A horizontal-steam-injection pilot project has been under way for the last 4 years in the Kern River heavy-oil field in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. This paper presents an investigation into the effect of catalytic nanoparticles on the efficiency of recovery from continuous steam injection. The operator has initiated a cyclic-steam-stimulation project in the Opal A diatomite of the Sisquoc formation on the Careaga lease in the Orcutt oil field in Santa Barbara County, California.

A horizontal-steam-injection pilot project has been under way for the last 4 years in the Kern River heavy-oil field in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Researchers at the University of Calgary have developed a solid pellet that can transport bitumen and heavy oil by railcar instead of pipelines. The addition of a hydrocarbon condensate to steam operations in heavy-oil and bitumen reservoirs has emerged as a potential technology to improve not only oil recovery but also energy efficiency.

The complete paper describes piloting the collection and analysis of distributed temperature and acoustic sensing (DTS and DAS, respectively) data to characterize flow-control-device (FCD) performance and help improve understanding of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) inflow distribution. A company is selling a new well testing tool designed to be a cheaper, simpler way to do fiber optic sensing, and then it fades away. With the availability of more-complex smart-well instrumentation, immediate evaluation of the well response is possible as changes in the reservoir or well occur. Mechanical-diversion techniques can ensure acid injection into the various intervals of naturally fractured reservoirs. This paper presents results from full-scale testing of a flexible riser equipped with embedded sensors for distributed-temperature sensing (DTS).

Methane emissions from California garbage dumps far surpass emissions from oil fields, according to a NASA survey. This paper discusses studies conducted on two California offshore fields that may be abandoned in the near future. These studies examined the feasibility of repurposing these fields for offshore gas storage by using their reservoir voidage and existing pipeline facilities. If proven economic, solar EOR technology could represent an environmentally and energy friendly solution for California’s heavy oil producers. In thermal enhanced oil recovery there is one big ingredient: steam.

Its reward for years of struggling to adapt to low prices and weak demand for its oil and gas has been an epic crash. Canadians selling change say it is time to consider possibilities that seemed inconceivable in the past. So many unprecedented changes have occurred in the Canadian oil business that it is impossible to compare the current downturn to anything seen before. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) performance in bitumen-recovery projects in Alberta is affected by geological deposits, reservoir quality, and operational experience. Although polymer flooding has become a promising enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique, no field tests have been performed to date in Alaska’s underdeveloped heavy-oil reservoirs.

The merged companies will offer large-diameter coiled-tubing, directional drilling, snubbing, wireline services, and pressure pumping services. The amount of uncertainty related to directional drilling makes accurate drilling challenging, leaving much to human know-how and interpretation. Additionally, few path-planning methods in the literature consider the directional steering tool being used. This paper describes the analysis of sidetracks drilled in an open hole by an annular ledge formation method with a downhole motor in multilateral wells. Although multilateral and long-reach wells are common, the technological development is not complete.

Pump jacks operate at the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield, California. A new UC Berkeley study adds to mounting evidence linking proximity to oil wells to adverse birth outcomes. Living near active oil and gas wells may put pregnant people at higher risk of having low-birth-weight babies, especially in rural areas, finds a new study of birth outcomes in California. The study, funded by the California Air Resources Board, is one of the largest of its kind and the first in the state. It analyzed the records of nearly 3 million births to people living within 6.2 miles (10 km) of at least one oil or gas well between 2006 and 2015.

This course begins with examining the origins of the Toyota Production System (TPS) with Ford in Detroit, TWI during WW2, and the Demin PDCA cycle in post-war Japan. These principles are now used by every automobile company and we have successfully applied them to upstream work in the oil industry. Actual examples will cover from initial reservoir characterization work to well selection and planning to drilling and completion. Time will be spent on why and how to streamline day-to-day work using a multi-year infill drilling project (over 500 wells per year for 12 years) and project to drill 190 horizontal well with the world’s closest spacing. Throughout, participants will be encouraged to share their experiences an ho they might apply the principles in their own work.

Sometimes problems turn out to be an opportunity to try something new. In this case, the result was a well design unlike anything most in the shale sector have seen before. Directional drilling and measurement-while-drilling technology has become so democratized in the Texas shale sector that no provider holds more than 8% of the market share. Multistage horizontal well designs were first implemented in the Bakken in 2007. Since then, more than 12,000 wells have been completed in either the Middle Bakken or Three Forks zones.

Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) performance in bitumen-recovery projects in Alberta is affected by geological deposits, reservoir quality, and operational experience. Although polymer flooding has become a promising enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique, no field tests have been performed to date in Alaska’s underdeveloped heavy-oil reservoirs. Reviewing a myriad of papers presented at different conferences during the past year, I can group the current trends in heavy-oil operations and research into two major categories: Process optimization and use of chemicals as additives to steam and water. The complete paper describes piloting the collection and analysis of distributed temperature and acoustic sensing (DTS and DAS, respectively) data to characterize flow-control-device (FCD) performance and help improve understanding of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) inflow distribution. Heavy production spiked in two Canadian wells heated by an electric cable, but it is hard to find customers there at a time when Canadian oil prices and customers remember cables in the past that died young.