JAMES VAN BLARICUM

Plugging - Process whereby a well that is no longer needed is filled with concrete and abandoned. (see PA).( james van blaricum )

Conventional acidizing processes may remove damage up to several inches into the formation but are generally not effective for treatment of deeper damage. Success in treatment of deep formation damage requires the use of highly retarded acids. Arcasolve™ functions as a highly retarded acid suitable for removal of deep damage.

james e van blaricum

‘Working gas’ is the volume of natural gas in the storage reservoir that can be extracted during the normal operation of the storage facility. This is the natural gas that is being stored and withdrawn; the capacity of storage facilities normally refers to their working gas capacity. At the beginning of a withdrawal cycle, the pressure inside the storage facility is at its highest; meaning working gas can be withdrawn at a high rate. As the volume of gas inside the storage facility drops, pressure (and thus deliverability) in the storage facility also decreases. Periodically, underground storage facility operators may reclassify portions of working gas as base gas after evaluating the operation of their facilities. james van blaricum





Butane Splitter or Deisobutanizer - this step separates the iso and normal butanes.( signal oil and gas company )


Low oil prices are good for the consumer and the world economy. Low oil prices act as a check on inflation.

james van blaricum
Appraisal expenditure - Costs incurred in survey, exploitation and appraisal of licence areas not yet under development or in production. james e van blaricum




Although acetic acid reacts more slowly than HCl, the reaction is still sufficiently rapid to give the problems summarized in section 2. In contrast, generation of acetic acid in-situ using Arcasolve™ allows acid to be delivered much deeper into the formation and better placement of acid along extended well-bores. Arcasolve is therefore more effective, and offers a much higher degree of control of acidizing than acid formulations based on acetic acid or other organic acids.( signal oil & gas company )

Exploration well - Drilling to determine whether hydrocarbons are present.

signal oil & gas company

In fact, associated hydrocarbons, known as ‘natural gas liquids’ (NGLs) can be very valuable by-products of natural gas processing. NGLs include ethane, propane, butane, iso-butane, and natural gasoline. These NGLs are sold separately and have a variety of different uses; including enhancing oil recovery in oil wells, providing raw materials for oil refineries or petrochemical plants, and as sources of energy. signal oil and gas company





Use of an acidizing system with a reaction so highly retarded that essentially no reaction takes place during the time that the acid is being pumped into the reservoir has been considered in mathematical terms. This hypothetical system has been proposed as the ultimate for a matrix treatment. Arcasolve™ (see section 5) approaches such a system.( james e van blaricum )


Acid fluid loss control has long been a problem in fracture acidizing. The most common techniques involve use of viscous pads or acid solutions. The principle behind these is to lay an impermeable filter cake on the fracture face and minimize wormholing. In practice these filter cakes are relatively ineffective in controlling acid fluid loss because of the quick penetration by wormholes and the constant erosion of fracture faces during treatment.

signal oil and gas company
Development - Phase on which a proven oil or gas field is brought into production by drilling production (development) wells. signal oil & gas company




Exploration - Search for hydrocarbons by Geological and Geophysical (G&G) surveys that may be followed by exploration drilling.( james e van blaricum )

Reserves: Possible - Reserves at present cannot be regarded as “probable".

signal oil & gas company

The actual process used to separate oil from natural gas, as well as the equipment that is used, can vary widely. Although dry pipeline quality natural gas is virtually identical across different geographic areas, raw natural gas from different regions may have different compositions and separation requirements. In many instances, natural gas is dissolved in oil underground primarily due to the pressure that the formation is under. When this natural gas and oil is produced, it is possible that it will separate on its own, simply due to decreased pressure; much like opening a can of soda pop allows the release of dissolved carbon dioxide. In these cases, separation of oil and gas is relatively easy, and the two hydrocarbons are sent separate ways for further processing. The most basic type of separator is known as a conventional separator. It consists of a simple closed tank, where the force of gravity serves to separate the heavier liquids like oil, and the lighter gases, like natural gas. james van blaricum





Cross Field Allowance (CFA) - An element (up to 10%) of immediate relief for qualifying field development costs where a participator on a new taxable development has, or expects to have, PRT profits in another taxable field.( signal oil & gas company )


Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) - Gas, mainly methane, liquefied under pressure and low temperature.

james e van blaricum
All organic material does not turn into oil. Certain geological conditions must exist within the oil-rich rocks. There must be a trap of non-porous rock that prevents the oil from seeping out, and a seal (such as salt or clay) that keeps the oil from rising to the surface. Under these conditions, only two percent of the organic material is transformed into oil. james e van blaricum




