Production Engineering in 1930

Abstract

Unitl the beginning of the year 1930, conditions in the oil industry weresuch that the production engineer was chiefly concerned with improving theefficiency of development and production technique. Good engineering practicehad been adopted to devise and improve methods and materials better suited todrilling for and producing oil and gas. These efforts reduced the hazard andexpense of deeper drilling, increased the ultimate recovery from reservoirs andlowered production costs. Equipment was of better design and materials werebetter suited for the work and were more permanent. These improvementsnaturally have contributed their share toward increasing the volume of crudeoil produced each year. The industry is now faced with a need for preventing a waste of this naturalresource; waste which came as a result of continued reckless drilling of newreservoirs. To make a careful study of this economic problem and to devisemethods for correcting these conditions was a logical problem for theproduction engineer. Much time and study have been devoted to the question, andremedial plans have been suggested during the last year and a half. Theprinciples of unit operation have attracted the engineer's attention, as theypresent ideal conditions for the most scientific and economical development ofan oil field. Unitization During 1930 unitization of producing and potentially producing areas has madereal progress, and as each new unitized development is agreed upon theobjections that loomed so large at the inception of the idea fade intocomparative insignificance. Undoubtedly the outstanding example of the efficacyof unitization is the Kettleman Hills project in California. Unitizing thisstructure, with its almost incredible reserve, is an important step forward inthe industry's concerted effort toward conservation.