Table of Contents

Vol. 6, No. 2
2nd Quarter 2000

NETL Releases Results from Five-Year Demonstration Project of Stimulation and Deliverability Enhancement in Gas Storage

US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has just completed a five-year field demonstration project aimed at improving the deliverability of natural gas storage wells. In the US, these wells are prone to continued deliverability loss at an average rate of 5% per year. This is a result of formation damage due to various causes. As a means to bypass this damage and sustain and enhance well deliverability, several new and novel fracture stimulation technologies were tested in gas storage fields across the US The project, which was conducted by Advanced Resources International under contract with NETL, was later co-funded by GRI.

Randall Clark, reservoir manager at Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America, considered the work at the Cooks Mills Storage Field to be a success. “The extensive well testing procedures helped in understanding the improvements of performing the remedial well work; without these tests I would still be wasting money with the wrong diagnosis and treatment of well workover procedures.”

The project included: 29 new and novel fracture treatments, 152 deliverability and pressure transient tests, 28 fracture diagnostics tests, and 23 fracture height surveys. Highlights of this research effort include:

• The first-ever liquid CO2 and proppant fracture treatments in a storage field, which led to a seven-fold increase in deliverability in two of three wells;
• Two tip-screenout fracture treatments in Nebraska, which resulted in an increase of nearly 50 MMcfd (million cubic feet per day) in deliverability;
• A first of a kind simulator developed to design and model extreme overbalanced fracturing; and
• A comprehensive dataset of multi-point deliverability and pressure transient tests (a rarity in the gas storage industry) which provided unique insight into the process of candidate well selection and the impact of stimulation.

A CD-ROM will be available around June 15, which will contain three technology reports and all the field data analyzed. It can be ordered at: www.netl.doe.gov. Go to publications and then CD-ROM Ordering System.

DOE’s Strategic Center for Natural Gas Now Operational

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) newest national laboratory has opened a new Strategic Center for Natural Gas, which is charged with overseeing a full range of natural gas-related activities. The Center’s creation is part of a larger reorganization of the government’s primary fossil fuel research facility in Morgantown, WV, and Pittsburgh, PA. Before being designated in December as the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), they were known as the Federal Energy Technology Center.

The new Center was established to provide a focal point within the federal government to look out for the future of natural gas “from borehole to burner tip.” It will oversee federal research efforts in gas exploration, production and storage, infrastructure reliability, and advanced gas use technologies (such as high performance turbines, engines, and fuel cells).

The Center will also be responsible for analyses that can help set the direction for federal natural gas initiatives. Using a systems approach, the Center works with industry, other government agencies, and the research community to ensure that the US can meet future gas supply, transport, and demand needs.

The new strategic Center for natural gas will have three primary thrusts:

• Research and Technology Development — to conduct and implement a science and technology development program in natural gas supply, infrastructure, and utilization.
• National Strategic Planning —to help craft a comprehensive and balanced portfolio of R&D activities addressing every aspect of natural gas supply, transmission, and use.
• Policy and Regulatory Analysis — To generate technical data and analyticaltools for sound gas policy development on various environmental, delivery and economic issues.

NETL Director Rita Bajura has named Dr. Joseph Strakey, a 29-year career professional, as the first director of the new Strategic Center for Natural Gas. In addition to this post, he will serve as one of eight associate directors of NETL.

The Center will have four Product Managers, responsible for: (1) natural gas exploration, production and storage; (2) advanced turbines and engines; (3) fuel cells; and (4) infrastructure reliability. It will also have access to approximately 50 staff members currently working on natural gas projects in other sections of NETL, in addition to the 13 federal employees assigned directly to the Center.

For more information, visit the Center’s new website at www.netl.doe.gov/scng. or contact Otis Mills, Jr. at phone 412-892-5890, email: mills@netl.doe.gov