Caverns can be readily formed in salt formations through solution mining. The caverns may be formed incidentally, as a result of salt recovery, or intentionally to create an underground chamber that can be used for storing hydrocarbon products or compressed air or disposing of wastes. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the feasibility, suitability, and legality of disposing of nonhazardous oil and gas exploration, development, and production wastes (hereafter referred to as oil field wastes, unless otherwise noted) in salt caverns. Chapter 2 provides background information on: types and locations of US subsurface salt deposits; basic solution mining techniques used to create caverns; and ways in which salt caverns are used. Later chapters provide discussion of: federal and state regulatory requirements concerning disposal of oil field waste, including which wastes are considered eligible for cavern disposal; waste streams that are considered to be oil field waste; and an evaluation of technical issues concerning the suitability of using salt caverns for disposing of oil field waste. Separate chapters present: types of oil field wastes suitable for cavern disposal; cavern design and location; disposal operations; and closure and remediation. This report does not suggest specific numerical limits for such factors …

Over 100 samples have been gathered from the Lathrop Wells volcanic center to assess different models of basalt petrogenesis and constrain the physical mechanisms of magma ascent in the Yucca Mountain region. Samples have been analyzed for major and trace-element chemistry, Nd, Sr and Ph isotopes, and mineral chemistry. All eruptive units contain olivine phenocrysts, but only the oldest eruptive units contain plagioclase phenocrysts. Compositions of minerals vary little between eruptive units. Geochemical data show that most of the eruptive units at Lathrop Wells defined by field criteria can be distinguished by major and trace-element chemistry. Normative compositions of basalts at Lathrop Wells correlate with stratigraphic position. The oldest basalts are primarily nepheline normative and the youngest basalts are exclusively hypersthene normative, indicating increasing silica saturation with time. Trace-element and major-element variations among eruptive units are statistically significant and support the conclusion that eruptive units at Lathrop Wells represent separate and independent magma batches. This conclusion indicates that magmas in the Yucca Mountain region ascend at preferred eruption sites rather than randomly.

This report summarizes field operations and hydrogeologic data obtained during installation of the Powerline monitoring/test wells near the western boundary of Kirtland Air Force Base. These wells were installed in 1994 as part of the Site-Wide Hydrogeologic Characterization Project saturated zone investigation. The Site-Wide Hydrogeologic Characterization Project is part of Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, Environmental Restoration Project. Three wells were drilled and completed at this location, and named PL-1, PL-2, and PL-3. They are located northwest of Tech Area 3, and are named after a high-voltage powerline located just south of the wells. The objectives of the Powerline wells were to determine the depth to water, complete 2 water table wells and a deeper Santa Fe Group well, to determine the geologic provenance of Santa Fe Group sediments at this location, and to obtain background core samples for radiological analysis. During these field operations, important subsurface hydrogeologic data were obtained. These data include drill cuttings and lithologic descriptions, core samples with background analytical data, geophysical logs, water quality parameters, and water levels. Aquifer tests at the Powerline location will generate data that may yield information on anisotropy in the Santa Fe Group and constrain numerical modeling results that indicate …

The Western Environmental Technology Office (WETO) is a multi-purpose engineering test facility located in Butte, Montana, and is managed by MSE, Inc. WETO seeks to contribute to environmental research by emphasizing projects to develop heavy metals removal and recovery processes, thermal vitrification systems, and waste minimization/pollution prevention technologies. WETO`s environmental technology research and testing activities focus on the recovery of usable resources from waste. In one of WETO`s areas of focus, groundwater contamination, water from the Berkeley Pit, located near the WETO site, is being used in demonstrations directed toward the recovery of potable water and metal from the heavy metal-bearing water. The Berkeley Pit is part of an inactive copper mine near Butte that was once part of the nation`s largest open-pit mining operation. The Pit contains approximately 25 billion gallons of Berkeley Pit groundwater and surface water containing many dissolved minerals. As part of DOE/OST`s Resource Recovery Project (RRP), technologies are being demonstrated to not only clean the contaminated water but to recover metal values such as copper, zinc, and iron with an estimated gross value of more than $100 million. When recovered, the Berkeley Pit waters could benefit the entire Butte valley with new water resources for …

