Posted on 01/21/2010 4:48:42 AM PST by thackney
ExxonMobil has announced that it will use injections of nitrogen and other gases to squeeze about 40 million barrels of crude out of Hawkins Field, a Texas oil field that was first discovered in 1940.
Hawkins Field, located about 100 miles east of Dallas, was one of the largest discoveries in the state and a major energy source for the country during World War II. The field has produced more than 800 million barrels of crude since 1960 and while production has slowed, the field still has active wells. The new technology being used by ExxonMobil is expected to extend the life of the field by 25 years.
“ExxonMobil is applying some of its most advanced technologies to mature oil and natural gas fields. The investment is part of an ongoing effort to find, develop and produce more domestic supplies of oil and gas to meet the country’s growing energy needs,” said Kok-Yew See, ExxonMobil’s U.S. production manager. “These advanced technologies breathe life into mature fields, thereby producing more resources for energy consumers.”
New facilities will be installed at the Hawkins Field to recover and reinject nitrogen and other gases from the field’s natural gas production. This will enable more oil and gas to be recovered from the reservoirs. The reinjection of these gases will reduce the plant's air emissions by almost one-third.
Drill here, drill now, drill more.
40 million barrels: That’s about $3 billion in revenue that won’t be going to Hugo Chavez.
More good crude news....thanks, Thackney.
Injecting CO2 rather than Nitrogen would please more people. ;-)
islamobama’s not gonna like this.
Sorry, EPA says CO2 is a poison. Unlike the nice, friendly, inert, colorless N2.
40 million barrels: That’s about $3 billion in revenue that won’t be going to Hugo Chavez
40 million barrels is only a 2 day supply at our present consumption rate.
If we want to be truly independent of the OPECker parasites like Hugo Chavez and the Iranians and the Saudis and their Oil Industry sockpuppets, we need to be building nuclear power plants and electrically powered mass transit systems like high-speed rail, maglev, light rail, monorail, trolleys, streetcars, etc, etc, in our more densely populated regions and urban areas.
I read somewhere that one of the recent discoveries about oil fields disproves the accepted theory that a oil field, once depleted, is depleted forever.
Seems that fields rejuvenate themselves over time as oil seeps back in from surrounding strata. It takes a while, but we can ‘go back to the well.’
There are new enhanced oil recovery methods that allow us to get more of the oil left in place.
Typical basic production produces maybe 30% of the oil in the ground.
Enhanced methods including injecting steam or CO2 can raise that to 60~70% with the right field.
Some use this fact to distort it to look like oil is being generated at a fast pace. It is not.
I have been on the design teams for a few of the enhanced recover projects.
When the new field reserves are reported higher than before, some don’t or won’t understand.
Reserves are a function of technology and economics as well.
At $20/bbl most fields were not worth the expense of the addition equipment and energy, as long as traditional methods meet the demand.
These days, most believe high prices are here to stay and are willing to spend the money to go back to an aged field.
Since most of our civilian uranium is imported, how does that help energy independence?
The same people fighting drilling fight mining and reprocessing.
We need to change our priorities and focus more on production of all our resources, traditional, advanced and renewable.
“40 million barrels is only a 2 day supply at our present consumption rate.
If we want to be truly independent of the OPECker parasites like Hugo Chavez and the Iranians and the Saudis and their Oil Industry sockpuppets, we need to be building nuclear power plants and electrically powered mass transit systems like high-speed rail, maglev, light rail, monorail, trolleys, streetcars, etc, etc, in our more densely populated regions and urban areas.”
I think more in terms of imports replaced, which would make it nearly 5 days replaced (assuming 8.5 million barrels imported- really 4 days if the economy were in decent shape). However, your point is valid - it ain’t much in the grand scheme of things. Still, if we got that much more out of every depleted or diminishing oil field in the US, we might be able to significantly decrease our dependence on imports. It is a worthwhile effort, even if not a permanent solution.
I agree with the increase in nuclear power, but think that free enterprise would be better off perfecting the plug-in hybrid automobile than depending on government to force us all onto mass transit. The American people want and deserve individualized transportation. That is still possible with primarily electrical rather than petroleum-powered automobiles. Why make our children have a lesser standard of living than we have?
Thinking about it some more, Nitrogen doesn’t expand as much as CO2. Even minor temperature changes in the future could cause residual oil seepage from those wells.
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