Autumn, 1775 -- Spring, 1776: British siege on Boston following Bunker Hill
"During the siege, David Bushnell, a Yale graduate began tinkering with the idea of a craft equipped with an explosive device that he called a "torpedo" in reference to the torpedo fish, a type of (sting) ray capable of stunning its prey with an electric shock."
The submarine:
he attached his "torpedo" -- a keg of gunpowder -- to the back of the Turtle
this made the Turtle the world's first military submarine
the Turtle: a submersible vessel that could "swim" both above and below the surface of the water
the Brits had been toying with submersibles for quite some time; at least eight patents had been granted to inventors attempting to find a way to explore the bottom of the ocean
the Turtle: one man submersible -- one hand to steer the rudder; one hand to spin a front-mounted propeller; fill bottom of submersible with water to cause it to sink; enough oxygen to last 30 minute
release the keg of gunpowder using a hand-crank extended from the top of the submarine
then pump out the water and rise to the surface
The plan and execution:
in September, 1777, Bushnell had the opportunity to test his device
Admiral Howe's flagship, the Eagle, was anchored beside tiny Bedloe's Island (future home of the Statue of Liberty)
long story: Sgt Ezra Lee failed to sink the Eagle, but he was able to release the key of gunpowder which did explode (harmlessly) in the bay; Lee was rescued by colonists
From Nathaniel Philbrick's Valiant Ambition, c. 2016, pp. 21 - 23.
I may be seeing things that don't exist. In addition, in a long note like this, there will be typographical and factual errors.
Index well went inactive 2/15 and then back on status shortly after that. It then went off-line 7/15 before coming back on line shortly after. In both cases, the well went inactive because a neighboring well was being completed (fracked) and in both cases, there was a bump up in production after the neighboring well was fracked. In one case the neighboring well was another middle Bakken well; in the other case, the neighboring well was a Three Forks first bench well. The bump up was minor but notable.
21733, 1,118, CLR, Polk 1-33H, Banks, 30 stages, 2.9 million lbs, t3/14; cum 200K 7/16;
Note production profile:
Pool
Date
Days
BBLS Oil
Runs
BBLS Water
MCF Prod
MCF Sold
Vent/Flare
BAKKEN
7-2016
31
5039
5060
2380
12276
11369
426
BAKKEN
6-2016
30
5052
5115
2210
11062
10494
118
BAKKEN
5-2016
31
5687
5664
2400
11690
5752
5459
BAKKEN
4-2016
30
5743
5534
2432
11905
4193
7247
BAKKEN
3-2016
30
5867
6030
2597
10609
411
9753
BAKKEN
2-2016
29
6951
6858
2540
10264
4340
5474
BAKKEN
1-2016
31
7798
7802
2741
10534
6751
3302
BAKKEN
12-2015
31
8360
8544
3064
9851
3050
6320
BAKKEN
11-2015
29
8651
8834
3539
11827
4576
6847
BAKKEN
10-2015
2
538
0
90
230
203
0
BAKKEN
9-2015
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
BAKKEN
8-2015
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
BAKKEN
7-2015
1
0
45
0
0
0
0
BAKKEN
6-2015
29
8639
9075
4606
10503
4676
5390
BAKKEN
5-2015
31
10638
10451
7927
12104
2495
9128
BAKKEN
4-2015
21
8121
7773
10435
10979
7462
3195
BAKKEN
3-2015
19
2831
2835
9456
2864
569
2104
BAKKEN
2-2015
1
14
607
0
0
0
0
BAKKEN
1-2015
31
4235
4282
2399
6408
4604
1354
BAKKEN
12-2014
31
5831
5874
2625
8659
8162
16
BAKKEN
11-2014
30
5998
5682
2283
11213
10739
15
BAKKEN
10-2014
31
6085
5992
2781
8301
7605
215
BAKKEN
9-2014
29
6484
6526
3001
13353
12863
84
BAKKEN
8-2014
29
7150
7104
2937
12547
12226
22
BAKKEN
7-2014
31
8897
8931
3529
21857
21357
19
BAKKEN
6-2014
30
10429
