Project Rulison: new try at nuclear stimulation

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1969 · World Oil; (United States)

OSTI ID:5372567

The world's second nuclear blast aimed at stimulating natural gas production will set off this month in Garfield County, Colorado, about 40 miles northeast of Grand Junction. Project Rulison will attempt to free trillions of cubic ft of gas entrapped in the low permeability but porous Mesaverde Formation in the Rulison gas field. The project is jointly sponsored by Austral Oil Co., Inc., of Houston, and the U.S. Atomic Energy Comm. and the U.S. Dept. of Interior. Plans call for detonation of a fisson type nuclear explosion nominally equivalent in power to 40,000 tons of TNT at a depth of 8,427 ft in an Austral well. The rubble-filled roughly cylindrical-shaped chimney which will result from the explosion will be an estimated 216 ft in diam x 450 ft high. Diameter of the fractured rock zone around the chimney is expected to reach 580 ft. Austral Oil holds leases on some 64,000 acres in the area, which it hopes to develop using nuclear stimulation if Project Rulison is successful.

• OSTI ID: 5372567
• Journal Information: World Oil; (United States), Journal Name: World Oil; (United States) Vol. 169:4; ISSN WOOIA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030900* -- Natural Gas-- Artificial Stimulation
Plowshare-- (-1989)
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
450201 -- Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense-- Nuclear Explosions & Explosives-- Containment
COLORADO
EXPLORATION
EXPLOSIONS
EXPLOSIVE STIMULATION
FEDERAL REGION VIII
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
LAND LEASING
LEASING
MANDREL OPERATION
MINERAL RESOURCES
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
NATURAL GAS FIELDS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
PLOWSHARE PROJECT
RESERVOIR ROCK
RESOURCES
ROCKS
RULISON EVENT
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
STIMULATION
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
USA
WELL STIMULATION
WELLS