Industry Highlight: What's New in Artificial Lift; Two-Part Series in World Oil (April & May 2006) 
Each year World Oil provides extended coverage of new developments in the artificial lift arena. In this year's coverage, James Lea, Herald Winkler and Robert Snyder report on 33 recent artificial lift developments. Categories include: sucker rod pumping, progressing-cavity pumping, plunger lift and gas lift, electrical submersible pumping and other miscellaneous innovations. There's not room to highlight all and PTTC doesn't want to do a disservice to any, so readers are encouraged to peruse the overall articles. It's a solid bet that readers will find something addressing one of their needs.
 

DOE Highlight: Stripper Well Consortium Makes 9 Awards
Following its spring 2006 meeting, the Stripper Well Consortium announced 9 award winners committing $1.24 million of SWC funds.

• Increased Pumping Capacity and Depth for Airlift System (Airlift Services International, Inc.)

• Liquid Lifting from Deviated and Horizontal Tight-Shale Gas Wells (Colorado School of Mines)

• Foam Control for Natural Gas Wells (Composite Engineers, Inc.)

• Advanced ASJ Drilling System (IMPACT Technologies, LLC)

• Novel Single Stage Water Mitigation Treatment (IMPACT Technologies, LLC)

• Pumper/Well Tender PDA Program for Small Producing Companies (Oklahoma Marginal Well Commission)

• Modify and Extend Casing Plunger Technology to Tubing (PAAL, LLC)

• Reducing Water Production in Mississippian Reservoirs Using Gelled Polymer Systems (University of Kansas)

• Best Practice Guide to Optimizing Multizone Coalbed Natural Gas Well Completions (WellDog, Inc.)

Twelve Sites Proposed for FutureGen Plant
 

PTTC Highlight:  New Regional Organization Leaders in Rockies and Midwest

MARY CARR is the Director of the Rocky Mountain Region PTTC and an Assistant Research Professor at Colorado School of Mines. Over the past 10 years her focus has been the Brushy Canyon deepwater sandstone outcrops of West Texas, conducting field work and producing reservoir models of the outcrops. She has also been involved in outcrop and subsurface studies of the Tensleep Formation in the Big Horn and Wind River Basins of Wyoming.  

Mary received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Geology from University of Texas at Arlington. In 1994 she received her Doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin working with Gary Kocurek on the Entrada Sandstone of Utah. Mary has authored several papers on eolian sedimentology, deep water sand deposition and building deep water sandstone reservoir models. mcarr@mines.edu

STEVE GUSTISON, who has been the coordinator for the Midwest Region for sometime, recently became Director for the Midwest Region. Steve received a B.S. in petroleum geology from the University of Tulsa and a M.A. from Western Illinois University. Prior to joining the Illinois State Geological Survey in 2001, he worked for Sun Oil, Belco Petroleum, Anadarko and Corpus Christi Oil and Gas.  Steve also owned and operated a private producing company that concentrated on waterflood operations. His current research area includes spatial database optimization and customizing Internet mapping services to access historical well data.

Steve is a Certified Petroleum Geologist with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He was presented the Petroleum Profession of the Year in 2005 by the Illinois Oil and Gas Association. gustison@isgs.uiuc.edu

Trivia Question:  In what year was the first offshore oil well drilled, and off the coast of what state?