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FIELD CASE HISTORY

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The Pickton Field - Review of a Successful


Gas Injection Project
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J. H, McGRAW
R. E. LOHEC
JUNIOR MEM8ERS AIME

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HUMBLE OIL & REFINING CO.


DA LIAS, TEX.

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Abstract

The Pickton field Bacon Lime reservoir, wfth its thin


section, high drilling costs, low relief, high shrinkage oi[
atzd dissolved-pas-drive m-oducimt mechatrisnz t?resented a
chalfenge to it;lprove rekovery eficiency and p)ovided the
opportunity for a reasonable margin of profit where primary operations tnight have ended in economic failure.
Reservoir studies indicated a recovery of only 6,6 million
of the 34 million STB oil in place by primary operations.
Cooperation of royalty owners and operators at a titne
when unitization was in its infancy and its !egai status wcis
uncertain made possibie an increase in recovery to 22 million bbl, including the gasoline plant products.
Introduction
The Pickton field was recognized early as a prima prospect for the application of reservoir engineering technology
because of the extremely low recovery anticipated as a
result of a number of unique reservoir characteristics, Of
added incentive wasthe prospect of a large and irrevocable
loss. of oil if primary operations were conducted to their
usual economic ffmit, Thk presented a challenge to the
operating and royalty interests in the .tleld because at that
time, the late 1940s, unitization was in its infancy and ~
many operators were concerned over the possible legal
problems involved. Most cooperative ventures were directed toward reservoirs substantially depleted of their primary reserves where incentives were clearly def@d. Also
Article 6008b, relating to voluntqry unitizations, was not
passed by the Texas legislature until 1949.

7,300 surface acres, It has a dip which varies between JA


and 1Yz0 as indicated by the structure map of the reservoir, Fig. 1, The producing reservoir known locally as the
Bacon Lime is a usually non-productive, low porosity, calcareous, ooiitic zone occurring at a depth of about
7,900 ft:
The field is in the upper portion of the Rodessa member
of the Lower Glen Rose formation and underlies the Massive anhydrite zone throughout a large part of the East.
Texas basin, The saddle-like configuration of the reservoir
is shown to an exaggerated vertical scale in Fig. .2, as a
northwest, southeast cross-section through the original
production area and the extension of the field. The western
area of the field was first developed with 57 wells being
drilled. The final stage of development began after the discovery of a productive formation more than a mile to the
east of, the limits of production in the original development
area. Until development of this extension area began 5]/
years after completion of the discovery well, and showed
considerably more original oil in place, the exact producing mechahism of the field was not definitely knowrf, The
preponderance of geological data indicated di=olved-gas - .
drive, but performance persistently exceeded pred~ctions.
Eventually the field was fully developed when a total of
166 producing wells had been drilled on 40-acre spacing,
and the boundaries of production had been defined by a
permeability pinchout to the north and east and by a water
table at 7,425 ft subsea to the south and west, The earliest
completions in the field were of the gun-perforated type,
but due to difficulty in obtaining satisfactory completions
for wells located in the Iess .permeable areas, the oPen-hole
.

Hfstpry of 13eveIopment
In, Nov., 1944, with the completion of Humbles C. D. <
Nichols 1, initial production was obtained from the Pickton field in the East Texas basin located in the northeast
corner of the state. The presence of the reservoir had first
been indicated by geologic ko~elation cf iubsurfBce data
and was later cordirrned and isolated by geophysical data.
Structurally, Pickton is an extremely low-relief anticfine
which, of itself, is not unusual- for small structures, in the
East Texas basin, The unique feature of Pickton is the structural low relief in a field large enough to contain 34
million STB oil and to extend over an area in excess of
Original manuscript receivqd In .%cJetyof l%troleum Engineers of%e
AUE. 16, 1568, Paper Drrsentsd at SPE Annual Fall Meeting held In New
SMrans. Oct. S.9; 1963.

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method of completion was tried and adopted for general


