Industry Highlight: Measuring CBM Fracture Height Growth in Real Time
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation employed treatment well tiltmeters to measure fracture height growth in real time in CBM wells in the Copper Ridge Field in southwest Wyoming. Water-bearing sands lie above and below the coals, so it is important to know fracture height growth to stay away from water. Initial treatment designs had called for 150,000 to 300,000 lbs of proppant at rates of about 40 bpm. Tilt measurements showed undesirable height growth occurred with these volumes, so volumes and treating rates were lowered (around 75,000 lb of proppant and 25 bpm). Treating costs are lower with smaller volumes and water production is lower since fracture treatments do not breach the adjacent water sands.

DOE Highlight: Alaskan Gas Hydrate Well, No Hydrate But Wealth of Information
Hot Ice No. 1, the first dedicated gas hydrate well in Alaska, encountered the sands as expected, but gas hydrate was not there. The well did, however, prove out several technologies, including the Arctic Drilling Platform, a mobile hydrate core analysis laboratory, and a new application of a continuous coring rig. These technologies can be taken to future hydrate research sites. Geologic knowledge from well data will improve future models for the genesis and distribution of hydrate accumulations on the North Slope. The Hot Ice No. 1 well was drilled as part of a two-year cost-shared partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Maurer Technology Inc., and Noble Engineering and Development.

PTTC Highlight: New Permian Basin Initiative Kicking Off in Texas
Led by Texas's Bureau of Economic Geology, there is a new initiative in Texas to develop an integrated depositional and stratigraphic synthesis of the Permian Basin. A key product will be a comprehensive GIS database of regional structure maps, depositional systems maps, facies maps, cross sections, core descriptions and data, outcrop descriptions and sections, reservoir data, and an extensive bibliographic database. This effort will help operators reduce risk and increase success of future exploration and development activity. Funding is expected to come from a mixture of federal, public and private industry sources.