Permian Basin

As shown in Table 8, U.S. distribution of oil and natural gas reserves is centered in Alaska, Cahfomia, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and the U.S. outer-continental shelf. Alaska reserves include both the Pmdhoe Bay deposits and the Cook Inlet fields. Cahfomia deposits include those in Santa Barbara, the Wilmington Eield, the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 at Bakersfield, and other offshore oil deposits. The Yates Pield, Austin Chalk formation, and Permian Basin are among the producing sources of petroleum and natural gas in Texas. 

Most CO2 miscible EOR projects are located in the west Texas Permian Basin where as much as two-thirds of the oil remains after waterflooding. An incremental (10%) recovery is typical for Permian Basin CO2 floods, which could correspond to as much as 0.5 x 10 (3-4 x 10 bbl) (23). 

In the United States, air and gas drilling techniques are used extensively in parts of the southwest in and around the San Juan Basin, in parts of the Permian Basin, in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, in Maryland, Virginia and parts of Tennessee. Internationally, oil and gas drilling operations are carried out with air and gas drilling techniques in parts of the Middle East, North Africa and in the Western Pacific. 

Lyons, W. C., et al., Field testing of a downhole pneumatic turbine motor , Geothermal Energy Symposium, ASME/GRC, January 10-13, 1988. Magner, N. J., Air motor drill, The Petroleum Engineer, October 1960. Downs, H. F., Application and evaluation of air-hammer drilling in the Permian Basin, API Drilling and Production Practices, 1960. 

R. C. Navarrete, J. M. Seheult, and R. E. Himes. Applications of xanthan gum in fluid-loss control and related formation damage. In Proceedings Volume. SPE Permian Basin Oil Gas Recovery Conf (Midland, TX, 3/21-3/23), 2000. 

Heller, J.P. Taber, J.J.,SPE 15001 presented at the Permian Basin Oil Gas Recovery Conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Midland, TX, March 1986. 

Texas Permian Basin, enhanced oil recovery in, 18 615—617 sulfur deposits in, 23 570 Textile applications, sodium dithionite in, 23 676... 

In the latter half of the nineteenth centuiy the United States was dependent on the vast Stassfurt deposits of Germany for the potassium compounds needed as fertilizers. In 1911 Congress appropriated funds for a search for domestic minerals, salts, brines, and seaweeds suitable for potash production (67). The complex brines of Searles Lake, California, a rich source of potassium chloride, have been worked up scientifically on the basis of phase-rule studies with outstanding success. Oil drillers exploring the Permian Basin for oil became aware of the possibility of discovering potash deposits through chemical analysis of the cores of saline strata. A rich bed of sylvinite, a natural mixture of sylvite (potassium chloride) and halite (sodium chloride), was found at Carlsbad, New Mexico. At the potash plane near Wendover, Utah, the raw material, a brine, is worked up by solar evaporation (67). 

Techer, I., Lancelot, J., Clauer, N., Liotard, J.-M. Advocat, T. 2001 b. Alteration of a basaltic glass in an argillaceous medium The Salagou dike of the Lodeve Permian Basin (France). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 65, 1071-1086. 

To take advantage of rising oil prices, many oil companies have increased production from older leases over the past several years. In 1975, Continental Oil Co. (now Conoco Inc ) began a program to maximize production from the Big Lake field, Reagan County, TX. The field was the discovery field of the Permian Basin region and has been on production since 1923. Production has been primarily from the Grayburg limestone, at... 

SYLVITEA. A mineral, potassium chloride, KC1, occurring in cubes, or as cubes modified by octahedra. Sylvite is therefore isometric. It has a perfect cubic cleavage uneven fracture is brittle hardness. 2 specific gravity, 1.9 luster, vitreous colorless when pure but may be white, bluish, yellowish or reddish due to impurities. It is soluble in water. It is much rarer than halite and has been found as sublimates at Mt. Vesuvius and as bedded deposits al Slassfurl, Genii any. Extensive deposits occur in sedimentary deposits in the Permian basin of southwestern New Mexico, near Carlsbad, in die United States. 

