Improved Recovery Week articles from June 1999

Improved Recovery Week archives from June 1999

DOE helping to develop real-time fracture monitoring; 'instant' identification of frac problems will afford immediate changes.(Dept. of Energy)
June 7, 1999... The Energy Dept. is teaming with several private sector companies and a university to develop an instrument to monitor near-wellbore radioactive tracer movement in real time during fracturing. If perfected, the system would allow operators...

Despite impending merger, new technology helping ARCO cut development costs at North Slope fields.
June 7, 1999... Regardless of its pending BP Amoco merger, ARCO says advances in surface facility design and construction, along with the use of 3-D seismic and high-performance extended-reach drilling, will help it reduce development costs by 30% at its...

Infill drilling, horizontal wells, possible CO2 flood all part of redevelopment plan for old Mississippi field.
June 7, 1999... Jackson, MS-based Canadian Delta Inc. recently acquired an undivided 70% working interest in an old oilfield in west-central Mississippi, and plans to redevelop the field using its own drilling/well service rigs. A good dose of modern oil...

Heavy oil industry taking look at new upgrading method; marketer claims savings of up to 70%.
June 7, 1999... With growing concern in Canada and elsewhere about the environmental drawbacks of conventional heavy oil and oil sands bitumen upgraders - the marketers of smaller, more environmentally friendly upgrading technology are getting serious...

Supreme Court backs producers in coalgas ownership suit; accelerated drilling expected in most western coal basins.
June 14, 1999... A lingering pall of uncertainty over coalbed methane ownership last week was erased once and for all, and producers and mineral owners on federal lands in U.S. western states are extremely relieved. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-1...

Egyptian heavy oil field production keeps climbing as Canadian operator re-competes, drills new wells.(Scimitar Hydrocarbons Corp.'s petroleum production activities at the Issaran oil field, Egypt)
June 14, 1999... Production at the Issaran heavy oil field in Egypt continues to increase as the Canadian company that has 100% working interest in the field recompetes wells after remedial work. Calgary, AB-based Scimitar Hydrocarbons Corp., which began...

Downhole dynamometer data available free from Sandia Lab; help producers cut sucker rod failure.
June 14, 1999... A new database, available free of charge on CD-ROM, contains more than 60 megabytes of actual field measurements made in producing wells with a dynamometer array. Developers of the data say that if applied to improve the load-vs.-position...

Brazil's ANP says 38 companies qualify to bid in June 15 auction of 27 huge off/onshore blocks.(National Petroleum Agency)
June 14, 1999... Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) last week qualified 38 multi-national major and large independent producing companies to bid in the auction of 27 exploration/production licenses, most of them offshore, scheduled to begin tomorrow (June...

Petrovera Resources blends Gulf, PanCanadian 'conventional' heavy oil assets; 34,000 boe/d production gives company heft.(Gulf Canada Resources Ltd; PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd.)(Company Profile)
June 21, 1999... That heavy oil partnership announced by PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. and Gulf Canada Resources a couple of months ago is now a formal entity called Petrovera Resources, and it will be headquarted in Calgary, AB, the home base of both its parents....

Technology partial the cause of recent industrys slump, says new report, but next turnaround due soon.(report in 'Tomorrow's Oil')(Industry Overview)
June 21, 1999... While recent oil supply forecasts pin much of the job of adding new reserves in the next two decades on new technology, oil company R&D budgets continue to fall and service industry players are reporting earnings collapses, which doesn't bode...

Shell Canada nears decision on Muskeg River oil sands mine; will choose new mining partner soon.(oil sands mine near McMurray, Alberta)
June 21, 1999... It still will have to ask its parent for permission, but it appears Shell Canada Ltd. is on track to kick off its Muskeg River oil sands mine in Alberta's Athabasca region, as well as a new upgrader to be sited near Edmonton. Shell has...