9 Advancements and Issues in Petroleum Extraction Technologies

Friday, 22 May 2015
8:00 AM - 9:50 AM
South Ballroom

HISTORIC AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AT OSAGE FIELD, WESTON COUNTY, WYOMING

Paper number: 9-2
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 8:05 AM – 8:25 AM

Authors

Abstract

The Osage Field is 15 miles northwest of the town of Newcastle, Wyoming and includes roughly 20,000 acres in T46N R63W and T46N R64W of Weston County. The field produces predominantly from the Lower Cretaceous Muddy/Newcastle Formation and was discovered through several oil seeps near the margins of Muddy/Newcastle outcrops. The discovery well was drilled in 1919, but it was not until they drilled a deeper well in 1920 at over 200 barrels of oil per day that Osage Field was noticed. Over 2,000 wells have been drilled at Osage producing from 200 ft to 4,000 ft deep, but only 400 wells are still active. The field has changed hands several times since its discovery and experienced various extraction methods, such as standard waterflooding and recently underground oil mining. In 2012, Osage Partners, LLC acquired the field and has been diligently working to bring this historic field back to its former grandeur.

A short radius horizontal drilling program has been initiated at Osage. Short radius horizontal technology allows wells to be drilled at shallow depths that would otherwise be inaccessible through conventional horizontal drilling. Correspondingly, drilling a higher angle lateral allows wells to be partially gravity drained, which is necessary in the low reservoir pressures of Osage. Osage Partners, LLC is also working towards the implementation of a chemical waterflood to improve oil recovery through reducing surficial tension on reservoir rock and improving water sweep efficiency. Together with the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, an experimental chemical tracing procedure was employed at Osage to identify chemical waterflooding potential. The Osage Field provides an ideal location for varying and experimental procedures for enhanced oil recovery due to its large size and shallow depths. Although Osage Field is almost 100 years old, it still has plenty of room for expansion.