use, The completion method generally used was to drill
and core-to 7,423 ft subsea, obtain ?n electrical log and
set casing with 4 or 5 ft of the bottom porosity open to
the wellbore,
The producing interval at Pickton is thin; with a maximum thickness of 20 ft and an average thl~kness of 8 ft.
Many productive reservoirs are equally as thin or thinner.
However, operators at least hope for a thicker interval
when the depth of wells is 8,oOO ft in an area characterized by hard drilling, as is indtcttted by the average time
of 74 days to drill the early wells, and their approximate
cost of $110,000.
The operators who developed Pickton might have done
so with more misgivings than were actually the case had
they known then that later engineering studies would show.
that only 37,500 bbl of oil was the expected average recovery per weil under primary operations and that average
drilling costs woud approach $2.50/ bbl of recoverable primary oil. ,The northwest-southeast cross section,
Fig. 7, shows a dense streak that divides the producing
formation into two zones which have restricted communication. Production is obtained from both zones in the west
portion of the field, but is limited to the lower zone in the
east due to reduced permeability, in the upper zone,
The discovery well in the field produced with an unusually high gas-oil ratio. Soon after the, well was completed
subsurface samples were obtained to determine the properties of the reservoir fluid, At the time of sampling, the
well had produced approximately 2,000 STB. Temperature
and pressure measurements established the formation temperature as 209F and the original pressure at 3,578 psig.
The saturation pressure was found to be 3,500 psig, the
shrinkage 0.413 STB/bbl of reservoir oil, and the dissolved
gas, ratio approximately 2.2 Mcf gas/STB when flashed
from reservoir conditions to atmospheric pressure al 80F.
The high shrinkage characteristics of the Pickton oil as
determined by this analysis prompted a detailed study ?
determine the effect of separator conditions on the pri ~
erties of the oil and gas produced. This study showed t!...t
maximum stock-tank oil recovery for single-stage reparation at 80F would be obtained at a separator pressure of
130 psig. At this optimum pressure the calculated residual
oil volume was, 0,483 STB/ reservoir bbl, as compared
with the 0.413 STB/reservoir bbl obtained at atmospheric
pressure. This represented an increase in oii recovery of
approximately 17 per cent. I
Although the optimum separator pressure was 130 psig,
the field separators were initially operated between 90 and
106 psig because of the pressure mting of available equipment. The method of gas separation was changedin Aug.,
1949, to atwo-stage system witbseparation at750,and O
psig, the gas being directed to a gasoline plant through
high and low pressure gathering systems. This procedure
was adopted to, promote efficient compressor operations
and to minimize freezing. of flow lines.

Initial Reservoir Studies


With the initiation of oil production from the western
portion of the field, reservoir pressure began to drop,rapidly and closely follow~d a Iinear decline with production.
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Action

With the! forces of nature in opposition to profitable


operations at Pickton, the cooperative relationships of lease
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and royak:: ownerships in the field assumed an added sig
nitlcance. It is only through the cooperative action of the
operators and royalty owners that ultimate profit has been
achieved, ~
The earliest pressure-production data available indicated
that pooling of royalty ownership and the development of
inter-company ~elationships at a slow pace w,oul~ result in
insubstantial loss of oil because of high in-place shrinkage
(
of reservoir oil as subsurface pressure declined. Mutual
acceptance of.these conditions as a threat to conservation
and the maintenance of correlative rights led operators
and royalty owners alike to the early signing of contracts
d
and agreements to cooperate in the operation and control
of the tield. Such contracts and agreements were signed
,- - .- witk the. operators.
and royalty owners before COinpkte
development of the initial field area, and with additional
,
operators and royalty owners in the midst of th_eJevelopment of the extension area,
, The effective date of the two agreements superirnp~ed ~ ,
on the curve of well completions by ~years, Fig. 3, under,--

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An attendant characteristic of progressively increasing gasoil ratios was also noted. A study of geological data from
wells drilled to the Bacon ~ime indicated that the formation is permeable only in small areas and was therefore
unlikely to have sufficient areal extent of adequate permeability to supportan appreciable water drive for the Pickton reservoir, even though a water table is present, This
information, coupled with the absence of a gas cap and
the lack of large volumes of water production from wells
completed 10,win the structure, confirmed an earlier conclusion that primary production from the Pickton field
would be by dissolved-gas-drive mechanism. Its early
establishment for Plckton as a primary recovery medium
completed the picture of a difficult field to develop and
produce profitably under primary operations only,
In late 1947 areservoir study of theoriginal areaof the
field was completed, Detailed economic analyses were made
for several plahs of operation for pressure maintenance
which were investigated in the study. In line with the recommendations advanced in the report, plans were initiated
for unitizing the field and constructin~ facilities to gather
the produced gas from the Pickton oil reservoir, along
with extraneous non-associated gas from the nearby Yantis
(Rodessa) gas reservoir, and inject approximately 15
Mcf/D of gas info Pickion. Plans were also made to
install a gasoline plant to process both the Pickton casinghead gas and the extraneous Yantis gas before injection.
By mid-1949, observed pressure performance was div&ging from the behavior predicted by conventional dissolved-gas-drive calculations. An additional reservoir study
was made in order to obtain a more accurate concept of
the producing mechanism at Pickton. From the calculations made at that time it was apparentthat
either the
original estimate of oil in place was low or that a weak
water drive was effective. Individual wel[ performance did
not stsbstantiate the presence of a water drive since t~e
structurally low wells failed to. produce large volumes of
water, but the development of the extension area in 1950
did verify the conclusion that the original estimate of oil
in place was low, When the development of the extension
area had been c&npleted, the original oil in place wascalculated to be 70 millitm reservoir bbl or 34 million STB.
Dissolved-gas-drive calculations indicated that the expected
primary recovery would be 19.4 percent of the oil originally in place, or 6,6 million STB,

