Improved Recovery Week articles from May 1995

Improved Recovery Week archives from May 1995

3-D use in finding by-passed oil discussed at OTC. (three-dimensional seismic techniques; Offshore Technology Conference)
May 8, 1995... The use of 3-D seismic techniques is proving to be a crucial tool in recovering by-passed oil in mature fields, according to three industry figures who addressed a news conference at last week's Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. And...

More horizontals offshore Brazil. (horizontal oil well drilling)
May 8, 1995... Petroleos de Brasilieros has allocated US$50 million to drill eight horizontal wells this year in several Brazilian oil fields, including four in its Marlin offshore field. The company plans to drill some 15 horizontals - both offshore and...

CT unit cleans hot, high-pressure wells. (coiled tubing package for oil wells)
May 8, 1995... A high-pressure coiled tubing package has been developed that can be operated safely with up to 9,000-psi wellhead pressure and 10,000-psi circulating pressure, thereby providing an alternative to the use of snubbing units to clean out deep,...

UPRC acquires Gemini. (Union Pacific Resources Co.; Gemini Oil and Gas Company)
May 8, 1995... Fort Worth, Texas-based Union Pacific Resources Co. has completed the $37.9 million acquisition of Gemini Oil & Gas Co., Dallas. The acquisition gives Gemini's 40,000 gross acres in the Austin Chalk trend of Texas to UPRC, which already is the...

Mobil cuts include research. (Mobil Corp.)
May 8, 1995... Mobil Corp., Fairfax, Va., said last week it plans to cut 4,700 jobs worldwide and close its Princeton, N.J. research campus, merging its work with laboratories in Paulsboro, N.J. and Dallas. Mobil said the cuts would save $1 billion a year and...

Russian-American tech centers established. (Russian-American Oil and Gas Technology Center)
May 8, 1995... The Russian-American Oil & Gas Technology Center, established by a multinational group of government, private and educational institutions, has opened its Russian office in Tyumen City, Western Siberia, about 1,200 miles east of Moscow. The...

Firm ups Indonesian production. (Talisman Energy Inc. and Pertamina Humas P.T.test new oil wells)
May 8, 1995... Talisman Energy Inc. and Pertamina, the Indonesian national oil company, announced recent testing of three wells in a new, deeper horizon beneath the Air Serdang field in Sumatra. Talisman and Pertamina are developing the old oil fields under a...

DOE plans more cuts. (downsizing Dept. of Energy personnel)
May 8, 1995... In a move calculated to head off some of the "heat" the Energy Dept. is taking from Congress and elsewhere, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary last week announced plans to close 24 offices around the country and reduce the DOE work force by 27% over...

Statoil using simulator to site horizontals. (Statoil A/S drills new horizontal and extended-reach oil wells)
May 8, 1995... Statoil, Norway's national oil company, is drilling numerous horizontal and extended-reach wells to develop thin oil zones and reservoir pockets around established fields in Norway's sector of the North Sea. Statoil and other companies are...

'4-D' seismic: E&P tool underpinned by 3-D. (use of seismic techniques in oil exploration and production)
May 8, 1995... While it's not a new technology, time-lapse 3-D seismic - referred to these days as "4-D seismic" - is garnering a goodly share of ink in the trade journals these days as one of the hot new trends in the E&P game. Used principally for...

DOE's field demo program pays off for Lomax Exploration.
May 15, 1995... Houston-based Lomax Exploration Co. is helping to change conventional thinking about improved oil recovery in Utah's Uinta Basin. With the help of the Energy Dept.'s Reservoir Class Field Demonstration Program (RCFD), that is. ...

Statoil drilling speed record set.
May 15, 1995... Well C-26 on Statoil's Gullfaks C platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea has set a new company record for drilling performance and speed. The slim-hole well took 16 days to complete, compared with an estimate of 29 days made a...

Study: tech. could up U.S. oil by 14 bil. bbls.
May 15, 1995... Currently available technology, if transferred effectively to domestic producers, could result in 9-14 billion bbls of additional U.S. oil production in the next seven years, says a new study. What's more, the study projects, if intensive...

NPR sale idea changed. (Naval Petroleum Reserve)
May 15, 1995... The Clinton administration has shifted its course on a proposed sale of the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves to sometime in 1996. What's more, the administration no longer plans to first set up a special corporation -- "Paddle Mac"...