During the past 600 million years incompletely decayed plant and animal remains have become buried under thick layers of rock. It is believed that petroleum consists of the remains of these organisms but it is the small microscopic plankton organism remains that are largely responsible for the relatively high organic carbon content of fine-grained sediments like the Chattanooga shale which are the principle source rocks for petroleum. Among the leading producers of petroleum are Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States (chiefly Texas, California, Louisiana, Alaska, Oklahoma, and Kansas), Iran, China, Norway, Mexico, Venezuela, Iraq, Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, and Kuwait. The largest known reserves are in the Middle East.( signal oil and gas company )

While some of the needed processing can be accomplished at or near the wellhead (field processing), the complete processing of natural gas takes place at a processing plant, usually located in a natural gas producing region. The extracted natural gas is transported to these processing plants through a network of gathering pipelines, which are small-diameter, low pressure pipes. A complex gathering system can consist of thousands of miles of pipes, interconnecting the processing plant to upwards of 100 wells in the area. According to the American Gas Association’s Gas Facts 2000, there was an estimated 36,100 miles of gathering system pipelines in the U.S. in 1999.

signal oil and gas company

Hydrogen (H) - Reactive, colourless, odourless, and tasteless gaseous element with atomic number of 1. Element is usually classed in group 1 (or Ia) of periodic table. Lightest of all gases, hydrogen combines with carbon to form a variety of gaseous, liquid and solid hydrocarbons. signal oil and gas company





Very deep penetration of acid can be achieved if needed and the use of gels and surfactants, which might cause cleanup or wettability reversal problems is not needed.( james van blaricum )


In addition to water, oil, and NGL removal, one of the most important parts of gas processing involves the removal of sulfur and carbon dioxide. Natural gas from some wells contains significant amounts of sulfur and carbon dioxide. This natural gas, because of the rotten smell provided by its sulfur content, is commonly called ’sour gas’. Sour gas is undesirable because the sulfur compounds it contains can be extremely harmful, even lethal, to breathe. Sour gas can also be extremely corrosive. In addition, the sulfur that exists in the natural gas stream can be extracted and marketed on its own. In fact, according to the USGS, U.S. sulfur production from gas processing plants accounts for about 15 percent of the total U.S. production of sulfur.

james van blaricum
Petroleum seeping out of underground reservoirs has been collected and used for light throughout recorded history. In the 4th cent. AD the Chinese drilled for oil and natural gas, but in the 1850s, oil was still being recovered by skimming it off the tops of ponds. As whale oil became less abundant, producers looked for new ways to extract oil. Edwin Drake dug the first modern oil well in Titusville, Pa, hitting oil at 69.5 ft (21.2 m), touching off an oil rush in the area. (Most modern wells go down over 4,700 ft (1,432 m).) In 1861 the first oil refinery was set up. signal oil & gas company




Installing a pipeline is much like an assembly line process, with sections of the pipeline being completed in stages. First, the path of the pipeline is cleared of all removable impediments, including trees, boulders, brush, and anything else that may prohibit the construction. Once the pipeline’s path has been cleared sufficiently to allow construction equipment to gain access, sections of pipes are laid out along the intended path, a process called ’stringing’ the pipe. These pipe sections are commonly from 40 to 80 feet long, and are specific to their destination. That is, certain areas have different requirements for coating material and pipe thickness.( signal oil & gas company )

Leak Detection - Natural gas detecting equipment is periodically used by pipeline personnel on the surface to check for leaks. This is especially important in areas where the natural gas is not odorized.

signal oil & gas company

Flaring and venting - Flaring is burning of hydrocarbon gases for commercial or technical reasons. Venting is release of gases to atmosphere. signal oil & gas company



Use of an acidizing system with a reaction so highly retarded that essentially no reaction takes place during the time that the acid is being pumped into the reservoir has been considered in mathematical terms. This hypothetical system has been proposed as the ultimate for a matrix treatment. Arcasolve™ (see section 5) approaches such a system.( signal oil and gas company )

Pipelines can measure anywhere from 6 to 48 inches in diameter, although certain component pipe sections can consist of small diameter pipe, as small as 0.5 inches in diameter. However, this small diameter pipe is usually used only in gathering and distribution systems. Mainline pipes, the principle pipeline in a given system, are usually between 16 and 48 inches in diameter. Lateral pipelines, which deliver natural gas to or from the mainline, are typically between 6 and 16 inches in diameter. Most major interstate pipelines are between 24 and 36 inches in diameter. The actual pipeline itself, commonly called ‘line pipe’, consists of a strong carbon steel material, engineered to meet standards set by the American Petroleum Institute (API).

