Improved Recovery Week articles from May 1999

Improved Recovery Week archives from May 1999

UPR's Rock Island horizontal, with DOE help, unlocks tight gas in Wyoming, 4 more wells planned over 12 mos.(Union Pacific Resources Group Inc; Department of Energy)
May 10, 1999... An example of how government-industry sharing the costs of experimenting with new technologies can reap benefits was evidenced in the recent success of a deep horizontal well that flowed more than 12 mmcf/d of gas from an ultra-tight sand in...

Petrobras adapting onshore drilling technology for deepwater fields; underbalanced wells set.
May 10, 1999... Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras, is phasing a number of drilling technologies into its ultra-deepwater Campos Basin operations that heretofore have been used solely in onshore field development. At last week's Offshore Technology...

3-D seismic/faster, longer-lived bits to help cut drilling costs, trim need for new rigs, says GRI.(Gas Research Institute)
May 10, 1999... Major improvements in well productivity from new technology, as well as higher success rates in drilling for natural gas, will help producers meet anticipated robust growth in U.S. gas demand during the next 20 years, says a new study by Gas...

Federal, state environmental costs undermine stripper market clout, says Osage County study.
May 10, 1999... A study of oil production costs in Osage County, OK, has found that operators there spend $9 million a year, or $1.97/bbl., to comply with both state and federal environmental laws. Such expenses, says an official with the Oklahoma...

Downhole oil/water separation tools working well, says new DOE report; one type allows 47% average flow hike.(report by the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory)
May 17, 1999... Downhole oil/water separators (DOWS) aren't cheap and don't perform well in all settings, but they work, says a new report published by the Energy Dept.'s Argonne National Laboratory. And while less than 50 DOWS installations had been made...

Start-up of Mexico's Cantarell nitrogen flood project set early next year; plant to flow 1.2 bcf.(Petroleos Mexicano's Cantarell offshore oil field)
May 17, 1999... Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) says its Cantarell field nitrogen injection project is well underway, with actual injection expected to begin by the first quarter of next year. Speaking at the recent Offshore Technology Conference in...

Intelligent completions to let operator 'pilot' reservoir as part of downhole process control.
May 17, 1999... The time will come when an oil or gas reservoir will be "piloted," much like a jumbo jet, with all its complex, interconnected processes, is piloted. And part of the piloting will be downhole process control. That's how Rene Huck,...

Water cut increases rapidly in China's old onshore fields; CNPC kicks off IOR campaign.(China National Petroleum Corp.; oil recovery technology)
May 17, 1999... Faced with accelerated water production from the Daqing field's more than 8,000 producing wells, engineers with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) are trying new IOR technology in an effort to extend the life of the huge field - the largest...

Proposed Australian tax changes could affect company investments, says Suncor.(Suncor Energy Inc.)
May 17, 1999... Corporate tax changes currently being considered in Australia could threaten the future expansion of the oil shale project in Queensland headed by Canadian oil sands giant Suncor Energy Inc. In a speech last week in Sydney, Rick George,...

Oil production begins at Asgard from one horizontal well, but seven producers, six injectors due on stream any day.
May 24, 1999... The Asgard complex off Norway produced its first oil last week. And while going on stream probably wouldn't have saved Statoil the jobs of the last most-recent board of directors, at least it now puts the project on a paying basis. The...

Results in on recent study of using polymers to reduce, even eliminate water cut in natural gas wells.
May 24, 1999... A group of European companies recently completed a project that delved into preventing water production from gas fields by injecting polymers. They found that not only will polymers reduce water cut in gas wells, but they also will...

Geco-Prakla ships taking measure of Brazil's marine basins; one sets record for single-day acquisition.
May 24, 1999... Schlumberger's seismic acquisition unit, Geco-Prakla, has its new flagship vessel Geco Eagle at work for Amerada Hess and its partners in Brazil's offshore Campos and Santos basins. But that isn't Geco-Prakla's only activity off Brazil....