YPF's Maxus buyout lives. (Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales S/A; Maxus Energy Inc.)
May 15, 1995... Despite the fact that Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales, S/A President Jose Estenssoro died May 4 in a plane crash, the proposed YPF buyout of Maxus Energy Inc. is expected to proceed as planned. A YPF spokesperson said while Estenssoro's...

Horizontals speed N. Sea development. (oil drilling technology in the North Sea)
May 15, 1995... Norway's Norsk Hydro a.s. has pursued horizontal and extended reach drilling technology in the North Sea to develop oil reservoirs that otherwise might not have been developed. In fact, the company expects to produce more than 2 billion...

2010 oil imports 69%, says IPAA. (Independent Petroleum Assn. of America)
May 15, 1995... In its recently released short- and long-term industry forecast, the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America predicts that oil imports by the year 2010 will equal 68.5% of U.S. demand. The report attributes higher domestic gas production...

Arco forecasts Alaska flow. (Atlantic Richfield Co.)
May 15, 1995... Atlantic Richfield Co. expects its production from its producing fields in Alaska to average about 400,000 b/d for the next several years. This average is forecast even though new Alaska oil production is coming on line, Arco said, due...

Kazakh service contract set. (LaTex Resources International)
May 15, 1995... LaTex Resources International, Tulsa, Okla., has received a 25% interest in a service contract to rehabilitate three divisions of the Uzen oil field in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The three divisions currently produce about 65,000-70,000...

Experts mull future of geophysical technology. (oil exploration experts)
May 15, 1995... Exploration and production experts may shy away from forecasting oil and gas prices, but there's no dearth of predications on the technology advances that will keep business humming for those oil-finders who choose to ride the high-tech wave....

Through-casing logging tool licensed to Atlas, Schlumberger. (Atlas Logging Services; Schlumberger Ltd.; ParaMagnetic Logging Inc. develops Through Casing Resistivity Tool)
May 22, 1995... W. Banning Vail is getting much closer to having his day. Vail, president of ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc. (PML), of Woodinville, Wash., and Palo Alto, Calif., is the inventor of the Through Casing Resistivity Tool([TM]), a device that measures...

Aussie boffins study muds for horizontals. (Australian researchers find oil-based muds drill better holes due to mechanical stability)
May 22, 1995... Australian researches may be on the way to a breakthrough with a problem that bedevils deviated, extended-reach and horizontal wells - wellbore instability. Tony Addis of the Australian Petroleum Research Center (APACE) says the next 12 to 18...

Benton ups stake in La. field. (Benton Oil and Gas Co. and Tenneco Ventures raise interest in Rabbit Island gas field, St, Mary Parish, Louisiana)
May 22, 1995... Benton Oil & Gas Co., Carpenteria, Calif., and Tenneco Ventures, Houston, have upped their respective interests in the Rabbit Island field in St. Mary Parish, La. The companies signed an amendment to an agreement they have with Texaco E&P,...

Horizontals double production for Unocal. (horizontal wells; Unocal Corp.)
May 22, 1995... Los Angeles-based Unocal Corp. says the first horizontal wells it has drilled in the Gulf of Mexico have more than doubled oil production from its South Timbalier Block 53 field off Louisiana. The company said the field's oil production rate is...

Tractors push tools in deviated wells. (Well Tractor; downhole tool conveys coiled tubing and wireline devices in highly deviated wells)
May 22, 1995... Having trouble getting a wireline tool to the desired depth interval in a horizontal well? Can't get coiled tubing into a deviated, 25,000[feet] hole? Help seems to be on the way. In this case, it's the Well Tractor, a new downhole tool being...

Canada oil drilling seen up.
May 22, 1995... A Canadian wireline company sees an increase in oil development there this year, along with a continued decline in natural gas development. Will Honeybourne, president and CEO of Computalog, Ltd., Toronto, Oat., said last week the Canadian rig...

Class 4 proposals sought. (Dept. of Energy issues request for proposals for cost-shared projects in Class 4 reservoirs)
May 22, 1995... The Energy Dept. recently issued an RFP to conduct cost-shared projects in Class 4 (strandplain/barrier island) reservoirs. Strandplain/barrier island reservoirs exist in at least 14 states. The Class 4 program is being managed for DOE by the...

