Submitted by: John Schiffner
Crude oil for October delivery fell 44 cents, or 0.6%, to $72.02 a barrel in electronic trade.
Crude is still up 3.9% on the week so far, after rallying on upbeat U.S. economic news, a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories, and a weakening dollar.
On Thursday, crude-oil finished slightly lower after a volatile session.
Natural gas, meanwhile, continued its upward surge, rising 3.6%. On Thursday, the Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy, said working gas in storage stood at 3,458 billion cubic feet as of Friday, an increase of 66 bcf from the previous week. Analysts surveyed by Platts expected an increase of between 72 and 76 billion cubic feet.
Elsewhere in the energy sector, gasoline for October delivery fell slightly to $1.85 a gallon, while October heating oil rose 0.1% to $1.84 a barrel.
Heartland Energy Colorado is one of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
(Source: Nick Godt, MarketWatch)
For our purposes special drilling operations include directional drilling, fishing, and well control. Directional drilling is intentially drilling the hole off-vertical for various reasons. Fishing is the operation crew members implement to retrieve an object in the wellbore that doesn't belong there and impedes drilling. Well control is the techniques crew members use to regain control of the well should formation fluids inadvertantely enter the well.
Heartland Energy Colorado also uses directional drilling through horizontal drilling. An operator can better produce certain reservoirs with horizontal drilling. The drilling crew drills the well vertically to a pointabove the reservoir. The it deflects the well and increases the angle until it reaches 90 degrees, or horizontal. This horizontal hole penetrates the reservoir. When properly applied, one horizontal borehole can produce a reservoir better than several vertically drilled holes.Article posted by: Heartland Energy Colorado
HEI Resources (formerly Heartland Energy Company, Inc.) was founded in 1997 by Mr. Reed Cagle for the acquisition, exploration and development of domestic oil and gas reserves. Operations span from the gas rich counties of South Texas to the Black Warrior Basin of Mississippi and Alabama. Having drilled more than 80 oil and gas wells through private Joint Venture funding, HEI Resources continues a tradition of excellence, placing priority on creating value for its partners.
Mr. Reed Cagle is President & Chief Executive Officer of HEI Resources. His oil and gas career began more than 20 years ago, as he worked his way up through the management ranks of independent oil and gas companies.
Upon founding Heartland Energy, Inc. in 1997, he consolidated his experience into steady growth of the company through acreage acquisitions from Alabama to South Texas. He spends his free time involved in local charities and enjoying the outdoors of Colorado with his family.
More Articles on Heartland Energy Colorado | Heartland Energy
As energy concerns grow around the globe, the need for domestic oil production in the United States is higher than ever. It is no secret that America needs to decrease its dependency on foreign energy sources. In order to achieve economic and energy independence, it is crucial that we search for hydrocarbons right here in our own backyard. There are huge shale oil deposits underneath parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma and other mid west states. These build ups could easily supply our energy needs for centuries to come. On the leading edge of this domestic oil boom is Colorado based company, Heartland Energy. Producing both oil and natural gas, Heartland Energy Company is working to ensure the future of Colorado Energy.
The primary focus of the company is to search for, drill for, and extract oil and natural gas. In the state of Colorado alone, there are massive oil deposits thousands of feet below the surface of the Earth. It takes a lot of research and planning in order to tap into these ancient deposits of fuel. Heartland Energy Colorado employs hundreds of specialists whose collective goal is to harness the full potential of Colorado Energy. While searching for new, efficient sources of energy is indeed important, the reality is that we will need oil and natural gas for thousands of years to come. To meet this demand, we must look everywhere for hydrocarbons. Not just on foreign soil, or in deep ocean waters, but also in our own backyard. Heartland Energy Colorado is constantly producing petroleum fuels and natural gas from domestic sites. In addition to the oil production, Heartland specializes in finding and extracting natural gas. Natural gas is soon becoming a major staple in the energy industry. Many are beginning to realize that gas is cheap and effective as far as energy production is concerned. Combining natural gas resources with existing oil production will help to ensure the future of Colorado Energy.
Domestic oil companies like Heartland Energy are blazing a path to a new energy frontier. Not only are they employing thousands of American workers, but they are also reducing our dependency on foreign oil slowly but surely. By searching for, and utilizing domestic fossil fuel deposits, we are taking the steps necessary to ensure the energy needs of the next generation are met.
