The goal of the West Hackberry Tertiary Project is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of combining air injection with the Double Displacement Process for tertiary oil recovery. The Double Displacement Process is the gas displacement of a water invaded oil column for the purpose of recovering oil through gravity drainage. The novel aspect of this project is the use of air as the injection fluid. The target reservoirs for the project are in the Oligocene Age sands located on the west and north flanks of West hackberry Field in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. If successful, this project will demonstrate that the use of air injection in the Double Displacement Process can economically recover oil in reservoirs where tertiary oil recovery is presently uneconomic. By the end of the fourth year of Budget period 1, air injection has been under way at West Hackberry since November of 1994 on the west flank and since July of 1996 on the north flank. During the past year, the most noteworthy events were: (1) increased oil production in low pressure reservoirs on the north flank, (2) demonstrated economic viability of air injection in low pressure reservoirs, (3) increased west flank reservoir pressure as …

The overall objective of this project is to develop methodologies by which sodium metasilicate or fly ash may produce an effective coating on pyrite surfaces for inhibiting pyrite oxidation. Milestones for the following periods include: First six-months - (1) Characterize pyrite surface reactions for understanding pyrite coating establishment. (2) Start a preliminary outdoor leaching - column experiment using 10 kg mine pyritic spoil treated with silicates to evaluate potential application of coatings on a large scale. Second six-months - (1) Characterize silicate - iron reactions in solution and on pyrite surface for understanding pyrite silica - coating formation. Third six-months - (1) Evaluate pyrite surface deposition of silicate having Na - silicate or fly ash as source. Fourth six- months - (1) Evaluate silicate coating durability in large outdoor columns.