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JO UBNAL OF PETROLEUM
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TECHNOLOGY
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5. Aprii, 1961, initiation of pilot miscible flood and water injection program;
6. Ott,, 1961, extraneous gas injection ceased and gas
sales initiated; and
7, 1963, watqr injection program expanded to rim-type
water flood.
The first event has little significance for the present pur.
pose but a brief discussion of each of the remaining six
turning points in the life of the Pickton field wiil aid in
understanding the conservation and economic implications
of the cooperatively controlled reservoir behavior, without
which the venture would have ended in financial loss for
~
many+
The engineering studies pteceding the initiation of pressure maintettance in Aug., 1949, gave a sound basis for
prediction of recovery efficiency under primary operations
and gas displacement by pressure maintenance. These,
studLes further served to guide the operating practices of
the major operator in the @eId.During the early life of the
field, daily production was held to a fairly constant level
even though drilling was in progress.
It was during this period.that reservoir anaiysts first attempted to determine the producing mechanism of the
field. The first study was of necessity tentative in nature
and was completed 16 months after iiiitial production, At
that time, approximrtteiy 0.5 million STB of oil had been I
produced, reservoir pressure had dropped 219 psi, and
producing gas-oii ratios had risen slightly. These data, together with suspected insufficient offstructure porosity to
account for an effective water drive, indicated the primary
producing mechanism to be dissolved-gas drive.
The rapid initial pressure deciine during the early period
of production, coupled with the known high shrinkage
characteristic of the oiI, led the major operator to present
this information before the Railroad Commission, and perwell allowable were reduced from 75 to 50 BOPD in late
1946 (Fig. 3). Aithough the pressure decline was arrested
by this reduction in aliowable, the completion of new weils
and the gradual increase in daily production during rnld=
1947 led to the resumption of the previous pressure trend.,
After presentation of this information. as testimony before

the commission, .etfective per-well allowable were further


reduced to 40 BOPD.
By Nov., 1947, an extensive engineering study had been
completed. Cumulative oil pxoduction had reached almost
1.5 million bbl, and reservoir pressure decline had taken
p!ace at thp rate of 329 psi/millibrs bbl of oil produced.
Utilizing reidtive permeability data developed specifically
for the Pickton field, dissolved-gas-drive calculations performed in this study had shown a reasonably good match
between the calculated and observed reservoir pressure performance.
During the ~arious reductions in per-well allowabies,
there had been two severe cut-backs in production, Fig. 3,
one in late 1945 when discovery allowable terminated and
the other in late 1946. Both had been refiected immediately,
in a [eveling off of the pressure decline curve. The 1945
leveling off was for too short a time to show on the curve
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in Fig. 3, but the 1946 ieveling off is shown.
The information presented in the 1947 reservoir study,
,
although tentative and admittedly not explaining the leveled-off spots.-op the r~efioir p:e:sur$. cWV$? st!?Y.$lY... :..: -,.
indlcated a dnsolved-gas-drive mechanism and the necessity for sorn~ type of pressure maintenance operations if
appreciable losses in recoverable oil were to be prevented
as a result of its high shrinkage characteristic.
- With the completion of this study, the final decisionwas
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scores the speed with which these negotiations were completed. Their superimposition on the bottom-hole preasuretime curve in Fig. 3 dramatically shows the effectiveness of
the cooperative effort in wresting and reversing dbkwtrous ,
reservoir pressure trends.
The first joint operating contract, eqtered into by three
oil companies, was signed three years and three months
after the discovery well was completed. The second set of
agreements, which included approximately 10 operators as
well as a large body of royalty owners not included in the
first agreemen~ became effective just two years and one
month after discovery of the extension area.
There is one final feature which contributes to the
uni@re nature of Plckton. The period from discovery to
the beginning of final blowdown should occur well within
the professional life span of a host of engineering aid man~gerial pcr50nnel
who were instrumental
in the fields
initial development,
During the time from discovery to the present, rt;ne
major cugineering and research studies have been made
on Pickton EL
nd another one is now in progress, When flrtal
blowdown is begun, at least five of these studies will have
been translated into operating plans, and it has been, or it
will be, possible in each case to evaluate the accuracy and
the effectiveness of the engineering and operational techniques used.
Production Iitstory and Data

