Fuels to Drive Our Future (1990) / Chapter Skim
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2. Conventional Petroleum, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and Natural Gas
2. Conventional Petroleum, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and Natural Gas
Pages 21-39
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From page 21... ...
The oil or gas resides together with varying amounts of water in microscopic pore spaces within the reservoir rock. Reserves are the amounts of oil or gas believed to be economically recoverable from a reservoir through the use of existing technology.
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From page 22... ...
Oil flows generated by natural geological pressures are called primary production. Secondary production results from supplementary actions, such as water injection into the reservoir.
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From page 23... ...
Participants included the domestic operations of a dozen major oil companies with 1985 net incomes of more than $15 billion; over 20,000 independent oil and gas explorers and producers; hundreds of oil field service companies who provided seismic surveys, drilling, logging, fracturing, and other services; and a large array of suppliers of pipe, pumps, compressors, computers, chemicals, and other equipment and supplies (Oil and Gas Journal, 1986~. Currently, this enterprise is dramatically smaller in size.
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From page 24... ...
REMAINING DOMESTIC OIL AND GAS RESOURCES Over time, judgments of volumes of U.S. oil and gas available for discovery, further development, and recovery have changed.
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From page 25... ...
DOI, 1989~. Differences in proved reserves and reserve growth resource estimates made by AAPG and ICF Resources under assumptions of moderate cost ($25/barrel, 1986 dollars,assumedby AAPG; $24/barrel, 1988 dollars, assumed by ICF)
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From page 26... ...
Moderate Costs Proved reserves 27.0 27.3 Reserve growthb 17.0 35.9 Undiscovered 33.0 12.4 Total 77.0 75.6 Moderate Costs with Advanced Technology Proved reserves 27.0 27.3 Reserve growth 62.0 69.2 Undiscovered 40.0 18.5 Total 129.0 115.0 High Costs Proved reserves 27.0 27.3 Reserve growth 53.0 46.6 Undiscovered 60.0 20.5 Total 140.0 94.4 High Costs with Advanced Technology Proved reserves 27.0 27.3 Reserve growth 150.0 82.7 Undiscovered 70.0 30.1 Total 247.0 140.1 aModerate costs assumed by AAPG were $25/barrel in 1986 dollars; moderate costs assumed by ICF Resources were $24/barrel In 1988 dollars. Higher costs were assessed by AAPG at $50tbarrel in 1986 dollars; higher costs assumed by ICF Resources were at $40Jbarrel In 1988 dollars.
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From page 27... ...
Natural Gas Liquids Assuming future yields of liquids from conventional natural gas on the order of those historically extracted, remaining volumes of natural gas liquids are estimated to range from about 12 billion bbl at moderate costs to about 20 billion bbl at gas wellhead prices up to $5.00/Mcf. These volumes constitute additions to the liquids potential from remaining crude oil re
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From page 28... ...
The driving energy may come from liquid expansion and evolution of gas dissolved in the oil as reservoir pressure is lowered during production, expansion of free gas in a gas "cap," influx of natural water from an aquifer, or combinations of these effects. The recovery efficiency for primary production is generally low when liquid expansion and solution gas evolution are the driving mechanisms.
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From page 29... ...
Certain reservoir systems, such as those with very viscous oils and low permeability or geologically complex reservoirs, respond poorly to conventional secondary recovery techniques. In these reservoirs improved geologic understanding and use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
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From page 30... ...
The chemical methods include polymer flooding, surfactant (micellar/ polymer, microemulsion) flooding, and alkaline flooding processes.
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From page 31... ...
Typically, production activities involve clearing a drillsite, laying gathering pipelines, and constructing a small processing plant and storage tanks for each lease or unit. Drilling mud and process plant waste disposal are readily manageable and generally considered to have minor impact.
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From page 32... ...
In this regard new domestic oil and gas production is different from facilities for conversion of nonpetroleum resources into liquid fuels; new oil and gas can quickly be brought to market in small increments at modest costs, while coal and oil shale conversion plants require large multibillion dollar grass-roots plants that do not produce until they are brought into operation a decade or more after planning begins. To understand the time and investment involved to produce new oil and gas, it is instructive to break the process into the basic steps required.
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From page 33... ...
Extended reserve growth only requires additional refinement of the reservoir geologic and engineering models through geoscientific and reservoir engineering study, since leases are secured and the presence of hydrocarbons has been confirmed. This is followed by targeted infill drilling with iterative improvement of the models to more completely characterize reservoir heterogeneities and identify hydraulic compartments.
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From page 34... ...
When profitable operations are no longer possible, wells are plugged with cement, equipment is removed, surface areas are returned to their preproduction condition, leases are relinquished, and operators abandon the field. Left behind in the reservoir is residual oil that in many cases could be recovered by infill drilling or EOR that is not instituted because economics are unattractive at projected oil prices.
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From page 35... ...
Targeted infill wells and strategic completions would assure that all hydraulic flow units in a reservoir are contacted and swept. Advanced geological modeling is the essential key to enlarge mobile oil reserve growth.
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From page 36... ...
Opportunities for research include improved mathematical models to guide application and process development and development of systems capable of extending treatment away from the well bore deep into the reservoir. Polymer flooding uses polymers to thicken the drive water so that its viscosity is close to that of the reservoir oil.
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From page 37... ...
Unfortunately, the process is difficult to control, has poor vertical sweep, and is expensive, and part of the oil is consumed as fuel. Research opportunities include improving process control, developing methods for improving sweep efficiency, and reducing capital costs.
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From page 38... ...
Thus, a public sector program of technology transfer could help assure that unrecovered domestic oil resources are conserved and efficiently developed. The development of such a program is an important challenge to the government, but was not considered in any detail in this study.
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From page 39... ...
The next chapter addresses the economics of various conversion technologies producing liquid transportation fuels from heavy oil, tar sands, natural gas, and nonpetroleum resources.
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