Improved Recovery Week articles from November 1994

Improved Recovery Week archives from November 1994

U.S. completions down 25%; oil slides. (domestic crude oil production)
November 7, 1994... Domestic crude oil production continues to slide and the number of oil and gas wells and dry holes completed during the first nine months of 1994 fell almost 25% from the same period last year, according to the American Petroleum Institute....

Chesapeake ups chalk spending. (Chesapeake Energy Corp.)
November 7, 1994... Based on drilling success and increasing cash flow so far, Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, will expand its fiscal year 1995 drilling budget by $14 million. The bulk of the spending will go to operations in the Giddings field...

O&G 'bulletin board' offered. (Terra Graphics, an oil and gas industry computer bulletin board)
November 7, 1994... A computerized oil and gas bulletin board, the first national computer bulletin board service targeting the oil and gas industry, went on line last week from Oklahoma City. The service, Terra Graphics, attracts industry customers to...

BP sets North Sea IOR plan. (BP Exploration Company Ltd., infill recoverable reserves)
November 7, 1994... In the North Sea, BP Exploration Co. Ltd. is using improved interpretation of 3-dimensional seismic data, infill drilling, horizontal wells, hydraulic fracturing and other techniques to increase recoverable reserves. A planned...

Oklahoma regulators set tax break rules. (Oklahoma Corporation Commission)
November 7, 1994... The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has established a procedure that producers must follow to qualify for tax incentives created earlier this year by the state's Legislature (IRW, 6/6, 6/20). The Legislature approved the package of...

Slant-hole rod guides succeed. (sucker rod guide)
November 7, 1994... A new sucker rod guide has been used for a dramatic reduction of rotational wear to both sucker rod guides and tubing, particularly in slanted wells with heavy side loads. In fact, the new rod guides are still serviceable after one...

Kuwait lauds horizontals. (horizontal directional drilling)
November 7, 1994... Kuwait's national oil company said it has achieved good results in the two years it has been using horizontal directional drilling. Faruk Hussein of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. told an international audience in Abu Dhabi that the country...

New IOR patent. (increased oil recovery) (Patent No. 5,042,581)
November 7, 1994... A.R. Jennings of Mobil Oil Corp. has patented a method for controlling formation fines when producing heavy oil from an unconsolidated sand formation where at least two wells are used. Both wells are perforated and hydraulically fractured at...

Global technology transfer meetings underway. (public meetings sponsored by the Energy Department)
November 7, 1994... The Energy Dept. is sponsoring a series of public meetings that look at strengthening the position of the U.S. oil, gas and coal industries in the international marketplace. The first of these two-day meetings was held in Pittsburgh...

Firm to drill 150 horizontal legs. (Magnum Petroleum Inc.)
November 7, 1994... Magnum Petroleum Inc., Palm Desert, Calif., intends to acquire an exclusive right to horizontally recomplete about 175 wells operated in Santa Barbara County by Saba Petroleum Co. Magnum said it would pay for the drilling of the...

Arco CEO Bowlin says IOR role 'only beginning' overseas. (Mike Bowlin on improved oil recovery)
November 21, 1994... The future for the upstream U.S. oil and gas industry is clearly international, says Mike Bowlin, president and chief executive officer of ARCO. And the U.S. industry's worldwide prospects will be greatly enhanced by its technical...

Germany awards coalgas pact. (coalbed methane production contract)
November 21, 1994... The mining authorities of North-Rhine Westphalia have issued a license to a consortium headed by Conoco Mineraloel GmbH to study the feasibility of producing coalbed methane from coal deposits in the Munsterland region. Conoco's partners...

Suncor plans to up oil sands production by 20%.
November 21, 1994... Suncor Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, plans to spend about US$181 million at its oil sands plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta during the next three years. The increased spending will increase production from 68,000 b/d to more than 80,000...

Slim-hole horizontals succeed. (cost savings realized by Clayton Williams Energy)
November 21, 1994... Clayton Williams Energy Inc., Midland, Texas, says its use of slim- hole horizontal drilling techniques has been successful in reducing drilling costs for wells in the northern part of the Giddings field in southwest Texas. The company said...

Statoil lets service pacts. (drilling fluid and cementing services contracts for Norwegian North Sea)
November 21, 1994... Norway's Statoil is awarding contracts valued at about US$67 million for drilling fluid and cementing services in its drilling and production operations in the Norwegian North Sea sector. The orders, with options for extension, will run for...

Canadian drilling seen to dip next year. (oil well drilling)
November 21, 1994... According to the Canadian Assn. of Petroleum Producers Canadian producers will drill some 10,500-11,000 wells next year, compared with 11,500 projected this year. Gerry Protti, CAPP president, said the forecast depends on no significant...