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Viewed in retrospect, in terms of controlled rese~oir
operations, the life hktory of Pickton is, or will be, dominated by seven important eventti
1, Nov., 1944, completion of discovery well;
2. Aug., 1949, pressure maintenance begun in originaf
ficid under cooperative agreements with royalty owners
and operators;
3, March, 1950, completion of first .weli. in extension
area;
4. Sept., 1952, pressure maintenance begun in extension
area under new cooperative ~agreement~

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made by the major operator in the field to attempt pooling
of the royalty interests and to work out a mutually acceptable cooperative operating agreement ip order to conducl:
pressure maintenance operations, These agreements would:
(1) prevent changes in equity as a result of oil migration
between leases; (2) permit use of structurally favorabie <
wells for injection without drilling new wells; (3) permit
selective production from favorably located wells to minimize free gas production; and (4) permit art injection pattern conducive to the formation of an associated gas cap.
The signing of the joint operating contract; the pooling
of more than 95 per cent of the royalty owners, and the
approval of pressure maintenance operations by the Railroad Commission of Texas all took place concurrently with
the construction of the compression and gas-handling facilities necessary to begin a .1S MMcf/D. gas injection
program. The initiation of pressure maintenance operatiom in AugT, 1949, was indeed a turning point in the life
of the Pickton field. The subsurface pressure, Fig. 3, took
a satisfactory upward turn. Jloyalty owners and operators
began looking forward to early restoration of the original
pressure level, and there ww reasonable expectation of increased producing rates and marked improvement in an
otherwise rather discouraging financial picture,
Effect of Extension Area D~cove~
This excellent progress was poor preparation for the
next turning point in the life of the Pickton field, when the
discovery well in the extension ares. ,was completed in
March, 1950, and an intense development program was
begun. Reference to Fig. 3 shows an upward turn of well
completions during 1950 and 1951. Fig. 3 also shows that
the upward trend of reservoir pressure under gas injection
was arrested during 1950 and sent plunging downward
again. The CLUVS
of daily production on the same figure
shows a steep uptrend in late,1 950 that eventually resulted
in rates excegding all previous levels.Further reference to
Fig. 3 and the curve of effective per-well allowable shows
the inequities that were creat?d for a time as wells in the
extension area were assigned an allowable of121 IWPD
compared to 25 BOPD assigned to wells in the origimd
area, Thk inequity was eliminated on Dec. 1, 1950, when
the Railroad Commission recognized the origina~ area and
the extension area as a common reservoir and assigned all
wells an allowable of 80 BOPD,
For a period of about 16 months, from March, 195o,
through Aug., 1951, effective control of reservoir operations was lost. Production rose to 3% times the rates which
had previously caused a sharp decline in subsurface pressure, Fig. 3. Per-well allowable remained at more than
three times the levels shown to be in the best interests of
conservation, and gas-oil ratios @lg. 5) increased considerably.

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stu Y=howed primary operations would recover 19,4 per


cen of the oil in place. A series of single-step gas dispfrtcement calculations showed that pressure maintenance
operations properly conducted would allow 36 per cent
recovery, or an increase in ultimate recovery of almost 6
million bbl. Under the impetus of these findings 10 operators whose leases comprised almost 100 per cent owner.
ship of the field entered into a joint operating agreement,
The way was thus cleared for expansion of compressor
capacity and gas-handling facilities. The facilities, wh,en
completed, had three times their former capacity,

Unitized

Operations

for Entire Field

Following the signing of agreements with the r~yalty


owners. and approval of the project by the Railroad Commission, the major operator aswtmed operation of all
pooled properties and began the installation of additional
gas compression facilities. The decline rate of reservoir
pressure had been reduced when the Railroad Commission
cut producing days from 24 to 10 on Sept. 1, 1951, The
tirst major move of the new unit operator, however, was
to request and receive from the Railroad Commission a
further reduction in producing days from 10 to 6 with
the understanding that the producing days would be increased when gas injection had begun to maintain or increase reservoir pressure.
Expanded

Injection

Program

Initiated

Sept., 1952, injection of gas at the rate of 45 MMcf


/D was begun and the Pickton reservoir pressure showed an immediate upward trend. The increase of producing days from six to nine in Dec., 1952, brought the
fields level of production to approximately 4,000 BOPD,
The Pickton field had passed another phase of its development add had entered into a period pf more than three
yeap of unspectacular but economically satisfactory controlled production operations. The level daily ,production
rate achieved between Dec., 1952, and March, 1956 (Fig.
3) is particularly worthy of note and reflects the degree of
control finally achieved after eight years of diligent effort,
On Jan. 1, 1955, the per-well allowable w~s reduced
from 80 to 23 BOPD and the field was made exempt from
s~ut-down days. Previously, producing days had been adjusted to the maximum eflicient rate of approximately
4,000 BOPD that had been established by the Railroad
Commission. The, 23-bbl/well allowable resulted in the
same 4,000 BOPD rate and did not materially alter the
fields production rate. ,
In