The Colorado River falls 14,000 feet from the Rocky Mountains to sea level in the Gulf of California and carries more silt than any other river in the world, including the “muddy” Mississippi. The original time estimate for Lake Powell, the reservoir in back of Glen Canyon Dam, to fill up with silt was 400 years, but this was subsequently revised to 1,000 years by later estimates of the silt-capturing capacity of other dams upstream of where the Colorado River enters Lake Powell.
The primary advantages of the Colorado River from the point of view of dam building are that the river flows through a canyon whose geology is ideal for damming and through a region desperate for water. The disadvantage of the Colorado is its relatively low average water flow, which varies from a summer trickle to a springtide flood that carries away the snowmelt of a large area of the Rocky Mountains.
Source: ("Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)
By: Heartland Energy ColoradoThe history of oil well drilling in the United States begins around the mid-1800s, almost at the inception of the Industrial Revolution. At that time, consumers really needed something else other than candles to light their work during the night and help them read indoors. With this demand for more sustainable lighting, companies then began making oil lamps that were much brighter than candles and lasted much longer with a more dependable light source. Sperm Whale Oil was one of the first oils used to burn these lamps that replaced candles over time. Sperm Whale Oil is very clear and almost odorless; it burns with very little smoke which makes it very convenient for indoor lighting. The biggest problem with Sperm Whale Oil is that it was a very limited resource, and it was so extremely rare that really only the wealthy could afford to use it on a regular basis. It was at this time that whalers had almost hunted the population of Sperm Whales to extinction. So the market was extremely ripe for inexpensive oil that would replace Sperm Whale Oil. As stated previously, this all happened around the time of the Industrial Revolution so there was also a need for good quality lubricants for steam powered machines.
In about 1854 there was an attorney from New York named George Bissell who was the lucky
After Bissell had a chance to examine the oil sample he was convinced that this refined rock oil would absolutely burn as clean and safe as any of the available oils at the time, including Sperm Whale Oil. He believed it to be a good lubricant and so he began raising money to collect oil from "Oil Creek" and to market the oil for illumination and lubrication purposes. This was truly the inception of the Seneca oil company in New Haven, Connecticut. One of the many problems that the company had faced was how to best the oil from the land. It was obvious that the best way to collect this oil was not to simply try to scoop it from the ground because of the limited amount of production. Seneca Oil's entire mission was to produce extremely large amounts of this oil and market it into the populace of the northeastern United States, so it was at this time that someone within the Corporation actually came up with the idea of drilling a well in order to tap this oil.
Edwin L. Drake who eventually became a board member of Seneca Oil was hired to oversee the drilling project at Oil Creek which was actually located in Titusville. Drake had previously worked for the railroad as a conductor. In 1859 Drake had employed William A. Smith to be his oil well driller. Smith was previously a blacksmith and had experience as a brine well driller, so he had experience with drilling previously. Considering his previous experience, Smith decided that the best way to drill into the oil well was to place the steel casing (a length of hollow steel pipe) through the soft surface of the earth until it reached bedrock. If he had not used the steel casing, then the loose topsoil would cave back into the hole that they tried to drill. (Modern-day oil rigs and drillers still begin almost all oil wells by casing the top of the hole) Smith then went on to build one of the very first oil drilling rigs ever. He ran drilling tools inside the casing and drilled through the rock.
By August of 1859, Smith was able to drill the hole to a depth of around 70 feet. It was near the end of that day that Smith noticed that the bid actually dropped around 6 inches. The next morning Smith came into the rig and found that the casing was full of oil. Overnight, oil from the formation below flowed into the well casing and filled it all the way up to the top. It was never recorded how much oil this first oil well produced, but it is estimated that 800 to 1200 gallons of oil per day was produced which was far more than the gallon or two that could be collected off of the ground previously. Probably the most exciting find out of this entire venture was the fact that an oil well could produce massive amounts of oil. According to most records Drake's oil well was the first oil well in the United States which was drilled for the sole purpose of finding and producing oil. The news of the oil well spread rapidly and because of the market which existed for oil, dozens of brand-new rigs were erected overnight in the same area to take advantage of the demand for it. This was really the inception of the first oil boom in the United States.
