Performance of a new type of down-hole motor/pump powered by down-hole forces for secondary recovery of natural gas from watered-out wells and dissolved gas in deep brines
Economical secondary recovery of residual gas from gas caps in watered-out wells is anticipated quickly, thereby adding some 100 Tcf to US natural gas reserves. Water which was causing watering out is removed by pumping it out of the well with reinjection elsewhere, usually into a nearby reservoir. Most or all power for commercial turbine pumps is to be provided by the high-pressure gas being released from the reservoir; the gas will do work in newly designed motors as it expands from reservoir pressure into the lower pressure of the wells - in this sense the system is self powered. Similar units can be operated to remove dissolved gas from deep gassy brines, e.g., those along the Gulf Coast. Although drilling new wells for dissolved-gas recovery is not economic now, the future recovery of this gas offers over 5000 Tcf of gas to become available to the US in the future - this is 250 years supply at current usage rates. The self-powered motor to be used to power the pump is a two-fluid motor (natural gas/brine mixtures) of a new type. The concept is patented (US Pats. 4,262,747; 4,378,047; and 4,531,593), and proprietary concepts are also involved. Two-fluid motor/pump units have now been evaluated above ground in a 500 gal circulation system. These motors fit in 5-in turbine-pump bowls and operate 5-in. bowl commercial turbine-pumps. Test operations with compressed air and water deliver up to 16 HP at 2000 to 3500 rpm with calculated efficiencies apparently up to 90% of the thermodynamically ideal values. The present motor/pump units are of commercial size and design. In principle, these existing units would be suitable for commercial operations down hole. For example, the Turtle Bayou Field on the Mississippi Delta trapped 500 billion cubic feet of gas behind water blocks - with the motor/pumps here tested, much of the trapped gas should be recoverable. 10 refs., 2 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos Consultants, NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG01-84CE15171
- OSTI ID:
- 5194862
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/CE/15171-T1; LAC/LASSG-86-7; ON: DE86015821
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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