Phased-In Year-Round Drilling by Questar Approved at Pinedale

Questar Exploration and Production (Questar) has received Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approval to phase in over the next year their proposed year-round drilling program on their Pinedale Anticline leasehold. BLM gave Questar permission to operate two drilling rigs on one pad during the winter of 2004/2005. After completing a proposed water- and condensate-gathering system during summer 2005, Questar will be allowed to operate six rigs from three active pads beginning the winter of 2005/2006 through the winter of 2013/2014. Prior to the BLM decision, Questar's Pinedale drilling operations were restricted to May through November due to concerns over potential impacts on wildlife.

With directional drilling and other mitigation, Questar will reduce initial habitat disturbance by about two-thirds. With post-drilling reclamation the disturbance will be cut in half again. The gathering systems will eliminate up to 25,000 truckloads per year of produced condensate and water. Development time will be cut by a decade with year-round drilling, which will accelerate both Questar and Wyoming revenues. And year-round drilling will promote stable full-time jobs, versus prior partial-year jobs.

Ron Hogan's presentation about the Pinedale project at IPAA's Emerging Technologies conference in San Antonio (late October, just weeks before the favorable BLM decision) can be viewed online (www.ipaa.org/press/Presentat
ions.asp?G=12.)

For further information regarding BLM's approval see Questar's press release www.questar.com/
news/2004_news/11-10-04.pdf.

National Safety Council Recognizes Noble Corporation

The Robert W Campbell award, a new international award co-sponsored by the National Safety Council and ExxonMobil Corporation, was recently awarded to Noble Corporation. The award recognizes companies that demonstrate leadership and excellence in business performance by integrating safety, health and the environment (HSE) within their operations systems.

Nineteen companies applied for the award and underwent an extensive application process. Assessments recognized three categories: management, technical and behavioral. Factors influencing Noble's selection include clearly communicating HSE policies and procedures, a workforce truly involved and committed to HSE, clear performance measurement, and selection/ training/ certification programs.

Building on success, the Campbell Award program has expanded to two categories: more than 1,000 employees and 1,000 or less employees. Applications for the 2005 award competition are due April 30, 2005.

Visit www.campbellaward.org  for more information.

Downhole Separation Technology Performance: Relationship to Geologic Conditions

Argonne National Laboratory's (ANL) recent final report looked at publicly available data on downhole oil/ water separators (DOWS) and downhole gas/ water separators (DGWS) with a focus on relating performance of downhole separation to geologic conditions. Their report provides data on 59 DOWS trials and 62 DGWS trials, plus qualitative discussion of at least 35 other installations.

Regarding their focus, is there a relationship between DOWS and DGWS success and geologic conditions? Their conclusion, recognizing the limitations of their data, is no. An earlier study, which is summarized in ANL's report, reached a different conclusion. This earlier work concluded that installations having carbonate in both production and injection formations had the lowest risk. Medium risk was assigned to carbonate/ consolidated sandstone, consolidated sandstone/ carbonate, and consolidated sandstone/ consolidated sandstone combinations. Any installation with unconsolidated sandstone in the producing zone was considered high risk.

There are other factors that play a role in the success of DOWS systems, the most important probably being ensuring that the injection formation has good injectivity and the injection process does not introduce materials that could cause plugging and reduce injectivity. Another important parameter is good vertical and mechanical separation between the production and injection formations. Obviously, well candidates must contain sufficient reserves to payback investments.

New $100 Million DOE Solicitation
for
Phase II Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships

Proposals due March 15

www.netl.doe.gov
for more info

DOWS and DGWS technologies have been around for more than a decade, but they are not widely applied due to risk and cost considerations. It must be recognized though that many of the early trials were in poorly chosen candidate wells. Data were not always accurate and systems failed because they were designed for conditions other than those present. Many early installation failures were due to other components not unique to the DOWS process. Despite the qualifiers, the reality is that producer interest has dwindled. ANL's summary of current technology activity illustrates the chilling effect that dwindling interest has had in technology development.

Even with all the uncertainty, there is still high economic potential in downhole separation. Those pursuing that objective owe it to themselves to peruse ANL's latest analysis. Contact Argonne National Lab's John Veil (e-mail jveil@anl.gov) for a copy of this recent final report.

IADC Health, Safety,
Environment & Training

February 8-9, 2005
Houston, TX

www.iadc.org/conferenc
es/HS5-Program.htm

SPE/EPA/DOE Exploration & Production Environmental Conference

March 7-9, 2005
Galveston, TX.

www.spe.org/spe/jsp/
meeting/0,2460,1104_1535_
2557993,00.html