PUMPing more US oil

July 30, 2001
US oil production has been declining in recent years, as addressed in the Midyear Forecast (see special report beginning on p. 76), but there are efforts under way to make marginal production more economically feasible.

US oil production has been declining in recent years, as addressed in the Midyear Forecast (see special report beginning on p. 76), but there are efforts under way to make marginal production more economically feasible.

The US Department of Energy last month announced that it is accepting a second round of proposals for its Preferred Upstream Management Practices (PUMP) program. The PUMP program is a 5-year effort to identify, verify, and demonstrate integrated sets of solutions to improve oil field economics.

DOE hopes that by improving technologies, disseminating better data, and streamlining regulations, US well abandonments can be reduced and oil production will either slow or halt its decline.

The PUMP program began in June 2000, when the National Petroleum Technology Office, the Tulsa-based arm of DOE, solicited proposals for projects that identify technologies that can be deployed both rapidly and inexpensively to US oil fields-especially to smaller producers that may have difficulty gaining access to such information-for production that would otherwise be abandoned.

Projects selected

In April, six projects were selected to demonstrate best practices for oil producers. Each project is now under way and is being jointly financed by DOE and the proposing entity. The projects are:

  • Gas Technology Institute, Chicago, is developing a virtual intelligence technique that utilizes computer-assisted practices for optimizing oil field operations based on neural networks, genetic algorithms, and "fuzzy" logic. The goal of this project is to increase oil production-that by conventional means would not be economically feasible-by an average of 15% over a period of about 5 years at a cost equal to or less than that using conventional practices. DOE is covering nearly half of the total project cost of $1.2 million.
  • The Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) at Texas A&M University in College Station, Tex., is undertaking two projects. The first involves applying preferred practices for improving the effectiveness of injecting water to increase oil production from the Spraberry trend, a 500,000 acre formation in Midland, Martin, and surrounding counties in West Texas. A secondary objective of this task is the purification and injection of produced waters to minimize downhole casing failure from the corrosive effects of water from the San Andres formation. Of the $2 million total cost for this project, DOE is funding $500,000.
  • TEES also is developing a new practice for increasing oil production by deliberately producing sand from a reservoir to create an underground cavity around the wellbore and allowing oil to flow more freely from the surrounding formation. This project, in Wilmington field in Long Beach, Calif., offers new operating practices for the exploitation of unconsolidated or poorly consolidated reservoirs. Half of the total cost of $260,000 is being funded by DOE. Program sponsors BP PLC, Phillips Petroleum Co., Schlumberger Oilfield Ser vices, Texaco Inc., and TotalFinaElf SA, as well as the operator of Wilmington, THUMS Long Beach Co., are contributing cash and in-kind services to the project.
  • The University of Kansas Center for Research Inc., Lawrence, Kan., is combining integrated reservoir modeling with horizontal infill drilling to increase production efficiency in a Central Kansas oil field. Data from the models will be used to drill horizontal wells to recover any oil that vertical wells may have missed. Reservoirs in the area are generally operated by small independents with limited research and development budgets. Abandonment rates are high, with a possible 5 billion bbl loss of reserves in the Central Kansas Mississip pian carbonate reservoirs. DOE will fund nearly half of the $813,378 cost of this project.
  • The Petroleum Technology Transfer Council, Houston, is organizing a team of respected industry experts that will coordinate workshops, publications, and an interactive web site to identify preferred practices with the goal of increasing oil production, slowing or reversing production declines, and extending the life of marginal wells. PTTC estimates that applying the identified preferred practices could increase oil production by as much as a combined 100,000 b/d in the target areas. The total cost of this project is pegged at $1 million, with DOE covering 50%.
  • West Virginia University Research Corp., Morgantown, W.Va., is attempting to enhance reservoir management in the Appalachian basin by identifying technical barriers and preferred practices. This project, sponsored by the Appalachian Oil & Natural Gas Research Consortium, the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department at West Virginia University, has a total cost of $724,196. DOE will fund half of this project as well.

PUMP II

PUMP II seeks proposals, due by Aug. 14, in two technology areas: developing portfolios of critical production plays and the recovery technologies applicable to them; and developing and demonstrating new solutions and cooperative protocols for data and information-sharing in a region, with an emphasis on the use of advanced technologies and their improvements.