DOE SEEKS TO HIKE RECOVERY IN SPECIFIC OIL RESERVOIRS

Aug. 10, 1992
The Department of Energy is seeking proposals for demonstration projects on ways to better produce oil from U.S. shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs. About 400 such oil fields in the U.S. hold almost 50 billion bbl of oil remaining in place, of which only about 4 billion will be produced under current methods. DOE estimates that better secondary and tertiary recovery processes could nearly triple recovery to 11.5 billion bbl.

The Department of Energy is seeking proposals for demonstration projects on ways to better produce oil from U.S. shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs.

About 400 such oil fields in the U.S. hold almost 50 billion bbl of oil remaining in place, of which only about 4 billion will be produced under current methods. DOE estimates that better secondary and tertiary recovery processes could nearly triple recovery to 11.5 billion bbl.

The $40 million research program is the second in DOE's campaign to enhance recovery from specific types of fields. It has allotted $48 million for demonstration projects for fluvial dominated deltaic reservoirs (OGJ, Apr. 27, p. 28) and plans to target as many as eight more classes of U.S. reservoirs for research.

DOE established the program to forestall premature abandonment of wells in high priority fields. It said the U.S. could lose access to more than 75% of domestic oil reserves by 2005 if the current abandonment rate of 17,000 wells/year continues.

Although 14 states have shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs, Texas has most of them-228. The fields are mostly in the Permian basin, South Texas, East Texas, Texas Panhandle, the Smackover of Mississippi-Alabama, in Central Oklahoma, Central Kansas uplift, Illinois basin Michigan basin, Williston basin, Big Horn basin, and northern Montana.

WHAT'S PLANNED

DOE will conduct a meeting on the shallow shelf carbonate program Aug. 25 at the Sheraton Crowne Hotel in Houston. It is mailing data on the competition to about 2,000 prospective participants.

DOE plans to issue a formal solicitation about Oct. 15. Proposals will be due the following January, and DOE plans to award grants in mid-April 1993.

The competition will seek proposals for both term-up to 5 years-and midterm-up to 10 years-projects involving open and restricted shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs. DOE will fund as much as 50% of selected projects.

It said distinctions between restricted and open reservoirs based on permeability, depth, and salinity, and are open to varying interpretations.

In near term proposals, DOE wants projects to improve understanding of the geology of reservoirs and demonstrate better reservoir management and production techniques. Each of the approaches would extend the economic life of the reservoirs.

Field demonstrations are eligible but not required.

In the midterm projects, DOE wants demonstrations of advanced techniques that overcome a specific problem that has prevented production of large volumes of crude remaining in the reservoirs.

Projects in that category are expected to demonstrate significant improvements over currently available technologies or, in some cases, may involve a new technology that has not been successfully used in the field.

Field demonstrations are required for midterm projects.

In near and midterms, DOE expects 80-90% of incremental recovery to be from carbon dioxide flooding, as much as 15% from infill drilling, and as much as 3% from polymer floods.

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