DOE selects 2 new technical aid projects for independents

Feb. 19, 2002
The US Department of Energy Monday added 2 new projects to its ongoing program to help smaller independents test higher-risk technologies that may boost production from marginal wells. Woolsey Petroleum Corp., Wichita, and Tenneco Energy LLC, Wheat Ridge, Colo., received grants.


By the OGJ Online Staff

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 19 --The US Department of Energy Monday added two new projects to its ongoing program to help smaller independents test higher-risk technologies that may boost production from marginal wells.

The two latest projects include a grant to Woolsey Petroleum Corp., Wichita, to study ways to improve hydraulic fracturing

The other project entails a proposal by Tenneco Energy LLC, Wheat Ridge, Colo., to help restore production in East Texas oil fields through the use of advanced computer-imaging technology and new logging tools to delineate prospective geological features and the installation of high-capacity pumps.

DOE provides matching grants of up to $75,000 to independents willing to apply innovative approaches that can lower operating costs and extend the life of marginally producing fields.

Since 1999, the Technology Development with Independents Program has provided small businesses in 13 states, each with less than 50 employees, the financial backing to test new techniques that might otherwise have remain untried, DOE said.

In a related effort, DOE will hold an invitation-only meeting Mar. 4-5 with industry on how to improve programming at the agency's fossil energy office, based on suggestions made last year by the National Academy of Sciences, industry, and other interested parties.

NAS said then, and the White House under President George W. Bush later agreed, that DOE should strongly consider more long-term, "riskier" research such as gas hydrates in a bid to try to expand the technology knowledge base (OGJ Online, Feb. 4, 2002). The White House's new budget contains sharp drops in government-funded oil and gas research projects.