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California Water Control Study
February 12, 2003 (Los Angeles, CA) co-sponsored by PTTC's
West Coast Region and California Energy Commission (CEC)
BOTTOM LINE
Produced water management has been a focus for PTTC. In the Midcontinent area,
PTTC developed a concise manual outlining the causes and solutions for excess
water production, plus operating practices to reduce costs. In California, staff
is working alongside producers in a consortium effort. Operators are sharing
their data, which is being analyzed to determine trends. Sufficient well and
reservoir data is being analyzed for results to be representative of Los Angeles
(LA) Basin operations. Results show that water control efforts are generally
economic, but more case studies are needed. Data are also clear in that
operators need to place more effort in gathering fluid entry data and diagnosing
the causes of high water production.
PROBLEM ADDRESSED
Mature oil production in the U.S. often produces at high water cut, increasing
operating cost and causing operating and other challenges. Causes and solutions
for high water production vary geographically depending upon the geological
environment. In a concerted effort in the Midcontinent and California, PTTC is
working with industry to better identify causes and cost effective technology
solutions.
Hydraulic
Fracturing Measurement, Characterization and Analysis
May 27, 2004 in (Casper, WY)
sponsored by PTTC's Rocky Mountain Region
BOTTOM LINE
Understanding the reservoir, its basic rock properties and how
they affect fracturing, is a prerequisite for optimizing hydraulic
fracturing
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treatments. Choosing the proper
fracturing fluid, proppant, proppant load, and additives are
important. Achieving and maintaining fracture conductivity is
essential. Modeling, recognizing the underlying theory and
limitations, can help operators determine how different parameters
affect created fractures and guide them to treatment designs that
will be more effective. Data gathered during a frac treatment
provides insights for future frac designs. Some testing techniques
provide indirect evidence of what is happening in the rock during
a frac treatment, while other techniques such as tiltmeter or
microseismic techniques directly measure the fractures that are
being created. Fracture reorientation, which is just now being
recognized, creates restimulation opportunities.
PROBLEM ADDRESSED
For most reservoirs, effective well stimulation is required for
attractive economics. This is particularly true for tight gas or
unconventional reservoirs that are increasingly the target in
domestic exploration. Determining when restimulation makes sense
is also important in the vast number of existing wells/reservoirs.
Hydraulic fracturing is a key stimulation technology, but for
maximum effectiveness to be achieved, one must understand the
underlying theory, how to design and model treatments, and how to
analyze treatment data to determine what happened so subsequent
treatments can be redesigned to be more effective.
Michigan
Field Experiences, Focus on the Niagaran
March 19, 2004 (Mt.
Pleasant, MI) sponsored by PTTC's Midwest Region
BOTTOM LINE
Independents that are now the operators in the mature Michigan
Basin are profitably employing technologies such as horizontal
wells, 3-D seismic, other 3-D visualization tools, production
logging, CO2 flooding, and
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underbalanced drilling to name a few.
Sharing and learning from each other in workshops having a
case study focus has proven extremely effective, as has
leveraging effort with SPE Northern Michigan.
PROBLEM ADDRESSED
The northern Michigan reef play is a very mature producing
area, remaining reef targets are smaller than early targets,
and major oil companies (and sometimes the service sector)
have left the region. It is up to the remaining independents
active in the region to get the knowledge and technology they
need to conduct profitable exploration and production
programs. |
Solutions
From The Field