Coalgas operator gets award. (River Gas of Utah Inc. receives state Earth Day Award for coalbed methane project in Carbon County, Utah)
May 22, 1995... The State of Utah recently awarded River Gas of Utah, Inc. a state Earth Day award for its coalbed methane project in Carbon County, in eastern Utah near the town of Price. One official described the Salt Lake City-based operator's project as...

Industry incentives saved. (House Budget Committee proposal omits cuts in tax incentives for petroleum production industry)
May 22, 1995... The domestic petroleum industry, particularly independent producers, benefitted from omission of some threatening cuts in existing tax breaks last week in the nation's capital. Independents had been bracing for a final committee report on the...

No time like real-time in geophysics world. (real-time data acquisition enhances operating efficiency of oil and gas field exploration projects)
May 22, 1995... Real-time saves time...really. As the E&P industry clamors for more ways to cut costs, the center stage is set for operating efficiencies. Reduced cycle time for projects becomes critical. And where seismic data are used, real-time data...

Amoco unveils nitrogen-enhanced coalgas recovery. (Amoco Production Co.)
May 29, 1995... Amoco Production Co. will get underway in the next few months on at least three expanded pilot programs to test the commerciality of its patented nitrogen injection Enhanced Coalbed Methane (ECBM) process. The company, a pioneer in U.S. coalbed...

UPRC acquires Giddings wells. (Union Pacific Resources Co. acquires Edco Energy Inc.'s Giddings field in Fayette County, Texas)
May 29, 1995... Union Pacific Resources Co., Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired 14 producing horizontal wells in the Giddings field in Fayette County, Texas from Edco Energy Inc., Austin. The $10 million purchase includes proved developed reserves of some 2.2...

Texas Oil incentives nearing approval. (oil and gas incentives)
May 29, 1995... Five programs that provide tax incentives for Texas oil and gas producers last week were all but totally approved by the Texas Legislature, nearing readiness for signing into law by Gov. George W. Bush. The bills are expected to be enacted...

National-Oilwell sale set.
May 29, 1995... Armco, Inc. and USX Corp. have signed a letter of intent to sell National-Oilwell, their jointly owned oilfield manufacturing and supply company based in Houston, to management and several investment firms. Though no sales figures were...

Smedvig acquires 3-D firm. (Smedvig A/S; Geomatic A/S)
May 29, 1995... In a move calculated to expand its oil and gas reservoir mapping and modeling services, a unit of the Norwegian company Smedvig A/S, of Stavanger, has acquired Geomatic A/S, also of Stavanger, which provides advanced software for such services....

Pad drilling improves Wyoming gas play. (drilling pads improve multiple-well drilling)
May 29, 1995... Union Pacific Resources Co. has found that under the right conditions, drilling multiple wells from drilling pads is sound economically and environmentally. Fort Worth, Texas-based UPRC reported it tried the concept last year in the Wamsutter...

PanAtlas boosts production. (Panatlas Energy Inc.)
May 29, 1995... Calgary-based PanAtlas Energy Inc. says it has boosted both oil and gas production from its Weyburn, Sask. producing properties by 146% with four successful horizontal wells. The company said the four wells boosted oil production to an average...

Pride nixes another buy. (Pride Petroleum Services)
May 29, 1995... Houston-based Pride Petroleum Services Inc. says it does not intend to proceed with the purchase of Reeled Tubing, Inc., Harvey, La. The company in a press release said it has "not been able to develop terms of a mutually acceptable...

Canadian active rigs up. (rig utilization up by 17% in Canada)
May 29, 1995... Rig utilization in Canada was up 17% last week from the previous week, marking the lifting of more road bans in southern Alberta, says a Southam Energy, a Vancouver, B.C.based rig location service. Additionally, the 200 active rigs as of...

Sun Co. selling out of Suncor for $855 million.
May 29, 1995... In a somewhat surprising move, Philadelphia-based Sun Co. Inc. has agreed to sell its 55% interest in Suncor Inc., one of Canada's largest producers of synthetic oil from oil sands, to a group of Canadian underwriters for US$855 million. The...

What's up after 2-D, 3-D and 4-D? Try 3-C. (multicomponent shear wave data)
May 29, 1995... While geoscientists labor diligently to exploit more and more information from acquired seismic data, research is ongoing to add additional dimensions to the data. In particular, research efforts aimed at adding shear wave technology to...