Lindt Provisions
April, 1956, the average gas-oil ratio for the .fleld
had increased to more than 10 Mcf~b151 and the gas_
compression facilities could no longer handle sufficienbextraneous gas to maintain reservoir pressure and sufficient
Cooperative Agreements for
field gas ,to maintain previous oil production levels. If exOperation of the Extension Area
traneous gas injection were eliminated the resultant decline
The major operators in the field, following the pattern
in reservoir pressure and subsequent loss of oil by shrinkset in the original field development, worked diligently
age would have been undesirable; therefore, the field rules
during this period to produce new operating agreements
F
were grn~nded to incorporate a gas Iimit for producing
for ~he field that would be acceptable to the new as well as
wells .in the field, with some compressor capacity reserved
the old operators. At the same time a complete reservoir
for extraneous gas.
study was coniiucted and presented to the operators so a
At this time, almost 100 of the 166 wells with assigned
sound basis could be estitblished for evaluating the various
allowabies were shut ,in, with their allowable transferred_
operating plan%
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to-lower ratio -wells.-The welfs with low gas-oil ratios were Results of Engineering Sntdy

being produced at the self-imposed maximum oil rate


This was the. fifth engineering study made of the Pickton
,which the operator believed could not be exceeded without
excessive gas fingering, and it. appeared that final decline
field, but only the pecond to result in major. improvements
in operating procedures and techniques, Considering the
of the field had,, begun toward the economic limit of oil
~hatqged conditions introduced by the extension area, the
production,
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Program Inittated
Careful maintenance of records ,on ail welis now permitted a study of the gas-sweep pattern from individual
gas-oil rrdiok This study indicated that there might possibly be shut-in welIs in areas of relatively low gas-oil
ratios created by readjustment of the gas front, With the
latitude of operation permitted by the joint operators
agreement and the royalty owners agreement. it was ag+n
ossible for the operator to control the reservoir in the
Eest interests of all the owners.
A retesting program was initiated which veritled the
conclusions of the gas sweep study arid resuited in the return to production of some wells which had been shut-in,
with allowable trartfermd because of high gas-oil ratio,
This program can be credited to a large degree with flattening of the daily oil production curve, Fig. 3, through
late 1957 and early 1958 at the level of 3,000 B/D.
Retesting

Study to Prediet Economic

Limit of Fuli Pres.mre Maintenance


By May, 1958, decline of oil

production had again begun and it was apparent that the economic limit of full
pressure maintenance would be reached in the foreseeable
future. Preliminary cafcuiations made in ZarIy 1958 indicated that the economic fimit of pressure maintenance
would occur when the average field gas-oil ratio reached
50 Mcf/bbl and cumulative oil production was 15.6
million bbl, or 45.8 per cent of the original stock-tank oil
in place.
, These preliminary calculations indicated that further
detailed study utilizing a high-speed electronic computer
~ould be necessary to develop an optimum blowdown plan.
Due to the volatile nature of Pickton oil, stock-tank liquid
is recovered by a combination of gas dhplacement by inj&cted gas and vaporization of oil by contact with dry gas.
The effect of vaporization on tim resefioir oil, the gas
volume factors, and stock-tapk liquid recovery made corld~ntional volumetric balance ,and displacement calculations
i~adequate. To iietermin& thd stock-tank and gasoline-plant
xecoveries to be expected, it was necessary to predict the
~&mbined result of gas displacement and vaporization, a
type of calculation which, at that time, had never been
t$ied as far as was known.
I A special computer @rogram was devejoped for these
.calctdations. To insure validity of the resui@ a match of
calculated and observed field gqs-oil ratio behavior and
production history was computed for the period from Jan.
1, 1955, to Jan, 1, 1959, After obtainirig a satisfactory
match of calculated. and observed production data, predictions for various plans of operatiori were made. The conclusion of this study led to the next turning point in the
,fields history.
Based upon the computer study results, the decision was
made tcx (1) $ease extraneous gas injection into the Pickton reservoiq (2) begin gas sales from Pickton; (3) replaae
gas sales reservoir voidage with water injection to maxi.mize vaporization recoveiy by maintaining pressure and to
recOver some non-patterq oil; (4) initiate a five-spot miscible pilot test to evaluate the degree to which are~ within
the pattern are susceptible to additional recovery and.(5)
to continue gas plant operation at near- capacity, with injection of the Pickton residue gas not sold, until the field
gas-oil ratio reaches. 100 Mcf/bbl, The. first four rec. . ... . --ommrmdations were afi,i.mitiatsd.duringl !?61. Prior &udieshad been mack on ,both water and miscible fluid injection
on a field-wide basis and.lboth had been considered
unattractive.
, A 1956;study of water injection was made to determine
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if it wo@d di~place more oil- within t,he.swept or depkted
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portion of the pattern after gas injection was finished. lL


