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PTTC to Develop and Publish Significant Case History Collections
The North Midcontinent Resource Center – PTTC is currently in the initial stages of the development of a collection of case histories concerning:
- gelled-polymer treatments
- 3-D seismic applications
- GasGunTM implementations in Kansas.
Emphasis is primarily upon the application of these technologies to the discovery and exploitation of oil reserves in the Arbuckle, as well as other formations.
In recent years, the use of gelled-polymer injection into oil reservoirs with strong water drives, such as the Arbuckle, has resulted in significant reductions in water production, increased oil rates, reduced operating costs, and increased reserves.
Success rates utilizing this technique have been extremely high. The case history study will be performed by the Tertiary Oil Recovery Project (TORP) at the University of Kansas, and will include data concerning before and after-treatment well performances, economics, job design, and comments from operators and service companies.
Application of 3-D seismic along the Central Kansas Uplift has resulted in the discovery of several significant Arbuckle and Lansing-Kansas City oil reservoirs. In addition to the obvious structural information provided by 3-D interpretation, the study will discuss the ability of the process to define certain reservoir attributes such as porosity, hydrocarbon accumulations, and directional permeability. Susan Nissen of the Kansas Geological Survey will conduct the study of 3-D seismic case histories.
The GasGunTM is a solid propellant, used to create high pressure gas at a rapid rate, but not as rapidly as an explosion such as nitroglycerine. The process is used as a near-wellbore stimulation technique applied prior to, or in lieu of, hydraulic fracturing. After being included as part of the program at a PTTC workshop in 2002, the use of the GasGunTM in Kansas increased rapidly. Over fifty operators have applied the process in nearly one hundred fifty separate wells. The process has application in a number of different producing scenarios including water-drive oil reservoirs, water injection and disposal wells, gas wells and coalbed methane producers. The process has a history of increasing the oil and gas production as well as improving hydraulic fracturing performance by increasing injection rates at lower fracturing pressures, thus reducing required horsepower and significantly lowering the cost of fracturing.
The case histories are scheduled to be published and available to the
public in late summer or early fall 2003. Further information will be
posted in future newsletters and on the North Midcontinent website.