Michael Harker, Nalco Chemical Co.
The hydraulic pump is a highly sophisticated means of artificial lift which has grown in popularity in recent years. This popularity combined with usage in diversified production fluids has led to several production problems that are very expensive to the operator. Though mechanical devices have been developed to limit production fluid problems, other corrosion causing problems in production fluids must be controlled by other means. The chemical industry is quite involved in research and product testing to aid in combating these outside problems.
Buz Canon, United Chemical Corp. of New Mexico
Scale has been a major problem in producing wells practically as long as water has been produced along with oil and gas. At the present time, thousands of wells in the Permian Basin are being treated to combat this scale problem. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the field operating personnel with some of the reasons why scale is formed, the chemicals which have been used in the past for scale treatment, and the chemicals which have been recently developed. Also, a good portion of the discussion is devoted to the results of the use of these newly developed chemicals.
Alan W. Hicks, Fiberflex Products, Inc.
Corrosive effect of chemicals on steel was the primary reason the oil industry began searching for an alternative material for sucker rods. This study is not a comprehensive study of chemical corrosion inhibitors, but it will discuss chemical corrosion and its effects on steel sucker rods and fiberglass sucker rods. Steel sucker rod replacement due to corrosion is one of the major costs of oil production. The author will show that water/C02 and sour (H2S) gas has no obvious detrimental effect on a fiberglass rod body.
Bridget Todd and Dan Daulton
Baker Hughes
Environmental stewardship involves not only responsible use of chemicals and materials during drilling and completions, but also includes a thorough understanding potential health and environmental hazard posed by chemicals used in these processes. Recent focus on potential hazards associated with chemicals used in oil and gas production has expanded to include not only chemicals used in treatments such as hydraulic fracturing, but to other applications including cementing and drill fluids.
W.D. Howell, USBM & L.N. Roberts, Talley-Frac Corp.
Interest in reservoir stimulation by chemical explosive fracturing is gaining momentum in the petroleum and natural gas industry. This paper discusses the present "state-of-the-art" of explosive fracturing. Characteristics of the three types of explosive products, solid, liquid, and slurry and their specific application to formation fracturing are reported. Explosive loading, displacement, and initiation techniques presently employed in the field are included. Test results from more than 30 field applications using the various explosive products will be reviewed.
R. Clay Cole, Dwyann Dalrymple, C.H. McDuff, & Mark Jones, Halliburton Services
A chemical gel has been developed to plug leaks in injection wells to provide effective zone isolation and casing protection. Since it is a gel material, the sealant can easily be removed from the casing-tubing annulus for workover operations. This chemical forms a thick gel after placement in seal casing leaks, (2) protect fresh water aquifers from the annulus which helps (1) steel casing from corrosion, and (4) can be removed from contamination, (3) protect the casing-tubing annulus by rotating and reciprocating the tubing and washing out.
Jeffrey T. Kochelek
Petrolite Oil Field Chemicals Group
As with all EOR techniques, the injection of carbon dioxide into oil bearing reservoirs causes fundamental changes in the chemical and thermodynamic properties of the reservoir fluids, not only as they exist in the reservoir, but also as they are produced. Additionally, because of the dynamic nature of CO2 flooding, the produced fluids (gas, oil and water) will change continually as various areas are swept and produced. Thus, producing wells, satellites and production batteries will experience constantly changing fluid conditions throughout the life of the project.
Bonner O. Stampley, Atlas Powder Company
Emulsions in oil production are accepted today as a normal operational condition. The equipment and materials necessary to resolve produced emulsions are usually placed in the field as soon as a well begins to produce water in the form of an emulsion in quantities that exceed pipeline specifications. During the early years of the oil industry neither the knowledge, equipment, nor chemicals were available to treat oil effectively. Early methods of breaking emulsions consisted of settling time, and, in some cases, the use of heat.
Robert Q. Hughes, Tretolite Company
When Colonel Drake drilled the first oil well in this country he was extremely fortunate in two ways; one, he discovered at a very shallow depth, as compared with present day footages; two, the oil he discovered was a paraffinic, golden colored crude which contained very few impurities. It was easily refined with simple equipment, and required no treatment in the field. The development of problems and their solutions, which are connected with the production of oil, have been gradual.
M.E. Newberry, Tretolite Division of PETROlite Corp.
Paraffin deposition during the production and transportation of hydrocarbons prior to refining represents a very real and costly problem. New inroads for chemical treatment have been made during the past few years. These developments have led to a program of preventive chemical treatments which offers a viable alternative to hot oiling or other mechanical remedies for paraffin control. This paper discusses the design of a paraffin treating program using a batch method of application.
H.R. Jarvis & J.R. Moechel, Petrolite Corp.
A basic discussion of an electrical-chemical dehydration process for breaking oil-water emulsions by passing these emulsions through an electric field.
Bill Hearn, Weatherford Completion & Production Systems
Choice of plunger type may be as critical as the surface equipment to optimize a plunger lift well. When considering plunger lift candidate's decline, IPR, velocity, fluid and pressure are used to build a proper evaluation. The necessity for proper plunger lift choice in completely optimizing a plunger well can result in incremental production from an existing plunger system by as much as 500 Mcf/day by changing from a conventional plunger lift system to a high speed bypass plunger.
Jack F. Fletcher, Cardinal Chemical Inc.
Many papers have been written concerning the planning and design of fracturing treatments. Most have involved proposed production increases, fracture conductivity, fluid coefficient and fracture area. This paper will delve into the simple mathematics of cost of fracturing fluids. A total cost comparison of water versus oil based on the general treatment of each fluid, horsepower requirements at equal rates, and fracture area per dollar are presented. Lease crude, refined oil, commercial brine, fresh water and a 40-60 mixture of brine and freshwater will be considered.