10557
3922
21501
21483
18
BAKKEN
5-2014
31
12678
12500
3497
23521
19114
4407
BAKKEN
4-2014
30
14415
14592
4012
24022
14858
9164
BAKKEN
3-2014
31
23738
24145
8569
41829
36303
5526
BAKKEN
2-2014
13
5362
4429
11838
18809
6501
12308
BAKKEN
1-2014
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Neighboring Three Forks first bench well fracked and tested 2/15:
27343, 816, CLR, Polk Federal 3-33H1, Three Forks first bench, 30 stages, t2/15; cum 123K 7/16;
Production profile:
Pool
Date
Days
BBLS Oil
Runs
BBLS Water
MCF Prod
MCF Sold
Vent/Flare
BAKKEN
7-2016
31
6074
6004
6312
18794
18201
593
BAKKEN
6-2016
30
7484
7464
6801
20419
20419
0
BAKKEN
5-2016
27
6031
5853
5371
14388
4266
10122
BAKKEN
4-2016
21
5515
5778
4829
16067
2125
13942
BAKKEN
3-2016
31
12215
12443
8449
21827
8658
13169
BAKKEN
2-2016
29
10887
10754
6444
16673
2310
14363
BAKKEN
1-2016
30
11323
11199
6214
17947
6734
11213
BAKKEN
12-2015
28
10570
10510
7049
16234
2313
13921
BAKKEN
11-2015
28
11233
11624
6111
18260
14532
3728
BAKKEN
10-2015
1
494
0
357
386
386
0
BAKKEN
9-2015
4
0
0
0
1510
1510
0
BAKKEN
8-2015
13
4100
4392
2945
6844
6591
253
BAKKEN
7-2015
31
9902
9756
7657
15892
9281
6611
BAKKEN
6-2015
29
11131
11370
9332
17851
6003
11848
BAKKEN
5-2015
27
14572
14057
12366
23119
6846
16273
BAKKEN
4-2015
1
14
153
0
16
0
16
BAKKEN
3-2015
5
1351
1186
7250
1392
0
1392
Another neighboring middle Bakken well fracked and tested:
27343, 973, CLR, Polk Federal 2-33H, Three Forks first bench, 30 stages, 3.4 million lbs, t5/15; cum 183K 7/16;
September 26, 2015: why was this well off-line so many months, recently?
19981, 1,003, Zavanna, Gust 2-11 1H, Long Creek/Wildcat, Bakken; not sure why this was a wildcat; in Long Creek, east of Williston, t3/12;cum 319K 7/16; still having problems, 8/15; as of 5/16, back on status;
From the production profile, one can see they finally got this well up and running. From the file report, a sundry report and e-mails dated March and April, 2016:
at this time, we will pull the gas lift assembly, perform a squeeze, test the squeeze, run a cement log, and return the well to gas lift.
and then a long e-mail discussing the procedure the operator plans to use to switch over to a gas lift process.
billions of dollars of investment over past three years
Shell's overall deep water production will increase to 900,000 boe by the early 2020s from already discovered, established reservoirs
other Shell projects: Coulomb Phase 2 and Appomattox in the Gulf of Mexico and Malikai off the coast of Malaysia
will produce 50,000 boepd at full capacity by end of 2017
Data points about Shell's Stones Project:
200 miles south of New Orleans
deepest-ever underwater depth
target: Lower Tertiary
Lower Tertiary: the vast majority is a tight-rock play; tight plays produce 8 - 12 percent of the buried oil, lower than the neighboring Miocene play in the Gulf
on the edge of charted Gulf waters
the industry's second-to-last major development in the Lower Tertiary that had been approved for construction (as of late 2015)
two wells to be drilled by end of 2016 in about 9,500 feet of water; deepest-ever depth
exploratory; reservoir known but not known how productive
if oil prices increase: Lower Tertiary could produce 500,000 bbl/day by the end of 2025; could bring the region's share of output in the Gulf from 11% (2015) to 195 in five years (2020) and 30% in a decade (2025)
analysts suggest oil price of $60 - $80 would be needed to justify additional wells
wells in this region cost more than $300 million to complete
FPSO: floating production storage and offloading.