james van blaricum

Natural gas pipeline companies have customers on both ends of the pipeline - the producers and processors that input gas into the pipeline, and the consumers and local distribution companies that take gas out of the pipeline. In order to manage the natural gas that enters the pipeline, and to ensure that all customers receive timely delivery of their portion of this gas, sophisticated control systems are required to monitor the gas as it travels through all sections of what could be a very lengthy pipeline network. To accomplish this task of monitoring and controlling the natural gas that is traveling through the pipeline, centralized gas control stations that collect, assimilate, and manage data received from monitoring and compressor stations all along the pipe. signal oil and gas company



The natural gas used by consumers is composed almost entirely of methane. However, natural gas found at the wellhead, although still composed primarily of methane, is by no means as pure. Raw natural gas comes from three types of wells: oil wells, gas wells, and condensate wells. Natural gas that comes from oil wells is typically termed ‘associated gas’. This gas can exist separate from oil in the formation (free gas), or dissolved in the crude oil (dissolved gas). Natural gas from gas and condensate wells, in which there is little or no crude oil, is termed ‘nonassociated gas’. Gas wells typically produce raw natural gas by itself, while condensate wells produce free natural gas along with a semi-liquid hydrocarbon condensate. Whatever the source of the natural gas, once separated from crude oil (if present) it commonly exists in mixtures with other hydrocarbons; principally ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes. In addition, raw natural gas contains water vapor, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide, helium, nitrogen, and other compounds.( james van blaricum )

Once the well is completed, it may begin to produce natural gas. In some instances, the hydrocarbons that exist in pressurized formations will naturally rise up through the well to the surface. This is most commonly the case with natural gas. Since natural gas is lighter than air, once a conduit to the surface is opened, the pressurized gas will rise to the surface with little or no interference. This is most common for formations containing natural gas alone, or with a light condensate. In these scenarios, once the christmas tree is installed, the natural gas will flow to the surface on its own.

signal oil and gas company

Natural gas is usually stored underground, in large storage reservoirs. There are three main types of underground storage: depleted gas reservoirs, aquifers, and salt caverns. In addition to underground storage, however, natural gas can be stored as liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG allows natural gas to be shipped and stored in liquid form, meaning it takes up much less space than gaseous natural gas. james e van blaricum



As natural gas use increases, so does the need to have transportation infrastructure in place to supply the increased demand. This means that pipeline companies are constantly assessing the flow of natural gas across the U.S., and building pipelines to allow transportation of natural gas to those areas that are underserved.( james e van blaricum )

Structural traps - Formed by Earth movements that fold rocks into suitable shapes or juxtapose reservoir and sealing rocks along faults. Traps may also form when rocks are domed over rising salt masses.

james e van blaricum

Suspended discovery - An oil or gas field identified by a discovery well but not being produced or developed. james van blaricum



Jacket - Supporting (concrete base or steel legs) structure for an offshore installation.( james e van blaricum )

Pipeline - A pipe through which natural gas, crude oil or petroleum products are pumped between two points, either onshore or offshore.

james van blaricum

Redetermination - Retroactive adjustment to relative percentage interests of joint venturers in a field. james e van blaricum



Dry gas - Or Lean gas is natural gas composed mainly of methane.( james van blaricum )

The factors that determine whether or not a depleted reservoir will make a suitable storage facility are both geographic and geologic. Geographically, depleted reservoirs must be relatively close to consuming regions. They must also be close to transportation infrastructure, including trunk pipelines and distribution systems. While depleted reservoirs are numerous in the U.S., they are more abundantly available in producing regions. In regions without depleted reservoirs, like the upper Midwest, one of the other two storage options is required.

signal oil & gas company

Subsalt - Refers to rock formations lying beneath long, horizontal layers of salt. These rock formations may contain hydrocarbons. james van blaricum



Oil Allowance - A gross production relief that reduces effective PRT rate, but cannot be used to create a tax loss.( signal oil and gas company )

Installing a pipeline is much like an assembly line process, with sections of the pipeline being completed in stages. First, the path of the pipeline is cleared of all removable impediments, including trees, boulders, brush, and anything else that may prohibit the construction. Once the pipeline’s path has been cleared sufficiently to allow construction equipment to gain access, sections of pipes are laid out along the intended path, a process called ’stringing’ the pipe. These pipe sections are commonly from 40 to 80 feet long, and are specific to their destination. That is, certain areas have different requirements for coating material and pipe thickness.

signal oil and gas company

Hydrogenation - Reacting coal with hydrogen at high pressures, usually in presence of a catalyst. signal oil and gas company



Butane (C4H10) - Either of two saturated hydrocarbons, or alkanes, with chemical formula. In both compounds carbon atoms are joined in an open chain.( signal oil & gas company )

Seal or Cap - Rocks (salt, clays or cemented sandstone) in right shapes and relative positions to form traps.

james e van blaricum

Acids are used to break acid sensitive gels used in propped fracture applications. The use of acid breakers in open hole horizontal well compilations has recently been demonstrated [3]. signal oil & gas company