The gas that we are more familiar with, that is delivered to our homes for domestic purposes, in its purest most processed form is mostly methane. Many of us don’t realize the huge role that natural gas already plays in our homes and everyday lives. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which is a blend of propane and butane is now widely used in the US as a source of heating for ovens, clothes dryers, boilers and central heating for our homes in harsh weather. An increasing number of power plants that provide the electricity with which we power our homes and light up our cities worldwide are dependent on gas, hydrogen obtained from natural gas is increasingly becoming popular as an alternative source of fuel to power our vehicles, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, India and Sweden have already taken giant strides in the quest to considerably lower their reliance on petroleum or gasoline.
Natural gas is formed naturally through the same process that produces the crude oil the earth is so heavily dependent upon as an energy source today. They both are formed by the process of chemical decomposition of dead organic matter in the absence of oxygen over time. The natural gas is often found trapped together with the oil in wells underground. The manner of their formation places them in the class of fuels known as fossil fuels. Surprisingly even though their origins are very much the same they have quite different properties and practical applications.
Oil in previous times was thought to be the only useful source of energy in the wells, gas was mostly regarded as an unwanted by product and was mostly burned in the atmosphere in a process known as flaring. Flaring of gas was a major source of concern to environmentalists because it had been proven to be a major source of pollution, causing huge damage to the environment and even bigger costs in efforts to try rectify the damage already done in the process.
All this until, someone discovered that gas could also be used as an energy source with great economic advantages over crude oil in terms of costs of production, environmental friendliness, and availability. Natural gas has been proven to burn very efficiently leaving little to waste, it burns 43% more efficiently than petrol and 60% more than coal. Some molecules in coal and oil do not burn completely and are released into the atmosphere contributing greatly to pollution but it’s not the same for gas. It gives off relatively less harmful carbon byproducts when compared to coal and oil. Many experts also believe that there are far more reserves of gas than the quantity of crude oil ever discovered. The middle east, specifically Qatar and Iran, is reputed to have the world’s largest natural gas reserves estimated at about 900 trillion and 500 trillion cubic feet respectively in those countries.
But you haven’t heard the good news yet, natural gas can be produced artificially! No more worries and panic about global reserves declining, we haven’t learned to produce petroleum yet and there’s little hope we’ll ever be able to do that, but that’s not the case with natural gas. Methane is its major component and can be produced biologically from agricultural waste and other organic waste materials like dead plants and animal waste that otherwise go to landfills and other waste disposal processes. Specifically these waste products are chemically broken down by tiny methane producing microorganisms known as methanogens, in relatively the same way in which gas is formed naturally.
At the mention of the term natural gas, most of us come to think of it as a gas that, as the name might suggest occurs naturally. Right to an extent, but quite vague in the true sense of it, actually natural gas is a mixture of about eight gases, mainly methane, ethane, butane, propane, carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen sulphide all in the order of proportion in which they make up natural gas. The gas is normally colorless and odorless but for safety reasons odorants, small insignificant chemicals which have the property of adding odors, are added to give it a distinct smell.
The gas that we are more familiar with, that is delivered to our homes for domestic purposes, in its purest most processed form is mostly methane. Many of us don’t realize the huge role that natural gas already plays in our homes and everyday lives. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which is a blend of propane and butane is now widely used in the US as a source of heating for ovens, clothes dryers, boilers and central heating for our homes in harsh weather. An increasing number of power plants that provide the electricity with which we power our homes and light up our cities worldwide are dependent on gas, hydrogen obtained from natural gas is increasingly becoming popular as an alternative source of fuel to power our vehicles, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, India and Sweden have already taken giant strides in the quest to considerably lower their reliance on petroleum or gasoline.
Natural gas is formed naturally through the same process that produces the crude oil the earth is so heavily dependent upon as an energy source today. They both are formed by the process of chemical decomposition of dead organic matter in the absence of oxygen over time. The natural gas is often found trapped together with the oil in wells underground. The manner of their formation places them in the class of fuels known as fossil fuels. Surprisingly even though their origins are very much the same they have quite different properties and practical applications.
