Table of Contents

Vol. 6, No. 3
3rd Quarter 2000

Duttlinger Begins as New Executive Director of PTTC

Donald F. Duttlinger, new executive director of the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) began working with PTTC in July of 2000, replacing PTTC's founding executive director, Deborah Rowell, who stepped down in June.

“After meeting with the Board of Directors as well as the Regional Directors, I was very impressed with the wealth of knowledge and experience that these individuals bring to the organization,” said Duttlinger. “True technology transfer can only be accomplished when we share the same interests and have a willingness to try new ideas that look beyond what's been done in the past. The concept of utilizing ten regions, spread strategically across the US, to interact with operators in 33 oil and gas producing states allows for a quicker transfer of ideas. This established network is a great model to search out the needs of the producers and work toward finding solutions that will yield lower operating costs which ultimately benefit the consumer and the nation.” 

“I can't say enough about the past and present staff and directors who have worked hard to make PTTC a successful organization that has grown to become an expectation within the industry,” Duttlinger remarked. “As more and more producers look toward PTTC for information and connections, we will need to continually adapt to the changes within the industry in order to impact the bottom line and be of significant value to producers.”

Prior to joining PTTC, Duttlinger had been president of Intechtra Services Inc., a Houston based firm focused on international technology transfer. He also served as onshore operations training manager for Mobil Oil/Baker Energy in Africa. Before that, he worked as an engineer for Schlumberger Technical Services in South East Asia. He has been on the Board of the Indonesian American Business Association since 1994 and also served as its executive vice president.

Duttlinger earned a MBA degree from Louisiana State University in 1991, and a BS degree in Construction Management Engineering from Purdue University in 1981. He has been a licensed professional engineer in Texas since 1992.

DOE Selects New Projects to Bolster Nation's Future Natural Gas Supplies

The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) recently awarded $4.7 million for five projects seeking to bolster the nation's natural gas supplies. A key project creates a stripper gas well consortium. Other projects focus on developing a more durable drill bit, gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico, miniaturized drilling in the Arctic, and gas storage in salt caverns.

Stripper Gas Well Consortium

More than half of the onshore natural gas wells in the lower 48 states are classified as “stripper wells,” meaning that they produce a very low volume of natural gas. In the last seven years, more than 30,000 wells have been added to this category, and many of these wells are being plugged and abandoned even though, with better technology, they could continue to produce natural gas. To help identify projects that government and industry can co-fund to improve the performance of these wells, Penn State and the University of Tulsa will form an industry-driven stripper gas well consortium, recruiting industry and academic members from across the country. The consortium will identify and fund research in reservoir remediation, wellbore cleanup, and surface system upgrades, all areas that could keep gas stripper wells in production.

More Durable Drill Bits

In a drill bit-related project, Penn State will team with Dennis Tool Company to continue development of what is likely to be the next major advance in drill bit manufacturing. The team is working on its microwave sintering process, which will enhance the durability of compositional-grade drill bit materials formed from diamond composites, tungsten carbide, and other metals. The process takes only one-tenth of the time of conventional bonding methods and produces higher-strength bits that wear longer and have a 20 to 30 percent increase in performance over conventionally made parts.

Gas Hydrates on the Ocean Floor

In this project, the University of Texas's Bureau of Economic Geology will study gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico using multi-component, 3-dimensional seismic imaging. Seismic detectors will be placed on the ocean bottom to measure artificially-created sound waves that pulse through the bottom sediments and waves that move at various crossing angles. By combining the data received from both types of waves, researchers can gather more information about the way ocean sediments are deposited, how the hydrates and rock types are distributed, and the type of material that fills the microscopic pores of the hydrate-bearing formation.

Miniature Mobil Drilling in Arctic Conditions

The team of NANA Development Corp., COMINCO, and ARI will be working together to develop tools, techniques and algorithms for drilling wells, less than three inches in diameter, in arctic conditions. A conceptual design of a miniature mobile system for drilling gas wells in remote locations will be developed. With a footprint one-third that of a conventional drill rig, the proposed slimhole system could be capable of drilling wells at less than 20 percent of today's costs.

Gas Storage in Salt Caverns

RESPEC will field test a technology developed in the DOE's gas storage research program that could improve the amount of gas that can be extracted efficiently and economically from salt cavern storage. Even modest improvements in storage capacity efficiencies could increase the amount of working gas capacity in existing salt caverns. This technique could lead to as much as 13 bcf of additional working gas capacity being available to meet peak consumer demands from salt dome sites. 

For more information, contact Hattie Wolfe, DOE FE, phone 202-586-6503, email hattie.wolfe@hq.doe.gov.