Nuclear experiment in recovery of natural gas
The oil and gas industry like every other industry must constantly seek to apply advanced technology to its present methods. Many things can be done today that were considered radical and impossible 5 yr ago. Advanced methods of stimulating producing formations, for example, through nuclear and liquid explosives as well as new methods of secondary recovery and conventional well stimulation, are under constant investigation through research and development by this industry. Project Rulison was proposed by Austral Oil Co. in July 1966 as an experiment to determine the technical and economic feasibility of stimulating the natural gas bearing Mesaverde Formation in the Rulison field, Garfield County, Colorado with a nuclear explosive. Estimates of the gas in place in the Rulison field range from 95 to 125 billion cu ft underlying each 640 acres, or some 10 to 12 trillion cu ft in total. This gas is much more valuable than the oil that explorers envision on the North Slope of Alaska, and this natural resource is here on the mainland of the U.S. situated in thick sandstones of Piceance, Uinta, Green River, Wind River, and San Juan basins, all in the great Rocky Mt. region. A description of the configuration of an evaluation well, situated 300 ft from the proposed project well is given.
- Research Organization:
- Austral Oil Co Inc
- OSTI ID:
- 5958139
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-710575-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Pet. Inst., Publ.; (United States), Conference: Annual API Production Division meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 3 May 1971
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
COLORADO
NATURAL GAS FIELDS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
EXPLOSIVE STIMULATION
RESERVOIR PRESSURE
RULISON EVENT
ECONOMICS
OIL FIELDS
PERMEABILITY
RESERVOIR ROCK
EXPLOSIONS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
MANDREL OPERATION
MINERAL RESOURCES
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
PLOWSHARE PROJECT
RESOURCES
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
STIMULATION
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
USA
WELL STIMULATION
WELLS
030900* - Natural Gas- Artificial Stimulation
Plowshare- (-1989)
450201 - Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense- Nuclear Explosions & Explosives- Containment