The Turritella: a leased floater; converted and retrofitted from a Suezmax tanker into an FPSO vessel at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore by SBM Offshore; will initially work for Shell for 10 years; extension options for up to 20 years
The Turritella: a genus of medium-sized sea snails with an operculum; tightly coiled shells, whose overall shape is basically that of an elongated cone. Comes from the Latin word turritus meaning "turreted" or "towered." Related stories and time line:
January 4, 2016: Turritella -- state-of-the-art; will become the world's deepest offshore production facility of any kind when it starts flowing oil
July 23, 2013: Shell lets FPSO contract for Stones project; 200 miles southwest of New Orleans in the gulf's Walker Ridge; estimated to contain more than 2 billion boe in place (compare with the Bakken: 500 billion bbls crude OOIP; maybe more)
**************************
The Stones. Paint It Black
Paint It Black, The Rolling Stones
It's not easy facing facts
when your whole world is black.
No more will my green sea
go turn a deeper blue.
**********************************
The Lower Tertiary: A $1.5 Trillion Oil Frontier
I was curious. The Lower Tertiary is "post-dinosaur." When was it discovered that this geologic formation would produce oil?
The Lower Tertiary is considered by many to be the final frontier of oil
exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, where, until recently, production
was forecast to decline. The post-dinosaur era geological formation was
originally thought to be devoid of oil, but recent exploration has
proven otherwise.
Who discovered it? How was it discovered? What is the backstory?
This turnaround began in 1996, when Robert Ryan, then a geologist with
Texaco, pursued a hunch about an ultra-deep water geological play. For a
fuller accounting of this story, Edward Klump recently wrote a
fantastic, in-depth piece for Bloomberg News on the history of this development.
In 1996, four companies—Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell, Amoco, and Mobil—
came together to drill an experimental, ultra-deep water well in the
Gulf of Mexico. Known as BAHA, the well was 7,625 feet deep, deeper than
any that had been previously attempted. Unfortunately, both BAHA 1
(1996) and BAHA 2 (2001) came up dry.
Normally, dry wells would deter
future drilling, but the success of the BAHA projects was in proving
that a massive trove of oil existed where no one thought possible in the
Lower Tertiary—we just needed the technology to get to it economically.
The first oil sourced from the Lower Tertiary began flowing in mid-2010 from the Perdido project,
the world’s deepest offshore facility jointly owned by Shell, Chevron,
and BP.
Production stalled shortly after start-up, however, as deep
water drilling was shut down in the wake of BP’s Deepwater Horizon
disaster. Over 4 million barrels of oil spilled, $40 billion in clean up
costs, and an incalculable loss of public trust later, oil companies
are pushing ahead once again.
Like the shale revolution on land,
new technology is the key to the newfound success of Lower Tertiary
exploration. New seismic tools allow explorers to see through layers of
salt deposits that had previously blocked sub-salt geological mapping.
This has also translated into a very respectable success rate—Lower
Tertiary drilling has yielded a 40% average commercially viable success
rate, well above the 30% global average.
The companies had joined together a block of leases in the Gulf of Mexico that had languished
for about 10 years. They were excited by the massive up swell of rock
that formed the subterranean structure -- the type of dome that in other
places had yielded abundant oil and gas. But doubts ran high about
drilling.
The prospect was in deeper water than ever had been drilled -- 7,625
feet. Based on current geologic understanding, the scientists worried
the formation wouldn’t contain the kind of oil-bearing sands that would
justify drilling such an expensive frontier well. “It was thought that
sands settled closer to shore,” said Ryan, who at the time was in charge
of Gulf of Mexico exploration for Texaco.
