 8, 1998... The development of commercial products in conjunction with the U.S. Space Program is starting to deliver dividends in many areas of business. For the petroleum industry, the list of new applications is growing. However, an older NASA...

PDVSA 'outsources' Lake Maracaibo's largest waterflood; consortium paid in extra oil. (Petroleos de Venezuela)
June 8, 1998... Ambitious plans have been launched by Venezuela's state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to boost production from the Lake Maracaibo area by water injection. The company has placed a 16-year contract worth US$800 million with an...

Russian, PRC orders for well service gear total $25 million. (People's Republic of China; Stewart & Stevenson Services Inc.)
June 8, 1998... Houston-based Stewart & Stevenson Services Inc. has received three orders for well servicing equipment from both the former Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The orders include contracts from Sugurtneftegas and Sibneft, both...

Amber completes Pelican Lake pipeline on time, on budget. (Amber Energy Inc.)
June 8, 1998... Calgary-based Amber Energy Inc., whose low field netbacks on Alberta heavy oil production keeps it drilling ahead while other companies have shut down entire fields due to narrowing price differentials, said last week it has completed the...

Union Texas, at brink of ARCO merger, announces second Azerbaijan IOR deal: drilling set for 1999. (Union Texas Petroleum Holdings Inc; Atlantic Richfield Co.; State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic; improved oil recovery)
June 8, 1998... Houston-based Union Texas Petroleum Holdings, Inc., which is set to merge with Atlantic Richfield Co., last week said it had signed a production sharing agreement with the state oil company of the Azerbaijan Republic for an onshore improved oil...

Koch, UTS plan one-year study of Solv-Ex leases. (Koch Canada Ltd.; United Tri-Star Resources)(Solv-Ex Corp.)
June 8, 1998... A 12-month pre-feasibility study will get underway this month to determine the size and quality of the bitumen deposits contained in two adjacent Alberta oil sands leases, says Koch Canada Ltd., which has assumed ownership of the leases after a...

Barrett well tests heavy oil in first of three Peru wells. (Barrett Resources Corp.)
June 8, 1998... Denver-based Barrett Resources Corp. said recently it's Peruvian unit has tested heavy oil in three zones in its Dorado Well No. 67-35-IX discovery well in Peru's Maranon Basin. The well is the first of three exploratory wells planned this year...

Outsource the G&A and spend time drilling, producing oil gas, says new Torch affiliate. (Torch Energy Advisors Inc.)
June 8, 1998... Houston-based Torch Energy Advisors Inc. recently formed Novistar, a company that, at its creation, they claim is the largest dedicated provider of outsourced administrative and information technology (IT) services for independent producers....

IOR patent. (improved oil recovery)(U.S. patent no. 5,690,174)
June 8, 1998... R.G. Chapman, I.R. Collins, S.P. Goodwin, A.R. Lucy and N.J. Stewart, all of BP Chemicals Ltd., have patented a process for increasing the effectiveness of production chemicals by reducing the number of squeezing and shut-in operations needed to...

AOSIS reports on IOR, heavy oil. (Alberta Dept of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services; improved oil recovery)
June 8, 1998... 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)....

Company markets redesigned portable steam generator; offers paraffin control for a fee, production royalty. (U.S. Crude Ltd.'s portable TM-96 steam generator)
June 15, 1998... Portable steam generators, designed to inject hot water or steam into shallow, paraffin-congested wells to lower oil viscosity and thus, improve flow characteristics, have been tried before. In the early 1980s, they were even heralded as the...

Experiments conducted aboard recent space shuttle said to advance IOR technologies. (improved oil recovery)
June 15, 1998... When America's most recent Space shuttle landed last week, among the data it brought back was information that promises to help improve recovery from the all the world's oil reservoirs. And all it took was a little weightlessness. Among the...

DOE expands its successful cost-sharing concept into natural gas arena; well completion projects get nod. (Department of Energy)
June 22, 1998... The Energy Dept. is contributing $931,455 toward two research projects designed to improve the way producers complete natural gas wells. The DOE's Office of Fossil Energy says the two projects are the beginning of its support of research on...

Drilling cost cuts, other advances narrowing success ratio on North Slope, say partners.
June 22, 1998... Coiled-tubing drilling has helped British Petroleum's Alaska unit to slash two-thirds off the cost of wells on the North Slope, according to information given to financial analysts at a briefing in Anchorage last week. The company claims it...