was directed at the question of whether water would be a
more el%cient displacing agent than. gas in the Plckton
field. As the vaporization process considerably improved ,
the recovery over conventiontd gas displacement, the an.
swer to this question was uncertain because the calculated
difference is less than the range of uncertainties in the
dtda. -Thkrefore, the water injection begun in 1961 was
intended principally to maintain reservoir pressure just
the same as if the gas. were not sold, so the vaporization
recovery by gas cyciing would be continued. In addition,
there were prospects of recovering some oil from the reservoir located outside the gas injection pattern area due to
ioeating the water injection welIs near the edge of the gassweep pattern.
Field-wide injection of miscible rich gas was anaiyzed in
,1957 and considered to be undesirable because the risk
~%apital for the added investment, operation and injection
material could not be justified for the expected profit. This
study dld not consider, however, that residual oil saturation would be higher towards the edge of the gas sweep

pattern, but only considered the entire field on an avera~:.


residual oil basis. The smail-scafe. miscible test was initiated in 1961 to determine the feasibility of additional recovery from the regions of the field where residuai oil
saturation is thought to be higher than the average in the
&s-sweep pattern.
The miscible flood is being conducted in three phases:
(1) water pretlood; (2) simultaneous injection of water and
enriched gas; and (3) simuitanecms injection of water and
dry gas. The flood is now in the third phase of operations .
but is incomplete at this time.

,,.

Current Engfneerlng Study


Oil production response

was obtained during 1962 from


the water pretlood phase of the miscible pi!ot project in
the western area of the field and from the water injection
program in the south central area of the field. Response hi
both cases was obtained in or near the outer row of producing welIs where the gas-sweep pattern has not yet reduced oil saturation as much ax in the interior of the ffeld.
This response to the water flood prompted a reservoir
study to re-evaluate the conclusions reached in the 1960
study which had predicted the end of gas pressure-maintenance operation as mid- 1~3, The amount of oil currently rem@ing between the outer row of producing weils
and the. field limits, the rim of the field, k estimated as 6
million STB,, Expansion of the current water injection program to a rim-type water flood should enable the recovery
of a portion of this oil and furnish a continued supply of
rich casinghead. gas. The intriguing possibility therefore
exists that it wili be economically feasible to continue gas
cyciing opsmtions with all or part of the gas compression
facilities for an extended period of time.

{
..

Evaluation of Gas In]ection Program


/
Itis worthy to note that at the conclusion of the current analysis there wili hav$ been .10 complete en@eering and research studies of the Pickton reservc$k. The
number of studies is not important~ but a summary of the
f.
cjiffereqt approach= and the rCSUltSare considered signitlcant, The studies include volumetric baIance calculations,
conventional dissolved-gas-drive calculations, devel~pment
of relative.permeaMlity.data.sp.ecilicAly.for.Picktm,
Qggk?:.......,.. :~;~.,
step gas displacement calculations, an analysis of waterflood possibilities, enriched-gas-drive, calculations, calcuht
tions on single-step @s displacement in connection with

vaporization effects, and an ana!ysis, of rim-type water


flooding.
~
.
?
. .
,,
,.

~. .._._:.-!e.4. _.._._=. ....... .._

. . . ...

..

. . . ...... . ..

.. . ... .

.,.

.,

.,.. . .-

All these methods have been reservoir erigineering tools


by which ithas been possible to make sound recommendations that have been adapted into operating procedures,
The application. of engineering fundamentals, through cooperative actions, has accomplished the improved margin
of profit for operations and increased income for royalty
interest in the Picktott fteld.
\
Stock-Tank Oil Recovery
The initial reservoir studies of the fully developed Pickton field indicated that 6.6 million STB oil, or 19,4 per
cent of the oil originally in place, would be recovered
during primary depletion by dissolved-gas-drive. It had
also been estimated that pressure maintenance recovery by
gas displacement would total 36 per cent of the oil originally in place, or 12.3 million bbl. The gas-oil ratio contours in Fig. 4 show the actual gas-sweep pattern that has
been obtained in the lower zone of the field, and the sanie
general pattern has been achieved in the upper zone. Stocktank oil recovery, Fig. 5, to July 1, 1963 was 16 million
bbl, or 47 per cent of the oil originally in place. It is now
estimated that stcwk-tank oil recovery to depletion of the
reservoir will be 17.8 million bbl or about S2 ~ fent of
the 34 million STB originally in place.
Gas. Plant Product

/1!

