Improved Recovery Week articles from May 1997

Improved Recovery Week archives from May 1997

Ultra high-pressure lateral drilling/jetting system to be used in mature fields for completions, re-entries. (oil and gas fields)
May 5, 1997... A Louisiana company specializing in environmental remediation recently made its entry into the oil and gas E&P business, and is now engaged in domestic and international horizontal stimulation/completion in a big way. The company,...

Producers consider gas-to-oil process for remote fields where pipelines don't exist.
May 5, 1997... Finding natural gas at locations remote from pipeline routes often can be more of a burden than a triumph for exploration groups, especially if the reserves are produced with oil, which can more easily be shipped out by tanker. But a solution...

New software predicts inclined hole stability.
May 5, 1997... A software program developed by the University of Oklahoma's Rock Mechanics Institute (RMI) for poro-elastic analysis of inclined boreholes is now available to producers, says the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC),Washington, D.C....

First-quarter U.S. oil well completions down by 18%.
May 5, 1997... Completions of oil wells in the U.S. continue to wane, while natural gas well completions are still on the upswing, albeit a bit shallower in their rise. According to the American Petroleum Institute's 1997 Quarterly Well Completion Report, at...

Tarragon gives go-ahead for SAGD development at its Bolney heavy oil field in Saskatchewan. (Tarragon Oil and Gas Ltd.)
May 5, 1997... In addition to increased drilling for natural gas and conventional oil in Alberta, British Columbia and North Dakota, Calgary-based Tarragon Oil and Gas Ltd. has chosen to go ahead with full development of its heavy oil reserves at Bolney, in...

U.S. company, JNOC blend simulation software for study of horizontal well drilling systems. (Simulation Sciences Inc.; Japan National Oil Corp.)
May 5, 1997... Two companies have agreed to integrate software to offer producers new technology to shorten horizontal well design times, reduce capital equipment costs and improve control of operations. Simulation Sciences Inc. (SIMSCI), Brea, Calif., and...

Mobil Canada discloses details of proposed Alberta oil sands project; mine would produce 100,000 b/d. (Mobil Oil Canada Ltd.)
May 5, 1997... Mobil Oil Canada last week filed a preliminary public disclosure with Alberta provincial regulatory agencies about its proposed oil sands mining and bitumen extraction project in that province's Athabasca region. The document contains the...

Chalk production boosts Chesapeake's 9-month net. (Louisiana Austin Chalk Trend; Chesapeake Energy Corp.)
May 5, 1997... Furthering development of both oil and gas reserves in the Louisiana Austin Chalk Trend aided materially in fiscal third-quarter earnings for Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City. The company, with drilling underway last week on 12 wells in...

Seneca finals dual stacked Austin Chalk well in Texas. (Seneca Resources Corp.)
May 5, 1997... Seneca Resources Corp., Houston, recently completed a dual stacked lateral oil and gas producer in the Austin Chalk trend in Burleson County, Texas. The company, a unit of National Fuel Gas Co., Buffalo, N.Y., said its Wilkins No. 7-H well was...

Utah Geo. Survey working with DOE-funded study of fracture orientation in Uinta Basin fields.
May 5, 1997... The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) is working under a subcontract to TerraTek, Inc., Salt Lake City, on a study of advanced fracture modeling in the Uinta Basin. The study's goal is to optimize primary and secondary recovery, says the UGS,...

IOR potential of the Norwegian Shelf. (improved oil recovery; oil production)
May 5, 1997... Total oil production from existing and new fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf is expected to decline within a few years. Consequently, Statoil has been investigating the means for maintaining the production at today's level beyond year...

IOR patent. (improved oil recovery method from Baker Hughes Inc.)
May 5, 1997... K.O. Trahan, R.D. Bennett, J.L. Baugh and C.D. Krauss, all of Baker Hughes Inc., have patented a method for multi-lateral completion and cementing the juncture with lateral well-bores, more particularly to new and improved methods and devices for...

Aberdeen to become center for testing, research into coiled tubing traction gear, workover riser. (Scotland; research facility)
May 12, 1997... Two projects announced during the Offshore Technology Conference last week in Houston will establish Aberdeen, Scotland, as a center for advances in the use of coiled tubing to cut well costs. British Petroleum Ltd. and Shell U.K. E&P, along...

Venerable Lost Hills field to become scene of dual waterflood/steamflood pilot project. (Kern County, California oil field)
May 12, 1997... An 86-year-old Kern County oil field, which owes its persistent ranking among the top 10 oil fields in California to waterflooding and steam injection, will soon be the setting for a combination of the two enhanced oil recovery techniques. The...

Indiana, Ohio follow Michigan Devonian shale efforts; Niagaran development is still active.
May 12, 1997... The cork may be loosening a bit on a largely untapped natural gas resource in Indiana and Northwest Ohio. The source: Devonian shales. Recent permitting and drilling activity in Indiana and Ohio indicate that Michigan's Antrim Shale production...

'Broader solution' bitumen line proposed for Alberta. (Interprovincial Pipe Line Co.)
May 12, 1997... Interprovincial Pipe Line Co., a unit of Calgary-based IPL Energy Inc., said it is talking with northern Alberta oil sands and heavy oil producers about combining numerous pipeline proposals from the region into one line. Interprovincial...

BP applies Maurer software to avoid plugback operation. (British Petroleum Company PLC; Maurer Engineering Inc.)
May 12, 1997... Houston-based Maurer Engineering Inc. says British Petroleum Ltd. has incorporated its casing- and riser-wear software programs into their own engineering/planning system to provide methodology to predict wear accurately. According to a recent...