Russell Stevens, Norris
Norman W. Hein, Jr., Oil & Gas Optimization Specialists, Ltd.
The oil & gas production industry has long used circumferential displacement (CD) for making up sucker rods. This is primarily to assure there is sufficient pre-stress "locked" in the threaded connection to prevent separation and allow the axial loads generated during pumping to be carried by the rod string without connection failures. The CD method also overcomes the problems with using only torque for makeup since torque has been proven to be an inaccurate makeup method mainly due to overcoming the various friction factors. These include: surface finish effects and lubrication effects.
L.E. Johnson, Harbison-Fischer Manufacturing Company
The API undertook a tremendous job of classifying and identifying the many subsurface pumps available to the industry. As a result of their efforts we now have asset of symbols for the purpose of pump identification. All pumps not covered by this set of symbols are classed as Types of pumps. They, too, are made up of as many API parts as possible to keep down the expense of handling so many different parts by both manufacturer and operator.
Dr. John Neasham, Reservoirs Inc.
The composition, relative abundance, and mode of occurrence of silicate clay minerals in 24 Morrow "perm" plugs from a 24-foot zone (12,935-12,959 Ft .> in the Getty No. 1 State "36" Corn well, Lea County, New Mexico have been characterized by XRD , scanning electron microscopy, and Qv (CEC /ml.P .V. > . The objective of this study has been to define the clay mineralogy of these sands and relate them to reservoir quality.
David Davies, Texas Tech University
Pores in sedimentary rocks may be lined or filled with a variety of different clay minerals. These clays can greatly reduce permeability, increase acid or fresh-water sensitivity, totally alter the electric log response, and increase irreducible water saturations. The composition of the clays is of great importance in reservoir management. Different clays have different compositions. und thus will react differently to various drilling and completion fluids. As a result, fluids should be designed for the specific variety of clay present in the pores.
H.C.H. Darley, Consultant & Rodney C. Vickers, Brinadd Company
Historically, montmorillonitic clays have provided the essential rheological and filtration properties of drilling fluids; and because of their versatility, clay muds continue to this day to be used more frequently than any other type of mud. They are, however, inherently high-solids, high-viscosity muds. Even if they are initially formulated to have a low viscosity, their tendency to incorporate shales and clays encountered during drilling causes the viscosity to increase, often to undesirably high values.
Lee Alves, Lightning Industries, John Goudeau, Carlsbad Automation Services
The Solar Compressor was conceived in response to a growing demand in the Oil and Gas production industry for a safe, reliable, portable, self contained, easy to use supply gas source. Use of compressed air instead of produced gas for controls has several advantages including less wasted sellable gas, elimination of problems from wet gas and condensate, and longer control life. Another added advantage is the elimination of hazardous area creation everywhere methane and/or H2S is used for supply gas
D. L. Divine, Electric Submersible Pumps, Inc.
A technique has been developed to chemically clean used submersible pumps and flush used submersible motors without the expense of tearing down the equipment and rebuilding it. After the cleaning process, the pump is tested and its performance is plotted against the manufacturer's catalog curve. Over 70% of the pumps put through this process have been rerun without being rebuilt for a substantial savings to the operator. This paper will discuss the process used in cleaning and inspecting the pump and motor.
M.R. Mecusker, Kobe, Inc.
Closed Power Hydraulic Pumping Systems, introduced in 1950, have been applied almost exclusively to the town-lot and off-shore island-platform operations. The ability of the "closed system" to minimize the size of power fluid treating systems is particularly advantageous where space limitations exist. This presentation will attempt to focus on the other features of the closed power fluid application, particularly those applicable to today's pumping requirements.
Phil Wilson, Kobe, Incorporated
Power oil for hydraulic pumping systems must be clean. In some instances it is difficult and costly to clean up the crude oil. A closed power oil system offers a means of maintaining high quality power oil, because the power oil does not come into contact with produced fluid. This paper discusses various types of closed power oil systems, the conditions where the closed power oil system will most likely have an advantage over the open system, and compares the costs of the open vs. the closed power oil systems.
J.H. Bowers, Shell Oil Company
A study of Denver Unit, Wasson (San Andres) Field, waterflood lift requirements for both current and future lift requirements, was completed in December 1966. This study indicated that for lift capacities exceeding 400 BPD a capital cost saving of $1000 to $2000 per well over bean; pumping could be realized by utilizing a closed hydraulic free-pump system. Available data also indicated that $100 per month per well savings in operating costs could be expected with hydraulic pumping.
Vernie C. McWhirter, Dresser Atlas
This paper contains a discussion, with examples, on how one type-of casing inspection survey is used to identify the depth and circumferential extent of casing corrosion. Corrosion results from one or more of a family of electrochemical processes. Some of these electrochemical processes will be generally described in the later topics. The Dresser Atlas casing inspection log and casing evaluation logs (for the detection of corrosion) provide such information as: 1. Whether the corrosion is external or internal. 2. The degree to which the pipe's wall thickness is reduced by the corrosion. 3.
Stephen A. Boone III, CHCM
Professional Oilfield Safety, Inc.
This paper discusses a general review of safety hazards and regulations associated with CO2 injection, work on H2S contaminated
leases, and liability and court litigation concerning oilfield injuries. The safety regulations to be discussed are a compilation of various applicable International, Federal, and State regulations, recommended practices by various petroleum related associations, and interpretations of these regulations as evident through recent court litigation.