DOE SELECTS 11 EOR PROJECTS IN LATEST ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

The Department of Energy has chosen 11 projects to demonstrate enhanced recovery methods for shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs in the U.S. DOE will spend $40 million on the projects, while sponsors will spend another $50 million. The 11 projects were chosen from 44 proposals (OGJ, Feb. 8, p. 42). DOE said 7.5 billion bbl of crude oil could be added to U.S. recoverable reserves if the technologies prove successful and are useful in other fields.

April 26, 1993

4 min read

The Department of Energy has chosen 11 projects to demonstrate enhanced recovery methods for shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs in the U.S.

DOE will spend $40 million on the projects, while sponsors will spend another $50 million. The 11 projects were chosen from 44 proposals (OGJ, Feb. 8, p. 42).

DOE said 7.5 billion bbl of crude oil could be added to U.S. recoverable reserves if the technologies prove successful and are useful in other fields.

Shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs originally held more than 68 billion bbl of crude, representing one seventh of all oil discovered in the Lower 48 states. The reservoirs have produced 20 billion bbl of oil during the last 50 years, but only 4 billion of the remaining 48 billion bbl of oil in place is economically producible under current practices.

Last year DOE helped fund 14 projects aimed at increasing production from fluvial dominated deltaic sandstone reservoirs. Next year it will fund projects for two other types of reservoirs.

NEAR TERM

Eight of the latest 11 projects will involve conventional or improved "near term" techniques that can be used within 5 years, and three will use more advanced midterm technologies adaptable within 10 years.

Here are the near term projects:

Beard Oil Co., McCook, Neb., will use fluorescent, ionic, and radioactive tracers at its Palisades producing complex in Hitchcock County, Neb., to seek reservoir fractures that may be diverting a waterflood away from oil pockets and then use polymer gels to block the fractures.

Laguna Petroleum Corp., Midland, Tex., will use 3D seismic data to select sites for infill wells in a waterflood of the Permian Grayburg and San Andres zones of Foster and South Cowden fields in West Texas.

Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich., will develop a data base for the Dundee formation, which yields only 10-15% of oil in place. It will drill a well in Crystal field of Montcalm County to obtain core data and a horizontal well to test draining effectiveness.

Research & Engineering Consultants Inc., Englewood, Colo., will use 3D seismic in two southern Williston basin reservoirs to position a high pressure water "jetting lance" to cut into formations 10-50 ft from the wellbore. Infill drilling and a pilot waterflood also are planned.

Seagull Mid-South Inc., Shreveport, La., will use 3D seismic data to identify fracture zones in North Eastman field of Love County, Okla., then drill a horizontal well to intersect the fractures at perpendicular angles.

Texaco Exploration & Production Inc. will inject carbon dioxide into a field near Hobbs, N.M., to reduce the tendency of oil to cling to surrounding rock, then flush out the oil with a waterflood. The "huff and puff" technique has been used in Gulf Coast sandstone reservoirs but not in Permian basin carbonate reservoirs.

The University of Kansas Center for Research, Lawrence, Kan., will work on reservoir models for Petersiliefield of Ness County and Bindley field of Hodgeman County, Kan.

The Utah Geological Survey will analyze five small fields in San Juan County, Utah, and demonstrate a pilot waterflood or carbon dioxide flood in one of them.

MIDTERM

The three midterm projects are:

Fina Oil & Chemical Co., Midland, Tex., will combine advanced logging techniques, core analysis, geostatistical analyses, cross-well tomography, and reservoir stimulation models to select locations for as many as 18 infill wells in the North Robertson Clearfork Unit of Gaines County, Tex.

Oxy USA Inc., also of Midland, will design a carbon dioxide flood at a field near Welch, Tex. It will fracture the Permian San Andres, then inject water and carbon dioxide alternately.

Phillips Petroleum Co. will analyze a field near Odessa that produces from the San Andres, then drill multiple horizontal wells to inject carbon dioxide. Foams will block areas of the reservoir where most of the oil has been produced to achieve a better reservoir sweep.