For a variety of reasons, thousands of oil and gas wells have been abandoned in the Gulf Coast Region of the United States. Many of these wells penetrated geopressured zones whose resource potential for power generation was undervalued or ignored. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geopressured-Geothermal Research Program was chartered to improve geothermal technology to the point where electricity could be commercially produced from a substantial number of geopressured resource sites. This research program focused on relatively narrow technical issues that are unique to geopressured resources such as the ability to predict reservoir production capacity based on preliminary flow tests. Three well sites were selected for the research program. These are the Willis Hulin and Gladys McCall sites in Louisiana, and the Pleasant Bayou site in Texas. The final phase of this research project consists of plug and abandonment (P&A) of the wells and site restoration.

Report on Analysis of Ground Water in Brazoria, Fort Bend, And Waller Counties, Texas 1966-74

From Introduction: "The first demonstration plant sponsored by the Office of Saline Water was located in Freeport, Texas, and came 'on stream" in 1961. The incoming sea water was deaerated since both Speller (6) and Uhlig (7) recognized that dissolved oxygen was usually the controlling factor in the corrosion of iron stream condensate at temperatures even as high 400 degrees F. The water was acidified prior to daeration with H2SO4 to decompose the carbonates which subsequently would cause scale when the water was heated. After the carbonates were removed, the pH was raised to the neutral point, again to provide a less corrosive environment."

Report documenting the ongoing progress and economic concerns of Saline Water Conversion Demonstration Plant No. 1 in Freeport, Texas.