Tidewater rides thermal growth boom

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1966 · Pet. Eng.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6523688

Tidewater Oil Co. has in the last 2 years climbed from fifth to third largest oil producer in California, primarily because of a rapidly expanding thermal recovery program. Most of Tidewater's thermal recovery activities are in the San Joaquin Valley, with Kern River near Bakersfield being the company's major field. Statewide, the company is now running a total of 105 steam generators on thermal projects, 80 of them in the Kern River Field. Problems encountered in deeper reservoirs include excessive heat loss from injection tubing or casing, and increased formation pressures that require higher temperature to maintain steam. As temperature requirements increase, tubing and casing failures also are more frequent because of the strains of elongation, contraction, and twisting. It is pointed out that the ''steam soak'' or ''huff and puff'' thermal recovery process is rarely practical in sands with a net thickness of less than 50 ft. Heat lost to the overburden in thin zones limits chances of success. Reservoir viscosity is another important factor in steam stimulation, and Tidewater's most successful projects have been in reservoirs where viscosites are as high as 4,000 cp. Tidewater engineers believe steaming has little or no effect where reservoir viscosity is 200 cp or less.

• OSTI ID: 6523688
• Journal Information: Pet. Eng.; (United States), Journal Name: Pet. Eng.; (United States) Vol. 38:10; ISSN PENGA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
BOILERS
CALIFORNIA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HEAT TRANSFER
NORTH AMERICA
OIL WELLS
PERMEABILITY
PETROLEUM
PRODUCTION
RECOVERY
STEAM GENERATORS
STEAM INJECTION
THERMAL RECOVERY
USA
VAPOR GENERATORS
VISCOSITY
WELLS
WESTERN REGION