Foinaven to have horizontals. (BP/Shell to use multiple horizontal wells with lateral sections for oil field off Shetland Islands)
November 21, 1994... Multiple horizontal wells with lateral sections of up to 930' will be drilled for BP/Shell's development of the Foinaven oil field, the first offshore development west of the Shetland Islands. The U.K. Dept. of Trade and Industry has OK'd...

Industry incentives possible as GOP takes over. (petroleum, gas industries)
November 21, 1994... Oil and gas producers have high hopes that the new Republican congressional regime will be more sympathetic to their plight. Not since 1954 has the GOP controlled both houses of Congress. Now it can flex its political muscle once again and,...

MMS looking for way out of OPA 90 dilemma. (Minerals Management Service, implementation of 1990 Oil Pollution Act)
November 21, 1994... The Minerals Management Service has set up a panel to try and find a way out of its predicament over implementation of the financial responsibilities section of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act. The MMS Outer Continental Shelf Policy Committee...

R.M. Tjon-Joe-Pin and A.R. Richards of BJ Services. (improved oil recovery patents)
November 21, 1994... R.M. Tjon-Joe-Pin and A.R. Richards of BJ Services Co. have patented a method for forming a blocking gel at a producing formation within a wellbore by formulating a gellable blocking fluid by blending together an aqueous fluid, a hydra-table...

Meetings planned to name congressional panel chairmen. (committees and chairmen for 1995 Congress could affect petroleum industry)
November 28, 1994... House and Senate Republicans will hold caucuses in Washington, D.C. early next month to choose committee chairs, with assignments expected in late January or early February. And while Republicans will have a majority in Congress for the...

BJ Svcs., Western will merge. (BJ Services Co., Western Company of North America)
November 28, 1994... After several months of sparring, BJ Services Co. and Western Co. of North America, both of Houston, have signed a definitive merger agreement valued at $500 million. BJ Services said Western shareholders will receive $20 per share in cash...

Amoco, BHP head India coalgas hunt. (coalbed methane extraction)
November 28, 1994... Amoco Corp., along with Australia's BHP, Ltd., is spearheading the development of coalbed methane extraction in India. The companies have been discussing the project with the Gas Authority of India (GAIL), and there are reports that two...

Russian energy laws assailed. (export duties reduced, energy laws may be revised)
November 28, 1994... Russia must enact new energy laws before foreign investors spend billions of dollars on the country's oil and gas industry, says Bill White, deputy energy secretary. White, ending a recent four-day conference on energy and law in Moscow,...

IEA: most coalgas vented. (International Energy Agency, methane gas statistics)
November 28, 1994... Only a very limited proportion of methane gas emitted from worldwide coal production is being recovered, with the rest escaping into the atmosphere, says the International Energy Agency. Under ideal conditions, however, up to 50%-70% of the...

Group promotes C$21 billion for oil sands. (Alberta Chamber of Resources, investments needed for Canadian petroleum and bitumen production)
November 28, 1994... A group of Western Canadian producers and government entities says the region could triple production if additional investments of about C$21 billion (US$15.2 billion) could be made there. The investment would bring production of crude oil...

Oxy says IOR technology to up reserves. (Occidental Petroleum Corp., improved oil recovery projects)
November 28, 1994... Ray Irani, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles, says the company expects its foray into improved oil recovery projects will "substantially increase" its reserve base as technology improves. Irani, speaking to securities...

Firm buys Asian IOR project. (First Dynasty Mines Ltd. acquires Energy Process Services Ltd.)
November 28, 1994... First Dynasty Mines Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia, is set to purchase Energy Process Services Ltd., a private company now engaged in an improved oil recovery project in Indonesia. First Dynasty said Energy Process, also of Vancouver,...

Firms find wells with Cold War satellites. (Global Positioning System satellites used to find oil reservoirs in Kazakhstan)
November 28, 1994... To help develop huge oil reserves, a joint venture operating in the former "Evil Empire" is using satellites formerly used by the U.S. to target Soviet cities for destruction in case of war. One of the problems facing Chevron Corp. in...

H.G. Van of Shell Canada Ltd. (Canadian patent number 1,291,704 for passing carbon dioxide through oil wells) (New IOR Patent)
November 28, 1994... H.G. Van of Shell Canada Ltd. has patented a process for passing carbon dioxide through a cased, cemented and perforated well. Exposure of cement to [CO.sub.2] can occur in a well at the perforations, where the perforation tunnels traverse the...