Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Feel Good Story: The Bakken As a Laboratory

Sent to me by CRC; see first comment (that comment was sent to a different post; I moved it to this post). Thank you.

Link here to Bismarck television.
North Dakota was once a place early pioneers came to explore. Today there`s more exploration in the oil fields where companies are pioneering new technologies to enhance oil recovery. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened the flood gates to extract oil from the Bakken. Yet companies are still only recovering six to eight percent of the oil in the ground.

So now the goal is to become more efficient and test new technologies that would allow the other 92 percent of the oil in the Bakken to be used (sic).

Newer recovery methods are moving past hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to other technologies that would provide even greater efficiency.

"As we continue with our technology and we get better and better at what we`re doing on all three fronts, the geology, the horizontal drilling and the fracking technology, and then bring in that secondary and tertiary recovery, the future is just tremendous for North Dakota," said Kathleen Neset with Neset Consulting Service.
Go to the link for the full story.
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3 comments:

  1. CRCOctober 30, 2012 at 1:28 PM

    Another example of in addition to being a place for oil and gas exploration the Bakken and the Williston Basin in general is a laboratory of new technology.

    http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=60102

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 30, 2012 at 1:57 PM

    So what new technologies are being tested -- do we know?? And are they giving better results??

    Pretty exciting if they are.

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    Replies
    1. Bruce OksolOctober 30, 2012 at 2:05 PM

      At depth: waterflooding, CO2 EOR -- the jury is still out with regard to both of these.

      Actually, simple changes in fracking have already resulted in significant improvements in the past two years. Early reports suggested that only 2 - 3 percent of original oil in place in the Bakken was recoverable; this article says they are now up to eight (8) percent. If one takes the original lower number (2 percent), oil companies have increased recovery four times originally predicted.

      I don't know if the eight (8) percent in the article refers to one well/spacing unit density or more wells/spacing unit. It appears that current fracking methods are effective only to about 500 feet radially; more horizontals per section will increase total production.

      Delete

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