During the winter of 1990 to 1991, the Department of Energy evaluated several options to completing the originally-planned slant hole production tests. A decision was made to sidetrack the original hole and to redrill the 60 and 90{degrees} sections. The objectives for drilling the sidetrack to the original slant hole wellbore are as follows: (1) Test high angle and horizontal drilling and completion technologies as an alternative to vertical wells and hydraulic fracture treatments in tight, naturally-fractured reservoirs. (2) Production test the Cozzette open-hole interval into the pipeline to determine long-term gas productivity. (3) Production test selected paludal sandstones in the 60{degrees} section of the wellbore to determine long term gas productivity. A complex well path was designed to parallel the optimum northerly azimuth and the high angle-horizontal inclination program, but to directionally drill the lower wellbore 1000 ft to the east of the old hole. The hole displacement was planned to avoid formation damage from over 1500 barrels of drilling mud lost in the first well. Figure 1 presents the Mesaverde geologic column near the wellsite.

This paper presents preliminary results of a project to assess the economic viability of horizontal drilling in the Lower Glen Rose Formation of Maverick County, Texas. This project is part of an ongoing Department of Energy investigation of directional drilling in the development of gas resources within the United States. The paper includes: project description; results covering geologic setting, reservoir engineering, and seismic surveys; and future work on drilling location selection, drilling, and well completion. (AT)

The objective of this research program is to continue developing, editing, maintaining, utilizing and making publicly available the Oil and Gas Well History file portion of the Natural Resources Information System (NRIS) for the State of Oklahoma. This grant funds that ongoing development work as a continuation of earlier grant numbers DE-FG19-88BC14233 and DE-FG22-89BC14483. The Oklahoma Geological Survey, working with Geological Information Systems at the University of Oklahoma Sarkeys Energy Center, has undertaken to construct this information system in response to the need for a computerized, centrally located library containing accurate, detailed information on the state's natural resources. Particular emphasis during this phase of NRIS development is being placed on computerizing information related to the energy needs of the nation, specifically oil and gas.

This report describes and summarizes activities, data, and preliminary data interpretation from the INEL Oversight Program R D-1 project titled Hydrologic Studies In Wells Open Through Large Intervals.'' The project is designed to use a straddle-packer system to isolate, hydraulically test, and sample specific intervals of monitoring wells that are open (uncased, unscreened) over large intervals of the Snake River Plain aquifer. The objectives of the project are to determine and compare vertical variations in water quality and aquifer properties that have previously only been determined in an integrated fashion over the entire thickness of the open interval of the observation wells.

This project will provide information that can maximize hydrocarbon production, minimize formation damage and stimulate new production in Illinois. Such information includes definition of hydrocarbon resources, characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs, and the implementation of methods that will improve hydrocarbon extractive technology. Increased understanding of reservoir heterogeneities that affect oil recovery can aid in identifying producible resources. The transfer of technology to industry and the general public is a significant component of the program. The project is designed to examine selected subsurface oil reservoirs in Illinois. Scientists use advanced scientific techniques to gain a better understanding of reservoir components and behavior and address ways of potentially increasing the amount of recoverable oil. Initial production rates for wells in the Illinois Basin commonly decline quite rapidly and as much as 60 percent of the oil in place can be unrecoverable using standard operating procedures. Heterogeneities (geological differences in reservoir make-up) affect a reservoir's capability to release fluids. By-passed mobile and immobile oil remain in the reservoir. To learn how to get more of the oil out of reservoirs, the ISGS is studying the nature of reservoir rock heterogeneities and their control on the distribution and production of bypassed, mobile oil. Accomplishment for …

Diagnostic of production problems in geothermal wells is a complex inferential task, which requires considerable knowledge of its possible causes, careful assessment of (sometimes bewildering) multidisciplinary evidence, and, of course, enough experience. These characteristics make this task a good candidate for a computerized expert system. On this conviction, we have developed the first version of WELL-DR, an expert system for geothermal-well production diagnostics. Though still in a rapid stage of evolution, this expert system already provides a convenient and useful tool for geothermal field development, operation and management.