Only about one-quarter of the C02 used in EOR is derived from industrial sources (Hill, 2003, p. 25). Most is extracted from natural C02 formations. The value of C02 for EOR has been sufficient to warrant the construction of several multi-hundred-kilometer (km) C02 pipelines, including one of 800 km from the McElmo Dome in southwest Colorado to the Permian basin oil fields in West Texas. 

J. Michael Robinson, The University of Texas of the Permian Basin Suzanne Ruder, Virginia Commonwealth University... 

Shallow probes have been used successfully at Lost River in Hardy County, West Virginia, Patrick Draw in Sweetwater County, Wyoming (Matthews et al., 1984 Richers et al., 1982), Arrowhead Hot Springs in San Bernardino County, California (Burtell, 1988) and on a large number of surveys conducted throughout the industry. Limited tests by Williams (1985) in the west Texas Permian Basin suggest that shallow probes are difficult to use in this area because of impermeable deposits of caliche and thick salt and anhydrite beds at a depth of about 300 m. An example of a halo-type anomaly reported by Williams (1985) is included in his thesis. 

Three of the near-surface data sets from Table 5-VIII are particularly convincing because the soil-gas measurements were made in basins that contained only one type of production. As shown by Fig. 5-20b, they are the dry-gas production of the Sacramento Basin (more than 450 sites), the gas-condensate production in the Alberta foothills (more than 650 sites), and the oil production of the Permian basin (more than 450 sites). Figures 5-20c, 5-20d and 5-20e show methane content (%C ), the methane ethane ratio (C1/C2), and the propane-.methane ratio (1000 x C3/C1) from the soil-gas populations over these three basins. These data clearly demonstrate that the chemical compositions of the soil gases from these three different areas form separate populations that appear to reflect the differences which exist in the subsurface reservoirs in these three basins. This correlation is particularly striking when compared with the data of Nikonov (1971), shown in Fig. 5-20a. 

Williams, B.G., 1985. Landsat and geochemical investigation of the Permian Basin., Regan and Crockett Counties, Texas. Unpubl. MS thesis, Univ. Texas. 

FIGURE 6-5. Cortez C02 pipeline with custody transfer meter this is a 640 km (400 mile)-long pipeline delivering C02 to the Texas Permian Basin for enhanced oil recovery. Source Kinder-Morgan Company, LP. 

Performance Proc. 1992 Permian Basin Oil and Gas Recovery Conference, Mar. 18-20,... 

Professors Wiley, J. M. Robinson, and S. Ehdaie at the University of Texas in Permian Basin measured the reduction potentials of purines and pyrimidines. Wiley obtained NICI data for the chloroethylenes and purines and pyrimidines. The post-doctoral and doctoral students at the Wentworth laboratory in the 1990s were Gerard Gremaud, Huamin Cai, Janardhan Madabushi, J. Dojahn, and Kefu... 

One of the key factors for feasibility of a CO2 flooding project is the availability of large amounts of CO2. The 45 projects discussed here are located near large natural deposits of CO2 gas. The main area of activity has been the Permian Basin area of the West Texas and New Mexico. The main sources of CO2 supply for these projects have been McElmo Dome, Sheep Moimtain, and Bravo Dome, which contain between 20 and 40 TCF of... 

DISSOLUTION OF SALT ON THE EAST FLANK OF THE PERMIAN BASIN IN THE SOUTHWESTERN U.S.A. 

Johnson, K.S., 1981. Dissolution of salt on the east flank of the Permian Basin in the southwestern U.S.A. In W. Back and R. Letolle (Guest-Editors), Symposium on Geochemistry of Groundwater — 26th International Geological Congress. J. Hydrol., 54 75-93. 

