[Mark_i]

In this article



is a reference to a method for pumping oil from aging fields called "bottle-brushing".

Can any one here (perhaps even a petro-engineer) explain me who this method actually works? Why does it lead to an abrupt stop of oilflow? Are there perhaps synonyms for this expression?

Graphics about this method are also welcomed!

thanks!

Mark

[PhilBiker]

Look for the "2004 well" in this presentation: . A very simplistic explanation.

[Guest]

I'm not a petro-engineer, though I have cleaned out plenty of bottles, and I may be just regurgitating from the same materials as you have read but, as I understand it, Bottle-Brushing involves drilling a horizontal shaft with smaller holes drilled radially outward from this central horizontal shaft. Think of a Christmas tree stuck horizontally into a snowbank. (I realize in Bavaria, being so near the Equator, that you don't get as much snow as we do here in America, but bear with me). The tree trunk is the main horizontal shaft the branches extending radially out around the shaft are the 'bottle brush' pattern of drill holes. With this 'capillary' in place the oil will pump out easier once water pressure is applied to the field. It flows into the brush because it is the path of least resistance. When the water table rises to the level of the bottle brush it naturally, and more easily, flows into the cavity of the bottle brush. Whereas were the bottle brush not there the water table would have to force itself through whatever, undoubtley smaller, naturally occuring fissures and cracks are present. Owing to the different viscosities, once this happens it becomes impractical to pressurize the field and force any more oil out because your bottle brush is full of water from the water table, with no bottom so to speak, which cannot be as easily pressurized as water injected into a closed cavity.

So, well. I really don't know what I'm talking about and maybe this link from Simmons will help:

http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/files/CSIS.pdf.

[Mark_i]

[Leanan]

[Cynic]

Great pics of Bavaria Mark-i.

I would love to visit there. I was in Germany in 2001 not too far away - in Schwabia near Stuttgart.

[AdamB]