Objective is to assist the recovery of remaining noncontacted oil from known reservoirs/abandoned offshore wells on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Progress continues for reducing the data to fit a simplified model and redescribing the resource to accommodate known production behavior and geologic assumptions. Final reports are currently being prepared.

Many of the Y-12 Plant buildings, constructed during the 1940s and 1950s, consist of steel ed concrete framing infilled with hollow clay tile (HCT). The infill was intended to provide for building enclosure and was not designed to have vertical or lateral load-carrying capacity. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, seismic and wind evaluations were performed on many of these buildings in conjunction with the preparation of a site-wide safety analysis report. This analytical work, based on the best available methodology, considered lateral load-carrying capacity of the HCT infill on the basis of building code allowable shear values. In parallel with the analysis effort, DOE initiated a program to develop natural phenomena capacity and performance criteria for existing buildings, but these criteria did not specify guidelines for determining the lateral force capacity of frames infilled with HCT. The evaluation of infills was, therefore, based on the provisions for the design of unreinforced masonry as outlined in standard masonry codes. When the results of the seismic and wind evaluations were compared with the new criteria, the projected building capacities fell short of the requirements. Apparently, if the buildings were to meet the new criteria, many millions of dollars would be …

The Gulf of Mexico Basin offers the greatest near-term potential for reducing the future decline in domestic oil and gas production. The Basin is less mature than productive on-shore areas, large unexplored areas remain, and there is great potential for reducing bypassed oil in known fields. Much of the remaining oil in the offshore is trapped in formations that are extremely complex due to intrusions Of salt domes. Recently, however, significant innovations have been made in seismic processing and reservoir simulation. In addition, significant advances have been made in deviated and horizontal drilling technologies. Effective application of these technologies along with improved integrated resource management methods offer opportunities to significantly increase Gulf of Mexico production, delay platform abandonments, and preserve access to a substantial remaining oil target for both exploratory drilling and advanced recovery processes. On February 18, 1992, Louisiana State University (the Prime Contractor) with two technical subcontractors, BDNL Inc. and ICF, Inc., began a research program to estimate the potential oil and gas reserve additions that could result from the application of advanced secondary and enhanced oil recovery technologies and the exploitation of undeveloped and attic oil zones in the Gulf of Mexico oil fields that are related …