Oil in previous times was thought to be the only useful source of energy in the wells, gas was mostly regarded as an unwanted by product and was mostly burned in the atmosphere in a process known as flaring. Flaring of gas was a major source of concern to environmentalists because it had been proven to be a major source of pollution, causing huge damage to the environment and even bigger costs in efforts to try rectify the damage already done in the process.
All this until, someone discovered that gas could also be used as an energy source with great economic advantages over crude oil in terms of costs of production, environmental friendliness, and availability. Natural gas has been proven to burn very efficiently leaving little to waste, it burns 43% more efficiently than petrol and 60% more than coal. Some molecules in coal and oil do not burn completely and are released into the atmosphere contributing greatly to pollution but it’s not the same for gas. It gives off relatively less harmful carbon byproducts when compared to coal and oil. Many experts also believe that there are far more reserves of gas than the quantity of crude oil ever discovered. The middle east, specifically Qatar and Iran, is reputed to have the world’s largest natural gas reserves estimated at about 900 trillion and 500 trillion cubic feet respectively in those countries.
But you haven’t heard the good news yet, natural gas can be produced artificially! No more worries and panic about global reserves declining, we haven’t learned to produce petroleum yet and there’s little hope we’ll ever be able to do that, but that’s not the case with natural gas. Methane is its major component and can be produced biologically from agricultural waste and other organic waste materials like dead plants and animal waste that otherwise go to landfills and other waste disposal processes. Specifically these waste products are chemically broken down by tiny methane producing microorganisms known as methanogens, in relatively the same way in which gas is formed naturally.
However, there are some concerns about the nature of methane itself, it is recognized as one of the most potent greenhouse gases, i.e. gases that occur naturally in the atmosphere to regulate the temperature of the planet constantly to habitable levels, however man’s adventurous exploits over the years have increased the levels of these gases over the normally occurring levels making them trap and seal increasingly higher levels of heat within the earth’s surface. There are fears in some quarters that increased use of Natural gas as a fuel source would inevitably worsen this problem. However that is left to be proven. A lot of the environmentally conscious believe that there is a need to seek much more environmentally friendly sources of energy but till those sources are fully developed to a commercially attractive level natural gas should be a good alternative to take us on our quest for a cleaner healthier planet.
However, there are some concerns about the nature of methane itself, it is recognized as one of the most potent greenhouse gases, i.e. gases that occur naturally in the atmosphere to regulate the temperature of the planet constantly to habitable levels, however man’s adventurous exploits over the years have increased the levels of these gases over the normally occurring levels making them trap and seal increasingly higher levels of heat within the earth’s surface. There are fears in some quarters that increased use of Natural gas as a fuel source would inevitably worsen this problem. However that is left to be proven. A lot of the environmentally conscious believe that there is a need to seek much more environmentally friendly sources of energy but till those sources are fully developed to a commercially attractive level natural gas should be a good alternative to take us on our quest for a cleaner healthier planet.
By Fiyinn Adebiyi (www.energyplanet.info)
The forum, scheduled for April 27-28, seeks to “generate the political leadership necessary” for a successful outcome at the UN climate change negotiation to be held in Copenhagen in December, the White House said in a statement Saturday.
Obama, who recently turned his attention to the need for more clean-energy funding, has also asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to attend the meet.
Besides India, the other major economies are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Britain.
Last week, Obama told a group of renewable-energy company owners and investors that the country has “known the right choice for a generation (and that) the time has come to make that choice”.
He argued that an expanded investment is needed to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth, cut dependence on foreign oil and slow the process of global warming.
“We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc or we can create jobs preventing its worse effects,” he said. “We can hand over the jobs of the 21st century to our competitors, or we can create those jobs right here in America.”
The need for new energy sources was a heated point of contention in the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama emphasised the need for renewable-energy development, while Republican nominee John McCain stressed a preference for more oil drilling within the United States.
More Energy News: Heartland Energy Colorado
Once formed in source rock, oil and natural gas, being lighter than water, begin to migrate laterally and vertically through migratory rock. Oil and gas pass through the pore space within the sedimentary rock structure and through fractures in rock layers. This migration may extend as far as 200 miles from source rock. The rate of migration depends on the porosity and permeability of the migratory rock. Porosity is a measure of the spaces within the rock that can be filled with fluids and permeability is a measure of the ease with which a fluid can pass from one pore to the next. Both are critical in determining the flow of hydrocarbons into a well; generally speaking, the greater the porosity, the greater the permeability.
