[Graeme]

Scientist Seeks Ways To Squeeze More Oil Out Of Existing Wells
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Mississippi State researcher already has extended the life of one field by 17 years. That may sound far-fetched for those unfamiliar with his ongoing research that involves the forced growth of oil-chasing microbes used to redirect injected water that, in turn, sweeps once-inaccessible oil from old wells into production.

Brown said two-thirds of all U.S. oil remains in the ground because it's not economically feasible to remove with existing technology. "We've now developed a method to get some of that oil out of the ground," he added.

Before Brown began his Alabama experiment, analysts had predicted those wells would stop producing in 1998. After Brown had applied his method, follow-up analysis indicated the wells could still produce--and might continue to do so until 2015.

To date, the Alabama project has recovered more than 400,000 additional barrels. "This process has us talking about potentially recovering much of the now unrecoverable oil," Brown said. "This will help give us more time to develop replacements for our major energy source."

[copious.abundance]

Gee, I thought technology wasn't supposed to be any help in extracting more oil.

[joewp]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', 'G')ee, I thought technology wasn't supposed to be any help in extracting more oil.

[copious.abundance]

How do you know this process only extracts additional oil at a slow pace?

And even if it was, given the huge number of stripper (and near-stripper) wells in the US, something like this applied on a broad scale could make a big difference. Let's say there are 20,000 stripper wells in Texas and Oklahoma (I'm just guessing) producing an average of 2 bpd, for a total of 40,000 bpd. But let's say this process, applied to all 20,000 of these wells, can increase their average production to 8 bpd. That would be an additional 120,000 bpd total for all the wells - not a bad return just from inserting a bunch of microbes down a tube.

[joewp]

Actually, he's only shoving food for existing microbes down the hole.

If it was really this good, why did he have to have a trial that lasted so long? It appears this experiment had been running for 10 years.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joewp', 'A')ctually, he's only shoving food for existing microbes down the hole.

[joewp]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', '
')So by running the experiment for a long time, he was addressing one of the shortcomings of previous experiments on similar methods.

[thylacine]

mony a puckle maks a muckle

[charliehelyes]

someone i know told me this, sounds like once they became unpofitable in the 70s they were cemented in now with the price of oil so much higher could they become profitable again?

"Having worked in the oil fields in Wyoming in the late 70's and early 80's I can tell you that we have much more oil available than is being admitted to. I helped cement in over 100 wells producing 15-30 barrels each a day(light, sweet crude). Once the major oil companies are getting the price they want those fields will be reopened but only when they are getting their price. I know of at least an other 300 wells in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah that were cemented in that had been producing. How many other fields did they cement in? Only they know.
"

[max_in_wa]

While this will be great for whoever owns the wells, it still isn't much oil for the nation: 300x30=9000 bbl/day (assuming all are producing 30 and not less).

Let's say that there were 10x more wells cemented than the 300 you know of -- that's still only 90,000 bbl/day, only slightly more than was going to SPI until recently and we all saw how ineffective cutting out that much demand was in lowering prices.

If there were 100x more wells (30,000 in total), it would start to approach a million barrels per day, which would be something (assuming again all 30 bbl producers and no 15 bbl producers).

I'd personally be stoked to have my own 15 barrel/day well, but I'm skeptical about whether these cemented wells will actually contribute all that much.

[Cashmere]

15 barrels a day?

Please, be serious.

[kokoda]

Those wells can produce 15 - 30 barrels a day !!!

We're saved!

[zeke]

I've been hearing and reading lately what seems to be an urban legend among some folks that there are "hundreds and thousands" of oil wells which could be pumping sweet crude at this very moment, if not for...


and then the story has it that the oil companies are sitting on more sweet domestic crude than in 50 Ghawars, yadda yadda..

I'm wondering what, if any, the kernel of truth there is to this story which has vaulted it to full-on whopper status.

anyone know about this?

zeke

[Cashmere]

There was a rumor in my high school that I was hung better than JHolmes himself. In fact, I'm the origin of the exclamation, 'Word, Holmes!"

In the end, however, it turned out to be untrue.

[MD]

There is always some "shut-in" capacity around, for various reasons. Back in the 80's when the price crashed quite a few wells were shut down for economic reasons.

I think that's the seed of truth you are looking for.

[MadScientist]

I got to a point in my PO education...back in about 2005, when I realized that capping oil wells (which has been happening much more recently than the '80s) , delaying ANWR and OCS development, and setting up shop in Iraq make a lot of sense strategically.

In a lot of ways, the worst thing we could do is drain ALL of our domestic reserves in some last twitch effort to maintain. Far better to use the rest of the world's oil, at whatever the price.

Sooner or later you'll realize the "plan" is not to save us from a fall but rather to be in a position of power after the inevitable. And dont have any illusions about fluffy things like freedom and democracy being a part of that position of power.

[JustaGirl]

Last I read there are around 6,000 capped wells. I wouldn't expect much from them. Maybe extend the plateau a bit, probably not.

[zeke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MadScientist', 'S')ooner or later you'll realize the "plan" is not to save us from a fall but rather to be in a position of power after the inevitable. And dont have any illusions about fluffy things like freedom and democracy being a part of that position of power.

[Armageddon]

Wells are capped to keep the pressure up from inside the same field. People are too stupid to realize this.

[Serial_Worrier]

Pump every last drop of that sweet crude baby. Mmm hmmm. I need more of that sweet gas for my H2 and Ram V8 as I commute to Best Buy to buy that latest 80" Plasma with Super-HiFi Fidelity 12.1 Surround Sound!