Production and injection data from nine slim holes and sixteen large-diameter wells at the Takigami Geothermal Field, Kyushu, Japan were analyzed in order to establish relationships (1) between injectivity and productivity indices, (2) between productivity/injectivity index and borehole diameter, and (3) between discharge capacity of slim holes and large-diameter wells. Results are compared with those from the Oguni and Sumikawa fields. A numerical simulator (WELBOR) was used to model the available discharge rate from Takigami boreholes. The results of numerical modeling indicate that the flow rate of large-diameter geothermal production wells with liquid feedzones can be predicted using data from slim holes. These results also indicate the importance of proper well design.

During April-May, 1995, Sandia National Laboratories, in cooperation with Trans-Pacific Geothermal Corporation, drilled a 5825{prime} exploratory slimhole (3.85 in. diameter) in the Vale Known Geothermal Resource Area (KGRA) near Vale, Oregon. This well was part of Sandia`s program to evaluate slimholes as a geothermal exploration tool. During drilling we performed several temperature logs, and after drilling was complete we performed injection tests, bailing from a zone isolated by a packer, and repeated temperature logs. In addition to these measurements, the well`s data set includes: 2714{prime} of continuous core (with detailed log); daily drilling reports from Sandia and from drilling contractor personnel; daily drilling fluid records; numerous temperature logs; pressure shut-in data from injection tests; and comparative data from other wells drilled in the Vale KGRA. This report contains: (1) a narrative account of the drilling and testing, (2) a description of equipment used, (3) a brief geologic description of the formation drilled, (4) a summary and preliminary interpretation of the data, and (5) recommendations for future work.

The US Department of Energy has asked Gustavson Associates, Inc. to serve as an Independent Petroleum Consultant under contract DE-AC01-96FE64202. This authorizes a study and recommendations regarding future development of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 (NPR-2) in Kern County, California. The report that follows is the Phase 1 fact-finding and property description for that study. The United States of America owns 100 percent of the mineral rights and 96.1 percent of surface rights in 10,447 acres of the 30,182 acres contained within NPR-2. This property comprises the Buena Vista Hills Oil Field. Oil and gas companies have leased out 9,227 acres in 17 separate leases. Discovered in 1909, this field has approximately 435 active wells producing 2,819 gross barrels of oil and 8.6 million cubic feet of gas per day. Net production to the Government royalty interests include 200 barrels of oil per day and 750 thousand cubic feet of gas per day. Royalty revenues are about $1.7 million per year. Remaining recoverable reserves are approximately 407 thousand barrels of oil and 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas. Significant plugging and abandonment (P&A) and environmental liabilities are present, but these should be the responsibility of the lessees. Ultimate liability still …

The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and quantitative characterization of a fluvial-deltaic reservoir which will allow realistic inter-well and reservoir-scale modeling to be constructed for improved oil-field development in similar reservoirs world-wide. The geological and petrophysical properties of the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone in east-central Utah will be quantitatively determined. Both new and existing data will be integrated into a three-dimensional representation of spatial variations in porosity, storativity, and tensorial rock permeability at a scale appropriate for inter-well to regional-scale reservoir simulation. Results could improve reservoir management through proper infill and extension drilling strategies, reduction of economic risks, increased recovery from existing oil fields, and more reliable reserve calculations. Transfer of the project results to the petroleum industry is an integral component of the project.