Hydrogeologic studies prove that natural dissolution of bedded salt occurs at shallow depths in many parts of the Permian Basin of the southwestern U.S.A. This is especially well-documented on the east side of the basin in study areas on the Cimarron River and Elm Fork in western Oklahoma, and on the Red River in the southeastern part of the Texas Panhandle. Four requirements for salt dissolution are (1) a deposit of salt (2) a supply of water unsaturated with respect to NaCl (3) an outlet for removal of brine and... 

Fig. 1. Paleogeography and principal facies in Permian Basin of the southwestern U.S.A., during deposition of evaporite facies of the Blaine Formation and Flowerpot Shale.

Salt occurs at one stratigraphic level in the middle of the Blaine Formation in the four-county area. The salt unit is 6—12 m thick and consists of interbedded salt and shale layers, 0.3—3 m thick. Salt is restricted to the western part of the area (Figs. 6 and 7), where it is more than 150—210 m below the present land surface. The present northern and eastern limits of this salt are irregular in plan view, and the absence of salt from this salt-shale interval 9—12 m thick within a distance of only 2—3 km at many places along this irregular limit can best be explained as a dissolution phenomenon when compared to depositional patterns of this and similar salt units in other parts of the Permian Basin. 

A number of criteria have been recognized on the east flank of the Permian Basin indicating that salt is being, or has been, dissolved by natural processes. 

Hydrogeologic studies in several areas on the east side of the Permian Basin prove that natural dissolution of bedded rock salt is occurring at shallow depths. Fresh groundwater moves downward and laterally under hydrostatic pressure and dissolves salt at depths of 10—250 m to form brine. The resulting brine then moves upward and laterally under hydrostatic pressure until it reaches the surface. Both the fresh water and the brine can move laterally through aquifers and also can move vertically across aquifers or aquitards through fractures, sinkholes and collapse features. 

Plastics Committee 1948, 1975-6 Chairman Elect Lehigh Valley Section 1955 Chairman Permian Basin Section 1964 Councilor Southeastern Texas Section 1976 Member Executive Committee Polymer Division 1974 Member Public Relations Committee 1973-76 Tour Speaker 1945, 1948, 1968, 1972, 1981, 1982, 1983 Abstractor Chemical Abstracts... 

The major reservoirs of natural CO occur around the Permian Basin area. Sheep Mountain, in southeastern Colorado is estimated to contain one trillion cubic feet (TCF) of CO2 of 97% purity. Productive capacity is approximately 300 MCF per day. Other important sources include Brano Dome in New Mexico with reserves of 5 TCF and with total productive capacity of approximately 350 MCF per day. The McElmo Dome has reserves of greater than 8 TCF (97% purity) of the same productive capacity as the Brano Dome Unit. The potential for the McElmo Dome is believed to be approximately 1 billion cubic feet per day. In addition, other units include Jackson Dome, Mississippi (1 TCF proven) and the LaBrage area of southwestern Wyoming which is believed to have reserves in excess of 20 TCF. These data, based on the 1984 National Petroleum Council study of enhanced oil recovery, indicate that the aggregate supply is approximately 2 billion cubic feet per day. 

Amthor Friedman (1992) Ellenburger Group L. Ordovician Permian Basin, W Texas Yes 23 - - ... 

Amthor, J.E. Friedman, G.E. (1992) Early- to late-diagenetic dolomitization of platform carbonates lower Ordovician Ellenburger Group, Permian Basin, West Texas. 7. sediment. Petrol., 62, 131-144. 

However, perhaps the greatest advantage of C02 as a displacement fluid is its availability at a relatively low cost near many oil fields. In particular, a number of natural reservoirs that contain highly pure C02 at high pressure have been discovered at various locations in the Rocky Mountains and other places in the central United States. Three reservoirs in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico are currently supplying C02 to operators in the Permian Basin of west Texas and eastern New Mexico. 

A direct observational procedure has been developed to deal with the paucity of laboratory data. The apparatus constructed for this experiment, which is called the foam durability test , can be operated at Permian Basin reservoir temperature and pressure. This device is illustrated in Figure 11. Its sapphire visual cell is initially filled with the pressurized sur-... 

---