Pa. Supreme Court rules in favor of coalgas producer in appeal over access to drill site. (Pennsylvania)
June 22, 1998... Mark up a victory for coalbed methane producers in their long-standing fight with coal mining interests over exercising the right to develop the gas contained in unmined coal seams. Such Squabbles have delayed much coalbed methane development,...

Underbalanced completion manual, other new upstream technology 'partnerships' offered via GRI Select program. (Gas Research Institute)
June 29, 1998... On the successful heels of publication of its Underbalanced Drilling Manual (IRW, 10-20-97), Chicago-based Gas Research Institute has now embarked on preparing a companion publication dealing with underbalanced completions. This time, however...

IOGCC directs Clinton, Congress to plight of stripper operators. (Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission)
June 29, 1998... The Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) adopted an "11th hour" resolution warning of the damage low world oil prices is causing among independent producers, particularly stripper well operators. The resolution, to be directed to...

U.S. team to direct New South Wales coalgas search; proximity to Sydney a major driver.
June 29, 1998... U.S. coalbed methane experts Frederick A. Skidmore and John P. Castleman are about to oversee the drilling of 25 wells to explore coal seams for methane deposits in Australia's New South Wales state near Sydney. The two men last year emerged...

First of Anticosti Island wells spudded by Shell Canada.
June 29, 1998... First of four-well exploratory drilling program on Anticosti Island in the Canada's St. Lawrence River estuary was spudded recently by Shell Canada Ltd. and Encal Energy Ltd. The drilling program is part of a farm-in agreement with Corridor...

Woodmac report details German E&P activities. (oil exploration and production)
June 29, 1998... U.K. consultant Wood MacKenzie has reviewed the German exploration and production scene in a special report on northwest Europe activity. In its North West Europe Report No. 143, dated June 1998, Woodmac says despite Germany being considered a...

UPR continues to score in Land Grant acreage; four horizontal gas wells contribute 28 mmcf/d. (Union Pacific Resources Group Inc.)
June 29, 1998... Fort Worth, Texas-based Union Pacific Resources Group Inc. (UPR) continues to benefit from drilling programs conducted on the company's mineral-rich Land Grant acreage in the Rocky Mountain area. The company last week announced details on four...

North Sea Ross field gets U.K.'s first 'hot' gas pipeline tie-in; oil production set at 46,000 b/d.
June 29, 1998... A team from Total Oil Marine PLC and Stolt Comex Seaway recently completed the U.K.'s first "hot" tie-in by fitting a subsea link to the Frigg gas pipeline in the North Sea without disrupting the flow. The operation was necessary to enable a...

Anticipated higher oil prices appears to breath new life into oil sands/heavy oil news frequency.
June 29, 1998... All it takes is a little good news about oil prices, and Canadian oil sands bitumen/heavy oil producers start making announcements. Last week, as IRW went to press, Suncor Energy, Imperial Oil Ltd. and Mobil Oil Canada all addressed ongoing oil...

Oxy plans fourth horizontal, six verticals at Elk Hills. (Occident Petroleum Corp.)
June 29, 1998... Bakersfield, Calif.-based Occident Petroleum Corp. now has eight drilling rigs working in the Elk Hills field, which it purchased earlier this year from the federal government. The company recently filed notices for its fourth horizontal well...

Abraxas completes two deep horizontal gas wells in Texas. (Abraxas Petroleum Corp.)
June 29, 1998... San Antonio, Texas-based Abraxas Petroleum Corp, last week said it had placed its third deep horizontal gas well on stream in the Three Rivers field in Live Oak County, Texas. The Schultz Well No. 3H is producing 2.8 mmcf/d of gas with 2,410...

Total-Statoil-PDVSA's Sincor joint venture will use Foster Wheeler delayed coker design. (Petroleos de Venezuela)
June 29, 1998... Sincor, a joint venture of Total Venezuela, Statoil Venezuela and Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has chosen Foster Wheeler Corp.'s proprietary SYDECSM delayed- coking technology for an extra-heavy oil upgrader they plan to build in that South...

AOSIS reports on IOR, heavy oil. (Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services)
June 29, 1998... The Alberta Dept. of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services (AOSlS) 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: 403-297-3638)....

IOR patent. (secondary recovery of oil)
June 29, 1998... M.T. Miyasaki has patented a method and apparatus for converting crude oil tank bottoms to a liquid fuel, which uses a powered cutting tool to break up crude oil sludge contained in an oil storage tank bottom, with injection of cutter stock to...