The Blinebry (Permian) formation of eastern Lea County, NM has a long history of exploitation for petroleum and continues even today to be a strong target horizon for new drilling in the Permian Basin. Because of this long-standing interest it should be classified of strategic interest to domestic oil production; however, the formation has gained a reputation as a primary production target with limited to no flooding potential. In late May of 1999, a project to examine the feasibility of waterflooding the Blinebry formation was proposed to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Petroleum Technology Office (Tulsa, OK). A new well was proposed in one region (the South House area) to examine the reputation by acquiring core and borehole logging data for the collection of formation property data in order to conduct the waterflood evaluation. Notice of the DOE award was received on August 19, 1999 and the preparations for drilling, coring and logging were immediately made for a drilling start on 9/9/99. The Blinebry formation at 6000 feet, foot depth was reached on 9/16/99 and the coring of two 60 foot intervals of the Blinebry was completed on 9/19/99 with more than 98% core recovery. The well was drilled …

Read and Stevens has proposed the evaluation of the waterflood potential from the Cherry Canyon formation in the NE Lea Field in lea County, New Mexico. Much of the development in this area is approaching primary recovery limitations; additional recovery of remaining oil reserves by waterflood needs to be evaluated. The Cherry Canyon formation is composed of fine grained sandstone, containing clay material which results in high water saturation, and also has the tendency to swell and reduce reservoir permeability--the ability of fluid to flow through the rock pores and fractures. There are also abundant organic materials that interfere with obtaining reliable well logs. These complications have limited oil in place calculations and identification of net pay zones, presenting a challenge to the planned waterflood. Core analysis of the Cherry Canyon should improve the understanding of existing well logs and possibly indicate secondary recovery measures, such as waterflood, to enhance field recovery. Lacking truly representative core to provide accurate analyses, Read and Stevens will obtain and preserve fresh core. The consulting firm of T. Scott Hickman and Associates will then collaborate on special core analyses and obtain additional well logs for a more detailed analysis of reservoir properties. The log …

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