*Reservoir LIFE Extension Program - part 2Government Role

The problem of continuously declining oil production in the United States (since 1970) is well documented. Ann associated national problem is that of steadily increasing abandonments of oil and gas wells, caused by their insufficient productivity. Not only can abandoned wells create environmentally-sensitive disposal problems (in itself a Federal and a State role), but the abandoned wells preclude reservoir access even if the economics and technology improve sufficiently to warrant their reopening. Proper abandonment requires plugging wells with cement such that they can never be redrilled economically. This, on average, leaves approximately one-half of the residual oil and about one-third of natural gas unrecoverable – a major waste of national assets. This problem requires urgent national attention.

Advanced technologies can extend the life of maturing oil and gas reservoirs and yield significant additional volumes of oil and gas. DOE’s Reservoir Life Extension Program, conducted in partnership with industry, supports research, development, and demonstration of promising technologies, and encourages their transfer to U.S. producers. The independent producers do not conduct their own research, yet they produce about 40 percent of oil and 66 percent of natural gas in the United States. In this case, a little help goes a long way.

Two such programs have been very successful: the Reservoir Class Program and the Secondary Gas Recovery Program. Both are highly cost-shared with industry, and both address the application of advanced technology, advanced reservoir management, and recovery of the discovered but unrecovered oil and gas reserves. This is being accomplished in partnership with the private sector, universities, and the National Laboratories. Direct participation of the industry assures rapid and effective technology transfer through the Natural Gas and Oil Technology Partnership and the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council. In the process, the imminent abandonments of many oil and gas wells are postponed, and valuable resources are recovered.

Problems associated with more efficient or complete gas recovery are somewhat different. In low permeability formations, natural fractures create channels for gas to flow through the rock formation to production wells. However, they often cause gas to drain in irregular, elongated patterns, reducing the overall amount of gas that can be produced. In addition, natural fractures are not often intersected by vertical production wells. Current laws regarding the spacing of production wells often limit the recovery of gas. In Colorado, research by DOE, industry, and others has helped to change the well spacing to increase the amount of gas that can be recovered. Research conducted by the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, on behalf of DOE and the Gas Research Institute, has also demonstrated that current production practices fail to recover a large portion of the gas-in-place. Even after 50 years of commercial production, substantial infield reserve growth exists in bypassed, incompletely drained, and untapped reservoir compartments, not to mention deeper pool potential in many fields. The DOE natural gas recovery program focuses on a more complete characterization of complex heterogeneous reservoirs to afford a more precise placement of new wells and recompletions in existing wells.

The Reservoir Life Extension Program supports RD&D of promising technologies in areas identified as priorities by the oil and gas industry. Some of this research taps the unique strengths of the National Laboratories. The National Laboratories are able to focus on high-risk technology developments, where long-term payoffs deter private companies from adequately investing on their own.

The National Petroleum Council, in its 1995 report, Research, Development and Demonstration Needs of the Oil and Gas Industry, identified reservoir life extension among its highest priority areas. The report listed well productivity, stimulation techniques, recompletion techniques, and reservoir management as key technology needs.

The 1995 report of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, Task Force on Strategic Energy Research and Development, recommended reservoir life extension technologies in secondary and tertiary oil recovery. These technologies included polymer-augmented waterfloods and polymer-gel profile modification; continuous steam injection and in-situ combustion techniques; continuous gas injection, cyclic and water-alternating-gas injection; and micellar surfactant and alkaline surfactant polymer flooding.

*Office of Natural Gas and Petroleum Technology (4.1 - 4.20)