After hours of tense debate, the four partners agreed to drill. It
was risky, yes. It also promised to reveal a vast new store of knowledge
about the potential of the deep water Gulf. The only way to mitigate
the risk of future drilling is to get a well in the ground and find out
what’s there.
“Somebody has to drill that first well,” Ryan said, recalling the
difficult decision in an interview last month in his Houston office.
It’s all about building the story, well by well. “You’re piecing it
together,” he said.
How was it named? Who would be the operator?
The next vote -- on what to name the well -- was almost as
contentious. Naming privilege generally goes to the majority partner and
operator, while the four companies were equal owners. Squabbling
followed, Ryan recalls, until one of the geologists in the room, eager
to step out for a smoke, hit on the solution: each company contributed a
word, and the first letter of each word formed the name. So
Brachiosaurus (Shell), Alpha Centauri (Texaco), HI-C (Mobil) and Anaconda (Amoco) became BAHA.
Shell, which had a drilling rig under contract ready to start, was named the operator of the project.
Go to the link for the rest of the story. Hopefully the link doesn't break for a long time. It's a great story.
****************************** The Lower Tertiary: The Future
From the Bloomberg News article linked above:
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, started production from its Cascade/Chinook wells in the Lower Tertiary last year.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has said its Shenandoah find in the Lower Tertiary may be one of the largest projects in the Gulf.
The success rate in the Lower Tertiary so far has been about 60
percent, with 40 percent of discoveries having commercial potential -- a
“tremendous” rate considering that 30 percent is considered good,
Chevron’s Ryan said.
The value of the Lower Tertiary extends far beyond the Gulf of Mexico
as companies tackle similar ultra-deep projects and formations off the
coasts of Africa and Latin America. The engineering, seismic technology
and basic experience obtained in the Gulf can be leveraged to lower
costs and raise success rates in those regions.
BP still has the most licenses in this area; will have eight rigs drilling in the Gulf (in the 2013 article).
The Jack and St Malo field reservoirs are located in a geological
formation known as the 'lower tertiary' trend. The formation was
deposited more than 65m years ago about 20,000ft below the seabed.
It covers an area larger than 300 miles off the Gulf Coast of the US
between Texas and Louisiana. The formation is estimated to contain vast
resources for long-life projects of up to 30 to 40 years.
The total recoverable resources of the two fields are estimated at over 500m oil-equivalent barrels.
******************************
Geologic Time
The formations generally keep their traditional names. Geologic time names have changed. From wiki:
Tertiary is the former term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.58 million years ago, a time span that lies between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary.
The Tertiary is no longer recognized as a formal unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, but the word is still widely used.
The traditional span of the Tertiary has been divided between the Paleogene and Neogene Periods and extends to the first stage of the Pleistocene Epoch, the Gelasian age.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start of the Cenozoic Era, and extended to the beginning of the Quaternary glaciation at the end of the Pliocene Epoch.
And, of course, we all remember the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. From wiki again:
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction, was a mass extinction of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth—including all non-avian dinosaurs—that occurred over a geologically short period of time approximately 66 million years ago.
With the exception of some ectothermic species in aquatic ecosystems like the leatherback sea turtle and crocodiles, no tetrapods weighing more than 55 pounds (25 kilos) survived.
It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it, the entire Mesozoic Era, opening the Cenozoic Era that continues today.
Section 3-153-90. All three are long laterals from the same pad starting in the west-middle of the section, and then southeast through NE quadrant of section 10-153-90, and ending in SW quadrant of 11-153-90.
26217, 424, EOG, Wayzetta 42-0311H, Parshall, 45 stages, 14 million lbs, t5/14; cum 481K 716;
26216, 1,440, EOG, Wayzetta 43-0311H, Parshall, 51 stages, 15.8 million lbs, t6/14; cum 388K 716;
26929, IA/133, EOG, Wayzetta 148-0311H, Parshall Three Forks 1st bench, 47 stages, 14.8 million lbs; t6/14; cum 15K 10/15; equipment malfunction discovered December 31, 2013; resulted in brine spill (220 bbls) on surface. This well has been inactive since November, 2015.