..

ratio map; low&

..

zone.

..

Stud of Oil and Gas Conservation in the Pickton Field, Trans.,


AIMk (1949) 186, 55)
2, Barton, H. B. and DYkes,F. R.,Jr.: Perforn~auw of the Picktoh
Fwld, lour, Pet. Tech. (Feb., 1958) x, No. 2, 27..
3. Greepwald, W. J. and Meredith, H. H., Jr.: controlled R*rVO~~
OperationsA
laper 17, Fifth World Petroleum
-. ----- Case Study,
.
Congress (June, 1939).

..-

1. Wekb,-J. R., Sinipson, R. E., Smith, J. W. and Yust, C. S.: 6A

6.s la

References

The high o~er-all recovery efficiency could not have


been achieved without an assist from the vaporization recovery mechanism that has resulted from contacting the
residual oil, with dry residue gas. It is now believed that
total recovery by vaporization to depletion of the field will
be o~er 7 rnillion bbl for the field and gas plant combined.

1
-.....=.. ... . . .. . .. .
RgK@+Gas:oil
), . . .
.,.

datm

Present estimates indicate that with the controlled reservoir operations at Pickton made possible by cooperative
agreements between operators and royalty owners, he
total drilling cost for the field will be only slightly more
than $1/STB of oil that will be ultimately recovered and
that the total investment, including the gas plant, will
amount to slightly less than $1/STB of oil plus gasoline
plant products. Although some Pickton field operators
might have been able to realize a narrow margin of profita
under primary operations ordy, the opportunity for a reasonable profit has certainly ebeen improved by pressure
maintenance, pooling agreements and increased liquid
recovery.
---

addition to actual and anticipated stock-tank oil. recovery being considerably higher than had been originally
estimated, there have been appreciable gas-plant products
recovered from Pickton throughout the gas injection program. Total gas liquid recovery from Pickton gas to the
end of all operations is now estimated at about 7 million
bbl. The combined stock-tank oil and gas liquids recovery
should therefore amount to approximately 25 million bbl,
or more than three times the 6,6 million bbl estimated for
pri~.
Even if a gas plant had been constructed in the
absence of pressure maintenance, the operation at best
would have been economically marginal; therefore, for,
comparative purposes, no gas liquid recovery value has
been credited to primafy-operations.
Reeovery

Conclusions

In

Vaporization

Fig. 5Reservoir

Reeovery

----.... . .

JOE H. lkfcGRAw (iejt)joined Humble (Xl & Rejining


Co. in 1956 afterreceiving?a degree-in mechanical engi
nei?rini?from, The U. of ~Texas. He is currently in the,
Reserv~ir AstsdyWs Section in Humbles Dallas area oflice.
,
RONM.D E. LOHEC (right), with Humble in DallasB is @
graduate of the U. of Houston with a, BS ~egree in nzechanical engineering. He joined Humble in 1955 and is
current[y ~in charge @ the @eservoir
A na[ysis Sectiofl in.
:

. .. . ...... . .._.
.
Dall&i ---;
A- .. ... . . .. . . . ... . . . ...> . ...-.
1

,.

I
1

F----
. ..

. . .. .- .- ., ...

DISCUSSION
AITON B. COOK
MEMBER AIME

l.

U. S, BUREAU OF MINES
SARrLESVILIE, OKLA.
,

-.

J. H. McGraw and R. E, Lohec are to be commended


for presenting a fine. paper that showed pressure maintenance ivith gas can be highly successful in recovering oil.
Also, it is especially timely because a number of papers
have been presented recently that indicate pressure maintenance with gas will recover much less. oiI than water
flooding. An example is the case history of the South Burbank Unit where gas injection was followed by water
flooding. The author concluded, in part: Early application
of water injection, without the intervening period of ,gas
injection, would have recovered as much total oil as will
be ultimately recovered by water flooding ,following the
gas injection, and total operating life kvould have been
shortened. This is a logical conclusiott. In addition, gas
cycling may have helped esuiblish flow channels that wouId
red~Jce the sweep pattern for water flooding.
Me question arises: Why should pressure maintenance
with gas be highly successful in the Pickton field and of
less value than water flooding ..) others?, Miscible phase
displacement by high-pressure gas cycling might be considered a reason, However, this seems improbable because
the initial saturation pressure of the oil was higher than
the cycling pressure; opposite conditions are required to
create a miscible phase.
-A brief answer can be found in this Pickton field pape~
The high over-all recovery efficiency could not have been
achieved without an assist from the vaporization recovery
mechanism that has ,restilted from contactirig the residual
oil with dry residue gas, It is now believed that total recovery by vaporization to depletion of the field wifi be over
.7 million bbl for the field and gas phmt combined. Based
upon several years of Bureau of Mines research concerning vaporization of reservoir oil during gas cycling, I believe the authors are coneeryative in predicting only 7
million bbl of liquid recovery resulting from vaporizatioti.
Also, Jacoby and Berry$ show that about one-half of the
stock-tank dR recovered in their example of pressure
maintenance with gas in a volatile-type oil reservoir resulted from vaporization, Vapog,iztition in the Plckton field
may hav~ been comparable.
It may be practical to conclude that water flooding is
generally preferable to pressure maintenance using gas,
But the exceptions, which are in reservoirs where a large
portion of the residual oil can be vaporized with residu(
gas from the gasoline plant, should be recognized, Three
important factors favorable for significant oil recovery by
vaporization are (1) a highly vola~le-t~pe oil (high API
gravity), (2) high reservoir temperature, and (3) high ieservoir pressure. e
~
The comparison @able D-l), in approximate. values,