Produced water from oil and gas operations, or brine as it is typically referred, may be characterized as being highly saline, with total dissolved solids greater than 100 g/L. If these bribes are disposed improperly there may be severe adverse environmental effects. Thus, it is important that brine be disposed using environmentally sound methods. Unfortunately, costs for the disposal of brine water are a significant burden to oil and gas producers in New York State. These costs and the relatively low market price of oil and natural gas have contributed to the decline in gas and oil production in New York State during the past 10 years. The objectives of this study were to evaluate new and existing options for brine disposal in New York State, examine the technical and economic merits of these options, and assess environmental impacts associated with each option. Two new disposal options investigated for New York State oil and gas producers included construction of a regional brine treatment facility to treat brine prior to discharge into a receiving water and a salt production facility that utilizes produced water as a feed stock. Both options are technically feasible; however, their economic viability depends on facility size …

The objective of this project is to increase heavy oil reserves in a portion of the Wilmington Oil Field, near Long Beach, California, by implementing advanced reservoir characterization and thermal production technologies. Based on the knowledge and experience gained with this project, these technologies are intended to be extended to other sections of the Wilmington Oil Field, and, through technology transfer, will be available to increase heavy oil reserves in other slope and basin clastic (SBC) reservoirs.

This document presents an overview of the Energy Information Administration`s recent monthly energy statistics. The statistics cover the major activities of U.S. production, consumption, trade, stocks, and prices for petroleum,natural gas, coal, electricity, and nuclear energy. Also included are international energy and thermal metric conversion factors.

Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada, is a potential site for a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste in Miocene ash flow tuff. The Yucca Mountain controlled area occupies approximately 98 km{sup 2} that includes the potential repository site. The Yucca Mountain controlled area is located within the southwestern Nevada volcanic field, a large area of Miocene volcanism that includes at least four major calderas or cauldrons. It is sited on a remnant of a Neogene volcanic plateau that was centered around the Timber Mountain caldera complex. The Yucca Mountain region contains many occurrences of valuable or potentially valuable industrial minerals, including deposits with past or current production of construction aggregate, borate minerals, clay, building stone, fluorspar, silicate, and zeolites. The existence of these deposits in the region and the occurrence of certain mineral materials at Yucca Mountain, indicate that the controlled area may have potential for industrial mineral and rock deposits. Consideration of the industrial mineral potential within the Yucca Mountain controlled area is mainly based on petrographic and lithologic studies of samples from drill holes in Yucca Mountain. Clay minerals, zeolites, fluorite, and barite, as minerals that are produced economically in Nevada, have been identified in samples from …

This research is to provide improved strategies for enhanced oil recovery from the Tensleep Sandstone oil reservoirs in the Bighorn and Wind River basins, Wyoming. Because of the great range of API gravities of the oils produced from these reservoirs, the proposed study concentrates on understanding the spatial variation and anisotropy of relative permeability within the Tensleep Sandstone. This research will associate those spatial distributions and anisotropies with the depositional subfacies and zones of diagenetic alteration found within the sandstone. The associations of the above with pore geometry will link relative permeability with the dimensions of lithofacies and authigenic mineral facies. Hence, the study is to provide criteria for scaling this parameter on a range of scales, from the laboratory to the basin-wide scale of subfacies distribution. Effects of depositional processes and burial diagenesis will be investigated. Image analysis of pore systems will be done to produce algorithms for estimating relative permeability from petrographic analyses of core and well cuttings. In addition, these studies are being coupled with geochemical modeling and coreflood experiments to investigate the potential for wellbore scaling and formation damage anticipated during EOR, eg., CO{sub 2} flooding. This will provide a regional basis for EOR strategies for …

