Waterflooding -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

Not less than fifteen minutes after posting the story below, I run across a story about a new technique for enhanced oil recovery: combined miscible drive (CMD) technology.

NiMin Energy, headquartered in Carpenteria, is applying its patented combined miscible drive (CMD) technology, which involves injecting a pure oxygen and water foam solution into underground oil reservoirs, in turn creating steam and carbon dioxide (CO2) through a wet combustion process. The steam and CO2 reduce the oil's viscosity, allowing it to flow toward horizontal wells.

Original Post

"Anon 1" reminded me a story I read awhile ago and I can't remember if I posted it: waterflooding and the Bakken.

Here's an update from Crescent Point Energy which is now in North Dakota; the update was published earlier this year (the Bakken referred to is the Canadian Bakken, which is I believe is similar to our own:

By Crescent Point Energy Corp.'s Viewfield

Bakken waterflood pilot programs are showing positive initial results and could encourage other production to attempt secondary recovery on other tight oil plays.

The prize is a big one as many of western Canada's tighter resource plays have large-in-place volumes but relatively low recovery factors. Secondary recovery has the potential of boosting the amount of oil recovered from the reservoirs while slowing the high decline rate typically encountered with multistage fracturing of tight oil formations.

According the Dundee report, Crescent Point's first Bakken pilot, comprised of four horizontal producers and one injector, began injecting water in the fourth quarter of 2006, with production response identified in the third quarter of 2008.

Wood said the first pilot saw a robust production response through the back part of 2008 and into much of 2009.  Since reaching peak production rates of about 550 bbls per day, production has declined about 25 percent over the past two years.

Again, this is the Canadian Bakken, but with 40,000+ wells yet to be drilled in the Williston Basin Bakken, plenty of time to experiment with waterflooding.

I assume the uninformed will equate waterflooding with another technique using water and will organize to stop it on the grounds it is inhumane.