Oil and gas migration continues until interrupted by an intervening rock formation shaped like an inverted bowl or a fault made of a well-cemented rock with no spaces between the grains. Once migrating oil and gas are trapped in reservoir rock, natural gas, the lightest, rises to the top of the reservoir and forms a gas cap; saltwater, the heaviest, sinks to the bottom, leaving oil in the middle. In some reservoirs, a small concentration of natural gas may remain mixed with crude oil without forming a gas cap; in still others, there is no associated natural gas. The subsurface water that makes up the water table is fresh, produced by rain percolating through the soil; but the water beneath the water table is more or less as saline as ocean water.
Contrary to a popular conception the originated with the dawn of the oil age, an oil reservoir does not consist of a void space filled with a pool of oil; rather, it is migratory rock turned reservoir rock, saturated with oil and gas, that has been prevented from continuing its journey to the earth’s surface. The geometry of a trap is one determinant of the size of an oil field; the larger the dome or fault of caprock and the greater the distance from the top of the trap to the spill point the larger the size of the potential oil field. Other determinants are porosity, which determines the quantity of oil and gas contained in reservoir rock, its permeability, which determines the flow of the oil and gas to a well and its potential recoverability, and, of course, the concentration of oil and natural gas in the reservoir rock.
Heartland Energy Colorado is one of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)
Dead organic matter must lie in either stagnant, oxygen-free waters at the bottom of the sea until buried or be buried quickly after death and achieve a concentration of one to three percent by weight to become a future oil reservoir, although this concentration can be as high as ten percent. The next step is burying the organically rich sediment deep enough to generate the temperature and pressure necessary to transform organic matter to oil.
With 7,000 feet of overburden, the pressure is sufficient to raise the sediment’s temperature to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the minimum to produce a heavy and generally undesirable grade of crude oil. Preferred light crudes are produced as one approaches 18,000 feet and 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond 18,000 feet, the temperature and pressure are sufficient to transform oil to graphite and natural gas. The oil window is 7,000 – 18,000 feet below the surface of the earth, meaning that sediments at river mouths must be buried between 1.5 – 3.5 miles of debris to produce oil by either the ocean bottom sinking or the surrounding land mass rising or a combination of both.
The properties of the oil depend on the type of organism, its concentration, depth of burial and the nature of the surrounding sediment. Oil properties vary from one field to another and no two fields have exactly the same properties. Commercial grades of crude are really a mix of oil from different oil fields in the same region that have similar properties. A few are from different oil fields with dissimilar properties such as Urals, a specified mix of light sweet crude from western Siberia and heavy sour crude from the Ural region of Russia.
Heartland Energy Colorado is one of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)
(Source: Heartland Energy Colorado Blog)The United States and Canada are unique in permitting individuals and companies to own both the surface and the subsurface rights of land. All other nations consider subsurface minerals the property of the state regardless of who owns the surface land. In the United States and Canada, surface rights to build a house or farm the land can be separated from the subsurface rights to explore and develop mineral finds. If separated, a lease agreement has to be reached between the owners of the surface and subsurface rights with regard to access to the land, the conditions for exploration and the development of any discovered minerals, including oil and gas. Lease agreements usually contain a bonus payment on signing and a royalty payment to be paid to the owner of the surface rights if minerals, including oil and gas, are found and stipulate a time limit for the start of exploration. If exploration has not started by the time established in the lease, the lease becomes null and void and the subsurface mineral rights revert to the owner of the surface rights. Leases can also be farmed out to third parties who conduct exploration, and working interests can be sold to third parties to raise funds to develop an oil or mineral fund.