New spate of corporate maneuvers signal approach of boom in 'smart' completion. (well completion systems)
May 12, 1997... Whether they are called "intelligent" or "smart," well completion systems that use downhole sensing to keep oil and gas wells running at optimum rates are on a fast-track development curve, and the heavy hitters in the business are busy acquiring...

Swift Energy finals its biggest Chalk well yet. (Swift Energy Co.; horizontal gas well in Austin Chalk Trend, Texas)
May 12, 1997... Houston-based Swift Energy Co. placed its largest horizontal gas well in the Austin Chalk Trend of southwest Texas, to date, on production. The company said its Orsak Well No. I-OL, a dual lateral well, flowed at a rate of 35 mmcf/d of gas from...

Water injection to double N. Sea field. (British Petroleum Company PLC's North Sea oil field)
May 12, 1997... The use of a US$131 million water injection system at the Machar field in the U.K Sector of the North Sea will help British Petroleum Ltd. double recovery to some 120 million bbls., say published reports. The water injection plan was approved...

3-D seismic, delineation wells help ARCO plan new field development, revise reserves. (Arco Alaska Inc.)
May 12, 1997... Satellite reservoirs on the flanks of the prolific Kuparuk River Unit on Alaska's North Slope promise considerable extension of proven and potential estimated reserves in the area, says ARCO Alaska, Inc. In its first announcement ARCO Alaska,...

AOSIS reports on IOR, heavy oil. (Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services)
May 12, 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: 403-297-3638)....

New multi-lateral whipstock drilling system permits drilling of horizontal legs 180 degrees apart on same plane.
May 19, 1997... Multi-lateral horizontal wells can extend a field's life by accessing thin or fractured reservoirs from existing wellbores. Multi-lateral wells also are environmentally friendly, since they reduce the number of new vertical wellbores required...

Elan moves ahead in drilling vertical, horizontal wells at Lindbergh/Cold Lake. (Elan Energy Inc.)
May 19, 1997... During the first quarter of the year, Calgary-based Elan Energy Inc. has continued its record drilling pace in development of its huge reserves in the Lindbergh/Cold Lake heavy oil corridor of Alberta, Canada. Recently, the company noted it...

Second thrust made at killing Energy Dept.; Republicans risk chucking baby with bath.
May 19, 1997... Another assault on the Energy Dept. is taking shape in the U.S. Congress. House Republicans Todd Tiahrt of Kansas and Ed Royce of California have introduced another bill designed to eliminate the DOE, based mainly on its administration of the...

Epic Energy, with heavy oil production in Ukraine, brings in completion/fraccing pro. (Epic Energy Inc.)
May 19, 1997... A canadian company has a well completions and stimulation specialist examining test data on a heavy oil field in the Crimean region of Ukraine, and hopes to design drilling and post-drilling programs tailored to address the problems created by...

Anticipating higher by-product volumes, land repair, oil sands miners look to sell some of it.
May 19, 1997... Anticipating higher by-product accumulations from expanded oil sands mining/upgrading, Calgary-based Suncor Energy has agreed to sell petroleum coke to a Japanese ammonia producer. It's an opening move that's expected to be embraced by other...

IOR patents.
May 19, 1997... T.J. Clough of Ensci Inc. has patented a process for recovering hydrocarbons involving modification of at lease one component of a hydrocarbon-based material. The process provides an effective, convenient and economical approach to chemically...

DOE opens market on Elk Hills NPR; prospective buyers have until Oct. 1 to make bids; fire threatens field. (Naval Petroleum Reserve; oil and gas fields)
May 26, 1997... The Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve in California - although a bit charred and smoke-ridden - is now officially on the market. The Energy Dept. late last week set into motion a four-month marketing and sales process that could, says DOE,...

Australian partners hint at sale of mineral by-products from proposed Stuart Oil Shale.
May 26, 1997... Just as oil sands developers in Canada are anticipating revenues from the by-products contained in their mine tailings, the companies involved in the proposed Stuart oil shale project in Australia look for future potential profits from their...

First-ever Paradox Basin horizontal well fizzles as part of DOE Class 2 IOR project.
May 26, 1997... The Utah Geological Survey-managed Paradox Basin IOR Project took a detour this spring and apparently ran into a dead end. The $5 million DOE Class 2 Reservoir Demonstration Project was designed to study reservoirs in the basin in southeast...

Texas A&M/major company co-op gets DOJ okay; producers free to take on joint research. (Texas A&M University at College Station; Petroleum E&P Research Cooperative)
May 26, 1997... Now that the U.S. Justice Dept.'s Antitrust Division recently approved a collaboration among six major oil companies and Texas A&M Univ. at College Station, the new venture - the Petroleum E&P Research Cooperative (PEPRC) - can get down to work....

Fiber optic sensors, data-transmission tests being carried out by BP in U.K. field. (British Petroleum)
May 26, 1997... Pioneering work is being carried out by British Petroleum into the use of fiber optics as both sensors and as the medium for data transmission in well monitoring at its Wytch Farm onshore field in the U.K. The company believes the trials on...

LL&E reports 1-tcf gas reservoir lying beneath Wyoming's 50-year-old Madden field. (Louisiana Land and Exploration Co.)
May 26, 1997... New Orleans-based Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. (LL&E) reported recently that three deep wells have encountered a prolific natural gas reservoir which may boost reserves in the 50-year-old Madden field in Fremont County, Wyo., to more than 1...

AOSIS reports on IOR, heavy oil. (Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands Information Services)
May 26, 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: 403-297-3638)....

IOR patents. (oil and gas extraction)
May 26, 1997... T.G. Scott, F.B. Seufert and E.J. Hanzlik, all of Texaco Inc. have patented a method for extracting hydrocarbons from diatomite which incorporates a number of improvements and recovers as much as 90% of the extractable hydrocarbons as crude oil....