The objectives of the Infield Growth/Secondary Natural Gas Recovery project have been: To establish how depositional and diagenetic heterogeneities in reservoirs of conventional permeability cause reservoir compartmentalization and, hence, incomplete recovery of natural gas. To document practical, field-oriented examples of reserve growth from fluvial and deltaic sandstones of the Texas gulf coast basin and to use these gas reservoirs as a natural laboratory for developing concepts and testing applications of both tools and techniques to find secondary gas. To demonstrate how the integration of geology, reservoir engineering, geophysics, and well log analysis/petrophysics leads to strategic recompletion and well placement opportunities for reserve growth in mature fields. To transfer project results to natural gas producers, not just as field case studies, but as conceptual models of how heterogeneities determine natural gas flow and how to recognize the geologic and engineering clues that operators can use in a cost-effective manner to identify secondary gas. Accomplishments are presented for: reservoir characterization; integrated formation evaluation and engineering testing; compartmented reservoir simulator; and reservoir geophysics.

The Multi-Strata project is designed to co-develop both natural gas and coal-bed methane produced through a single well bore. Sites were selected based on the total gas resources available for development combined with a sound knowledge of the reservoir parameters that contribute to the accumulation and production of natural gas in the study area of Raleigh County, West Virginia. The project was planned and is being conducted in two phases. Phase I of the project, initiated in October 1989, consisted of compiling and analyzing relevant geological and gas production information in Raleigh County, West Virginia. The Eccles 7-{1/2} Minute . The Phase I analysis identified, by May 1990, five drilling locations with a high potential for economic gas production. Phase II activities included the drilling, coring, logging, testing, and completion of three wells. It is clear from the tests conducted to date, that the three wells will deliver significant quantities of natural gas from the conventional formations, augmented by high-quality methane from the coal intervals. Gas deliverability will be determined in the upcoming production test into a commercial pipeline. Economic analyses of the project will be undertaken when sufficient production data have been obtained.

During recent years, systematic, scientific, and engineering effort by researchers in the United States and abroad, has established the scientific basis for Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) technology. The successful application of MEOR technology as an oil recovery process is a goal of the Department of Energy (DOE). Research efforts involving aspects of MEOR in the microbiological, biochemical, and engineering fields led DOE to sponsor an International Conference at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1992, to facilitate the exchange of information and a discussion of ideas for the future research emphasis. At this, the Fourth International MEOR Conference, where international attendees from 12 countries presented a total of 35 papers, participants saw an equal distribution between research'' and field applications.'' In addition, several modeling and state-of-the-art'' presentations summed up the present status of MEOR science and engineering. Individual papers in this proceedings have been process separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database.

Steam production data from 13 wells including and surrounding Unit 13 injection well I-3 and 15 production wells including and surrounding Unit 16 injection well I-5 are analyzed to estimate steam decline rates with and without water injection. Such information is then utilized to estimate the first year recovery factor due to water injection in the southwest area of Unit 13 and the Unit 16 wellfields.

Logging technologies developed hydrocarbon resource evaluation have not migrated into geothermal applications even though data so obtained would strengthen reservoir characterization efforts. Two causative issues have impeded progress: (i) there is a general lack of vetted, high-temperature instrumentation, and (ii) the interpretation of log data generated in a geothermal formation is in its infancy. Memory-logging tools provide a path around the first obstacle by providing quality data at a low cost. These tools feature on-board computers that process and store data, and newer systems may be programmed to make decisions.'' Since memory tools are completely self-contained, they are readily deployed using the slick line found on most drilling locations. They have proven to be rugged, and a minimum training program is required for operator personnel. Present tools measure properties such as temperature and pressure, and the development of noise, deviation, and fluid conductivity logs based on existing hardware is relatively easy. A more complex geochemical tool aimed at a quantitative analysis of potassium, uranium and thorium will be available in about on year, and it is expandable into all nuclear measurements common in the hydrocarbon industry. A second tool designed to sample fluids at conditions exceeding 400{degrees}C is in the …

This session at the Geothermal Energy Program Review X: Geothermal Energy and the Utility Market consisted of four presentations: ''Long Valley Exploratory Well - Summary'' by George P. Tennyson, Jr.; ''The Long Valley Well - Phase II Operations'' by John T. Finger; ''Geologic results from the Long Valley Exploratory Well'' by John C. Eichelberger; and ''A Model for Large-Scale Thermal Convection in the Long Valley Geothermal Region'' by Charles E. Hickox.