Large portions of the United States and Canada are not owned by individuals, but by the federal governments. In the United States, the federal government holds auctions for mineral rights on its land holdings and offshore waters. Rights to drill on blocks on the continental shelf, whose depth is within the capability of offshore drilling rigs, are offered periodically in a closed-bid auction. The highest bidder has a five or ten-year period, depending on the depth of the water, to begin exploration or the mineral rights revert back to the federal government. The U.S. government receives a one-sixth royalty if oil is found. Canada has different rules that vary among the provinces. In addition, if oil is discovered on land, there are government regulations on the spacing of production wells to avoid overproduction, the fruit of the bitter lessons learned from the early exhaustion of oil fields in western Pennsylvania, Spindletop and elsewhere. Of course, providing a long-term optimal return on a costly investment is also a strong guiding force for oil field managers in determining the spacing between producing wells.
Heartland Energy Colorado is one of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)
In the early years of oil, drillers imagined that they were drilling for a pool or an underground river of oil using seeps as a guide for where to drill. Such exploration was successful if the surface oil came from an oil reservoir directly beneath the seep. Many seeps offered little reward to the driller as they merely marked the spot where the migratory rock breeched the earth’s surface. Drilling straight down missed oil embedded in a layer of migratory rock slanted at an angle to the surface. Since the first oil was found near a creek, early oil drillers followed creek beds, thinking that oil flowed beneath running water. Once oil was discovered, production wells were placed as close as possible to one another to ensure commercial success. Spacing wells increased the chance of drilling a dry hole beyond the perimeter of an oil reservoir. This practice, having the greatest possible concentration of wells furiously pumping oil, rapidly exhausted an oil reservoir and another search for seep oil began.
Once sites marked by seep oil were exhausted, and the creek theory debunked, oil drillers turned to geologists for advice on prospective sites. Geologists examined the land for hints of the presence of three necessary conditions for oil: (1) source rock to generate petroleum, (2) migratory rock through which petroleum moves toward the earth’s surface and (3) reservoir rock where there is an impediment preventing further migration. Whether sedimentary rock is source, migratory or reservoir rock is a matter of circumstance.
Early geologists became geophysicists when they started using gravity meters and magnetometers to search for oil. A gravity meter is sensitive to the density of rocks below the surface. A mile of sedimentary rocks on top of basement rock is dense compared to a salt dome or a layer of porous reef or lighter rocks, which are detectable as anomalies or variations in gravity.
Magnetometers, because they are sensitive to anomalies or variations in the earth’s magnetic field generated by magnetite in basement rock, are useful for estimating the thickness of overlying sedimentary rock. Both gravity and magnetic anomalies may indicate an anticline or fault that holds an oil reservoir.
One of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA is Heartland Energy Colorado, based in Englewood, CO. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)
The primary force that causes oil and gas to flow through pores in the reservoir rock toward the bottom of the well is the pressure differential between the oil and gas within the reservoir rock and the pressure at the bottom of the well. The driving force in the reservoir can be provided by dissolved natural gas in the oil or by a natural gas cap on top of the oil that expands as oil is removed from a reservoir.
Natural gas cannot maintain the same initial reservoir pressure as it expands, which causes oil production to decline with time. Subsurface water entering an oil reservoir from its bottom or sides as a primary driving force can maintain nearly constant reservoir pressure and oil production.
An oil well goes “dry” when natural gas or water reaches the bottom of the well. Gravity can also be an effective drive mechanism for wells drilled into the bottom of steeply inclined reservoirs. Most oil reservoirs have more than one of these four primary driving forces.
One of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA is Heartland Energy Colorado, based in Englewood, CO. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
One would think that a drill string made up of thirty-foot lengths of steel pipe would be rigid, but this not at all true when the drill string is measured in miles. It is rather flexible, and actually twists several times when being rotated before the bit begins to turn. This characterizes the type of drill string used for directional drilling.
A directional well is first drilled vertically and then cased. A hole or window is cut into the casing and an installed whipstock bends the drill string at a preset angle. A pilot hole of 10-15 feet in length is drilled, and when it is certified to be at the right direction and angle, which can be as great as 60 degrees, a turbo drill can be used. With a turbo drill, the drill pipe no longer rotates to drive a fixed drill bit.
Mud driven down the center of a stationary drill pipe turns a rotary bit attached to the end of the drill string where it exits the drill pipe and enters the annulus. A magnetic compass and a gyroscope control the orientation and the degree of deviation of the well. The degree of deviation can be changed at various points along the way until the well is horizontal.
One of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA is Heartland Energy Colorado, based in Englewood, CO. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.
(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian, Roy L.)