The work reported here covers Budget Phase I of the project. The principal tasks in Budget Phase I are the Reservoir Analysis and Characterization Task and the Advanced Technology Definition Task. Completion of these tasks have enabled an optimum carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) flood project to be designed and evaluated from an economic and risk analysis standpoint. Field implementation of the project has been recommended to the working interest owner of the South Cowden Unit (SCU) and approval has been obtained. The current project has focused on reducing initial investment cost by utilizing horizontal injection wells and concentrating the project in the best productivity area of the field. An innovative CO{sub 2} purchase agreement (no take or pay requirements, CO{sub 2} purchase price tied to West Texas Intermediate crude oil price) and gas recycle agreements (expensing cost as opposed to large capital investments for compression) were negotiated to further improve project economics. A detailed reservoir characterization study was completed by an integrated team of geoscientists and engineers. The study consisted of detailed core description, integration of log response to core descriptions, mapping of the major flow units, evaluation of porosity and permeability relationships, geostatistical analysis of permeability trends, and direct …

The Lower Savannah River Project was established in 1986 to improve our understanding of the hydrogeologic conditions in west-central South Carolina. Six progress reports have been written since 1987. This report covers the period from July 1, 1994, to June 30, 1995. During the current phase, work focused on locating and procuring suitable sites for future well clusters; drafting well-construction specifications and bid packages; drilling monitoring wells at site C-7; and completing two comprehensive reports. Land was acquired for three future well-cluster sites: C-11, C-13, and C-15. Site C-11 will be located at the Oakwood Fire Tower in Aiken County. This land was made available through the South Carolina Forestry Commission. Land for site C-13 was donated by the Wildlife Division of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and will be located at Little Hell Landing on the Savannah River flood plain southwest of Millet in Allendale County. Site C-15 will be located at Gillisonville in northern Jasper County. A 0.9-acre parcel of land was purchased from Westvaco, Inc., for this site. Well specifications and bid packages were drawn up for the construction of seven monitoring wells at site C-10, three at C-13, and two at C-15. Specific-capacity values …

The aim of this research project was to investigate mechanisms governing adsorption and surface precipitation of flooding surfactants on reservoir minerals. Effects of surfactant structure, surfactant combinations, various inorganic and polymeric species, and solids mineralogy have been determined. A multi-pronged approach consisting of micro & nano spectroscopy, electrokinetics, surface tension and wettability is used in this study. The results obtained should help in controlling surfactant loss in chemical flooding and in developing optimum structures and conditions for efficient chemical flooding processes. During the three years contract period, adsorption of single surfactants and select surfactant mixtures was studied at the solid-liquid and gas-liquid interfaces. Alkyl xylene sulfonates, polyethoxylated alkyl phenols, octaethylene glycol mono n-decyl ether, and tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride were the surfactants studied. Adsorption of surfactant mixtures of varying composition was also investigated. The microstructure of the adsorbed layer was characterized using fluorescence spectroscopy. Changes in interfacial properties such as wettability, electrokinetics and stability of reservoir minerals were correlated with the amounts of reagent adsorbed. Strong effects of the structure of the surfactant and position of functional groups were revealed. Changes of microstructure upon dilution (desorption) were also studied. Presence of the nonionic surfactants in mixed aggregate leads to shielding …

Production of gas from the Frontier Formation at 18,300 R depth in the Frewen No. 4 Deep well, eastern Green River basin (Wyoming), was uneconomic despite the presence of numerous open natural fractures. Initial production tested at 500 MCFD, but dropped from 360 MCFD to 140 MCFD during a 10-day production test, and the well was abandoned. Examination of the fractures in the core suggests several probable reasons for this poor production. One factor is the presence of a hydrocarbon residue (carbon) which filled much of the porosity left in the smaller fractures after mineralization. An equally important factor is probably the reorientation of the in situ horizontal compressive stress to a trend normal to the main fractures, and which now acts to close fracture apertures rapidly during reservoir drawdown. This data set has unpleasant implications for the search for similar, deep fractured reservoirs.

