Abstract
MR. A. BEEBY THOMPSON'S recent survey of engineering progress hi petroleum production (Institution of Petroleum Technologists, May 10) showed clearly the remarkable changes which modern industrial, chiefly economic, conditions have brought about in the technique of oil mining. Only a few years ago 10,000 ft. oil wells and the safe and efficient handling of pressures of 5000 Ib. were considered impossibilities; unit operation of oilfields, now an accepted principle, was then an unattainable ideal. The modern technique of deep drilling has brought with it a chain of difficult problems confronting oilfield engineers throughout the world. Among these may be mentioned control of flowing wells; freezing of wells as a result of rapid expansion of gas together with formation of ice actually in the well itself; mechanical extraction of oil, that is, pumping and plant to raise oil to the surface from depths of 5000–10,000 ft., involving as it does pump pressures up to several thousand pounds per square inch; crooked holes and their avoidance; air-gas lift efficiency; paraffination of wells where waxy oil is encountered, a difficulty still not satisfactorily solved; the ultimate recovery of oil from at present commercially exhausted pools; disposal of surplus natural gas, particularly in regions far removed from populous areas; and the thorny question of practicability of extending the principle of mining oil measures, as at Pechelbroun. None the less, progress hi the last few years has been of such a character that one cannot but anticipate a satisfactory solution to some, if not all, of these problems in the near future, especially when economic conditions in the industry improve.
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