TABLE

. ... . ,.

..

9.1-COMPARISON

OF FACTORS AFFECTING
BY VAPORIZATION

-.,

. SC@fh a!rmn!k

oii QM%;, API


Reservoir temperature, F
Ressrvoir pressure during rYclinsI, PSI

from a reference cited by Motfhow$ (R6f.

OIL

RECOVERY

1!!,

900to100*

il.

., Pickfg@A.2%
3,000

,,

shows these factors were more favorable for vaporization

in the Pickton field than in the South Burbank field.


A comparison of percentage oil recoveries from the
Pickton and South Burbank fields is interesting. However,
to make a fair comparison, the accepted method of calculating percentage oil recovery, which is based upon stocktank oil in place initially, needs some revision when applied to the Pickton field. Gasoline plant liquids should be
included in total oil recovery, as was done in this paper.
However, when gasoline plant liquids are included, percentage oil recovery Should be based upon stock-tank oil
initially in place plus natural-gas, liquids obtainable if ail
of the solution gas in the initial reservoir oil could be processed. Thus, total liquid volume would be about 40.9 rnil~
lion bbl rather than only 34.1 million STB of oil originally in place, X shown by. the authors.
This voIume of T40.9, million bbl was determined by
making equilibrium constant calculations, using the cornposition of the initial reservoir oi[ as the feed stock, and
flashing it through a se arator at 700 psi, throukh another
separator at 20 psi an s? mto the stock tank. For each barrel of stock-tank oil thus obt~.inedi 0.2 bbl of natural-gas
[iquid could be obtained from the separator gases. The
associated gas, for the 34.1 million STB of oil in place
initially, would represent 6.8 williou bbl of natural-gas
liquid.
Based upon the authors estimated total recovery of 25
million bbl, including gas liquids, the percentage recqvery
is 73.5 per cent when considering only stock-tank oil originally in Place, or .61 per cent when corfsidering stock-tank
oil and natural-gas liquids initially in place. Under either
condition, the percentage recovery is considerably greater
than t~at of 46.8 for, the South Burbank unit, which is
considered a successful waterflood operation. ~
,
This paper shows the importance of considering pressure mafntena,nce with g?, ,or completely .represauring and
,gas,. cycling partly. depleted oil re~ewoirs, in the deepseated reservoirs containing oifs of high API gravity.
Vaporization of reservoir oil can be deterinined rnathematically by using equilibrium Wnstants as shown by
Attra* or by using a model oil reservoir in the laboratory.

~
~

References
1. Matthews, T. A.: The South Burbank Unit-A
Comparison of
Oil Recoveries by Various Types Drives, jour. Pet. Tech, (Nov.,
1963) 1180.
2. Whorton, I.. P. and Kieschnick, W, F., Jr.: Oil Recovery by
I#hN~&7~
Gas Injection, Oil & Gas Jour. (Ap,ril, 1950)

-3.Co~k,~lto~ B.,,Corslter,R,:H., .lr., Spencer, G B. and Jobnsm,


F. S.: Perforrirance of Partly Depleted Oil Reservoirs Durin
&&l;te

Gas Repressuring

and Gas Cycling, RI 5785, USB&

4/Jacoby; R. H. and Berry, V. J., Jr.: A ilfethod of Iredicting


Pressure Maintenance Performance For Reservoirs Producing
Volatile Crude Oil, Trans., AIME (1958) 213,61.
5. Attra, H. D.: Nmrequjlibrirtm Gas-Displacement C@eulations,.
- ~ ShE-Pet,Eng.Jtiti(Se pte;t.; 39611 130.
6. Cook; Alton B., Conher, R. K., Jr. and Spencer, G. B.: A Rotate ing Model Oil Reservoir for Simulating Gas.Cycling Opera
*
tions, RI 5478,USBM (1959).

,.

.
~

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