Horizontal-well technology for enhanced recovery in very mature, depletion-drive gas reservoirs
- Oxy U.S.A. Inc. (United States)
Horizontal-well technology has been applied successfully to exploit reservoirs with thin beds, low-permeability zones, and natural fractures and in high-cost areas and zones with water coming. Horizontal technology has been used to enhance ultimate gas recovery in a very mature, low-pressure zone in the lower Pettit horizon at Carthage field, Panola County, Texas. The Pirkle-2 well was drilled to test the concept that a horizontal well could enhance ultimate recovery by lowering the final abandonment pressure in a very mature, depletion-drive gas reservoir. Many of the older lower Pettit wells have been abandoned because production rates dropped to less than 60 mcf/D. These wells usually produced from thinner pay intervals in the field. Drilling wells to the deeper Cotton Valley sands during the past 20 years has furnished new log information about the Pettit zone and has significantly increased the understanding about this formation. In Oxy U.S.A. Inc.`s portion of the field, several recent replacement wells drilled in thicker pay sections resulted in a substantial improvement in well deliverabilities over that in the older wells. This discovery is what led to the idea of drilling a horizontal well to improve ultimate gas recovery.
- OSTI ID:
- 580765
- Journal Information:
- JPT, Journal of Petroleum Technology, Vol. 50, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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