DOE Digest

Two DOE Awards for Advanced Technology with Independents

DOE recently announced two awards, one for further development of a new, lower cost submersible pump and a second for advanced seismic work, within its Advanced Technology with Independents program.

Submersible Pump—Enerdyne LLC, an Albuquerque producer will team with Pumping Solutions Inc. (PSI) to test the submersible pump in New Mexico's San Juan Basin. PSI's submersible pump is small and light—about 8 ft long, 3 inches in diameter and weighs about 90 pounds—so it is wireline deployed rather than attached to bottom of tubing as with conventional submersible pumps. The positive displacement, diaphragm-type pump is less than half the cost of a conventional rod pump and less expensive to operate, consuming about half the power of a conventional pump. With fewer moving parts, maintenance costs are also lower. The pump was recently tested in a well at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center, where it produced a consistent average of 30 BFPD with a 10% oil cut over a three month period (www.rmotc.com/Today/Newsletter.html). If successful, Enerdyne projects an additional 780 million barrels of oil could be produced from the Red Mountain reservoir in the San Juan Basin. With current lift practices and resulting economics, the reservoir is on the verge of abandonment after recovering only 5% of the original oil in place.

Advanced Seismic—Vecta Exploration, Inc., and its subcontractor, the Exploration Geophysics Laboratory at the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas, will develop seismic technologies that use conventional compression or "P" waves, plus the three other major types of shock waves. These other types include horizontal shear or SH wave, the vertical shear or SV wave, and the converted shear (a "C" wave). Conventional seismic surveys work well for locating structural traps, but often miss more subtle stratigraphic traps, such as those in the Williston Basin of North and South Dakota that this project will target. 

Excerpted from DOE Techline (www.fossil.energy.gov/techline/tl_oil_ati2002.shtml).

DOE Creating Network of "Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships"

In a recent techline, DOE announced its intent to create a network of four to 10 regional Carbon Sequestration partnerships. These regionally focused efforts will help determine the technologies, regulations and infrastructure that are best suited for different areas of the country. A solicitation notice will be issued soon (www.netl.doe.gov/business/solicit/) asking industry, state and local agencies, universities and others to begin forming the regional partnerships. DOE will offer up to $2 million per partnership for initial planning efforts, and several more million per partnership could be available for actual field verification tests and more detailed regulatory and infrastructure planning. Partnership awards are planned by spring.

DOE has given the go ahead for a research team headed by American Electric Power (AEP) and Batelle to begin studying potential sequestration sites in the Ohio River Valley, an area having a high concentration of coal-burning plants. Focus will be on deep saline formations. Theoretically, they could hold all of the CO2 emitted by the nation's coal-burning power plants for the next 100 years. AEP has volunteered its Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, West Virginia for a test site. Seismic surveys will be conducted and a 10,000-ft exploratory well drilled on the power plant property. Work will not proceed beyond the study phase until the subsurface geology is deemed safe and suitable and cost estimates prepared. Partners providing financial and in-kind support include: AEP, BP, Battelle and Schlumberger. The Ohio Coal Development Office is also supporting the project. Additional technical support will be provided by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, West Virginia University, the Ohio Division of Geological Survey, The Ohio State University and others. 

Excerpted from DOE Techline www.fossil.energy.gov/techline/tl_sequestration_ncc.shtml

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