This project will provide information that can maximize hydrocarbon production minimize formation damage and stimulate new production in Illinois. Such information includes definition of hydrocarbon resources, characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs, and the implementation of methods that will improve hydrocarbon extractive technology. Increased understanding of reservoir heterogeneities that affect oil recovery can aid in identifying producible resources. The transfer of technology to industry and the general public is a significant component of the program. The project is designed to examine selected subsurface oil reservoirs in Illinois. Scientists use advanced scientific techniques to gain a better understanding of reservoir components and behavior and address ways of potentially increasing the amount of recoverable oil. Initial production rates for wells in the Illinois Basin commonly decline quite rapidly and as much as 60 percent of the oil in place can be unrecoverable using standard operating procedures. Heterogeneities (geological differences in reservoir make-up) affect a reservoir's capability to release fluids. By-passed mobile and immobile oil remain in the reservoir. To learn how to get more of the oil out of reservoirs, the ISGS is studying the nature of reservoir rock heterogeneities and their control on the distribution and production of by-passed, mobile oil.

This project requires generation of producible tight gas sand reserve estimates for three western basins. The requirement is to perform such reserve estimates using industry accepted practices so that results will have high credibility and acceptance by the oil and gas industry. The ultimate goal of the project is to encourage development of the tight gas formation by industry through reduction of the technical and economic risks of locating, drilling and completing commercial gas wells. The three geological basins selected for study are the Greater Green River Basin, Uinta Basin and Piceance Basin, located in the Colorado, Utah and Wyoming Rocky Mountain region.

A research program has been undertaken in an effort to better characterize the composition and the precipitation characteristic of the geothermal fluids produced by the HGP-A geothermal well located on the Kilauea East Rift Zone on the Island of Hawaii. The results of these studies have shown that the chemical composition of the fluids changed over the production life of the well and that the fluids produced were the result of mixing of at least two, and possibly three, source fluids. These source fluids were recognized as: a sea water composition modified by high temperature water-rock reactions; meteoric recharge; and a hydrothermal fluid that had been equilibrated with high temperature reservoir rocks and magmatic volatiles. Although the major alkali and halide elements show clearly increasing trends with time, only a few of the trace transition metals show a similar trend. The rare earth elements, were typically found at low concentrations and appeared to be highly variable with time. Studies of the precipitation characteristics of silica showed that amorphous silica deposition rates were highly sensitive to fluid pH and that increases in fluid pH above about 8.5 could flocculate more than 80% of the suspended colloidal silica in excess of its …

Under a cooperative agreement with the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) the Appalachian Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium (AONGRC) is preparing a geologic atlas of the major gas plays in the Appalachian basin, and compiling a database for all fields in each geologic play. the first obligation under this agreement was to prepare a topical report that identifies the major gas plays, briefly describes each play, and explains how the plays were selected. Four main objectives have been defined for this initial task: assign each gas reservoir to a geologic play, based on age, trap type, degree of structural control, and depositional environment; organize all plays into geologically-similar groups based on the main criteria that defines each play; prepare a topical report for METC; and transfer this technology to industry through posters and talks at regional geological and engineering meetings including the Appalachian Petroleum Geology Symposium, Northeastern Section meeting of the Geological Society of America, the METC Gas Contractors Review meeting, the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, and the Appalachian Energy Group.

The report is submitted in two volumes, Volume I representing the work accomplished under Fuels Research and Volume II the work for Energy Production Research during the period July 1--Sept. 30, 1991. Topics covered include: chemical flooding, gas displacement, thermal recovery, geoscience technology, resource assessment technology, microbial technology, environmental technology.