Domestic fluvial-dominated deltaic (FDD) reservoirs contain more than 30 Billion barrels (Bbbl) of remaining oil, more than any other type of reservoir, approximately one-third of which is in danger of permanent loss through premature field abandonments. The U.S. Department of Energy has placed its highest priority on increasing near-term recovery from FDD reservoirs in order to prevent abandonment of this important strategic resource. To aid in this effort, the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, began a 46-month project in October, 1992, to develop and demonstrate advanced methods of reservoir characterization that would more accurately locate remaining volumes of mobile oil that could then be recovered by recompleting existing wells or drilling geologically targeted infill. wells. Reservoirs in two fields within the Frio Fluvial-Deltaic Sandstone (Vicksburg Fault Zone) oil play of South Texas, a mature play which still contains 1.6 Bbbl of mobile oil after producing 1 Bbbl over four decades, were selected as laboratories for developing and testing reservoir characterization techniques. Advanced methods in geology, geophysics, petrophysics, and engineering were integrated to (1) identify probable reservoir architecture and heterogeneity, (2) determine past fluid-flow history, (3) integrate fluid-flow history with reservoir architecture to identify untapped, incompletely …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has asked Gustavson Associates, Inc. to serve as an Independent Petroleum Appraiser under contract DE-AC01-96FE64202. This authorizes a study and recommendations regarding future development of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (NPR-3) in Natrona County, Wyoming. The report that follows is the Phase II Final Report for that study.

This document presents brief descriptions of research programs concerned with enhanced oil recovery.

This document consists of a publications list for field projects and brief descriptions of research projects on enhanced petroleum recovery.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has asked Gustavson Associates, Inc. to serve as an Independent Petroleum Consultant under contract DE-AC01-96FE64202. This authorizes a study and recommendations regarding future development of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 (NPR-2) in Kern County, California. The report that follows is the Phase II Final Report for that study. Additional details are provided in the Addendum (the Phase I Property Description and Fact Finding Report). The key property elements that positively affect the estimated value of NPR-2 include the following: royalty income from producing oil and gas leases, rental income from non-producing oil and gas leases, income from grazing or leasing of grazing rights, potential income from oil and gas leasing on exploratory (or nonprospective) acreage, potential value of trading surface real estate as ranch land for sheep grazing (10,044 acres), and town lots for residential or commercial development (16.7 acres). Key elements that negatively impact the estimated value include: environmental assessment costs, operating budgets, and lease sale expenses.

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate targeted infill and extension drilling opportunities, better determinations of oil-in-place, methods for improved completion efficiency and the suitability of waterflooding in Red River and Ratcliffe shallow-shelf carbonate reservoirs in the Williston Basin, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. Improved reservoir characterization utilizing three-dimensional and multi-component seismic are being investigated for identification of structural and stratigraphic reservoir compartments. These seismic characterization tools are integrated with geological and engineering studies. Improved completion efficiency is being tested with extended-reach jetting lance and other ultra-short-radius lateral technologies. Improved completion efficiency, additional wells at closer spacing and better estimates of oil in place will result in additional oil recovery by primary and enhanced recovery processes.

The East Vacuum Grayburg/San Andres Unit (EVGSAU), operated by Phillips Petroleum Company, was the site selected for a comprehensive evaluation of the use of foam for improving the effectiveness of a CO{sub 2} flood. This project, entitled {open_quotes}Field Verification of CO{sub 2-}Foam,{close_quotes} was jointly funded by the EVGSAU working interest owners, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the State of New Mexico. The DOE provided $2 million or approximately 34% of the total project costs, the EVGSAU provided $2.46 million, the State of New Mexico contributed approximately $1.2 million, and about $103,000 of other industrial funds were used. The Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC), a division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, provided laboratory and research support for the project. A joint project advisory team composed of technical representatives from several major oil companies provided input, review, and guidance for the project. The project, which began in 1989, had a scheduled duration of four years, but the DOE granted a no-cost extension to the end of March 1995 for the purpose of continued project evaluation. A field test of the CO{sub 2}-foam has been successfully conducted, and preliminary results are promising. Response in the foam injection …