The surface active lipopeptide produced by Bacillus licheniformis JF-2 was isolated to near apparent homogeneity. NMR experiments revealed that this compound consists of a heptapeptide with an amino acid sequence similar to surfactin and a heterogeneous fatty acid consisting of the normal-, anteiso-, and iso- branched isomers. The surface activity of the B. licheniformis JF-2 surfactant was shown to depend on the presence of fermentation products and is strongly affected by the pH. Under conditions of optimal salinity and pH the interfacial tension against decane was 6 [times] 10[sup 3] mN/m which is one of the lowest values ever obtained with a microbial surfactant. Microbial compounds which exhibit particularly high surface activity are classified as biosurfactants. Microbial biosurfactants include a wide variety of surface and interfacially active compounds, such as glycolipids, lipopeptides polysaccharideprotein complexes, phospholipids, fatty acids and neutral lipids. Biosurfactants are easily biodegradable and thus are particularly suited for environmental applications such as bioremediation and the dispersion of oil spills. Bacillus licheniformis strain JF-2 has been shown to be able to grow and produce a very effective biosurfactant under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and in the presence of high salt concentrations. The production of biosurfactants in anaerobic, high …

The goal of the North Slope Hydrate Study is to evaluate the methane hydrate potential of the Walakpa gas field, a shallow gas field located near Barrow, Alaska. Observing, understanding, and predicting the production characteristics of the Walakpa field will be accomplished by the analysis of the reservoir geology, and of the individual well production data, derived from reservoir engineering studies conducted in the field.

The ultimate oojective of this cooperative research project is to characterize Alaskan petroleum reservoirs in terms of their reserves, physical and chemical properties, geologic configuration in relation to lithofacies and structure, and development potential. The project has two tasks: Task 1 is a geological description of the reservoirs including petrophysical properties, i.e., porosity, permeability, permeability variation, formation depth, temperature, and net pay, facies changes and reservoir structures as drawn from cores, well logs, and other geological data. Task 2 is reservoir fluid characterization--determination of physical properties of reservoir fluids including density, viscosity, phase distributions and composition as well as petrogenesis--source rock identification; and the study of asphaltene precipitation for Alaskan crude oils. This report presents a summary of technical progress of the well log analysis of Kuparuk Field, Northslope, Alaska.

Each year the Geothermal Division of the US Department of Energy conducts an in-depth review of its entire geothermal R D program. The conference serves several purposes: a status report on current R D activities, an assessment of progress and problems, a review of management issues, and a technology transfer opportunity between DOE and the US geothermal city. This year's conference, Program Review X, was held in San Francisco on March 24--26, 1992. The theme of the review, Geothermal Energy and the Utility Market -- The Opportunities and Challenges for Expanding Geothermal Energy in a Competitive Supply Market,'' focused on the needs of the electric utility sector. Geothermal energy, with its power capacity potential of 10 GWe by the year 2010, can provide reliable, enviromentally clean electricity which can help offset the projected increase in demand. Program Review X consisted of seven sessions including an opening session with presentations by Mr. Vikram Budhraja, Vice President of System Planning and Operations, Southern California Edison Company, and Mr. Richard Jaros, President and Chief Operating Officer, California Energy Company. The six technical sessions included presentations by the relevant field researchers covering DOE-sponsored R D in hydrothermal, hot dry rock, and geopressured energy. Individual …

The report is submitted in two volumes, Volume I representing the work accomplished under Fuels Research and Volume II the work for Energy Production Research during the period July 1--Sept. 30, 1991. Topics covered include: chemical flooding, gas displacement, thermal recovery, geoscience technology, resource assessment technology, microbial technology, environmental technology.

Interdisciplinary studies of the Upper Pennsylvanian Lansing and Kansas City groups have been undertaken in order to improve the geologic characterization of petroleum reservoirs and to develop a quantitative understanding of the processes responsible for formation of associated depositional sequences. To this end, concepts and methods of sequence stratigraphy are being used to define and interpret the three-dimensional depositional framework of the Kansas City Group. The investigation includes characterization of reservoir rocks in oil fields in western Kansas, description of analog equivalents in near-surface and surface sites in southeastern Kansas, and construction of regional structural and stratigraphic framework to link the site specific studies. Geologic inverse and simulation models are being developed to integrate quantitative estimates of controls on sedimentation to produce reconstructions of reservoir-bearing strata in an attempt to enhance our ability to predict reservoir characteristics.

The main purpose of the research is to evaluate the geological possibility that significant economically recoverable resources of natural gas exist in sedimentary basins of the United States at depths greater than 150,000 ft. While relatively unexplored, these gas resources may be large. The main objectives of the research are to determine the geologic factors that control deep gas accumulations in addition to the distribution and resource potential of these accumulations.