SOCIETY
OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS
Mid-Continent Section, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Abstracts courtesy of Ken Saveth, ksaveth@juno.com
Coal Bed Methane - Case History - Norman Hein, Jr.: Conoco, Inc. & Wendell Beavers: Conoco Australia Pty., Ltd.
The purpose of this presentation is to relay some of the initial work that Conoco is doing in Queensland, Australia in the area of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) production. To start with, it would be good to lay out some of the development history, the following events were the initial events that took place relative to Conoco’s CBM production in Australia:
1993, Mount Isa Mines (MIM) Holdings invite Conoco to form a JV & explore Authority to Prospect (ATP) 564p
June 1995, Conoco acquires 100% of JV + acreage in Bowen, Ipswich, & Moreton Basin.
December 1996, 24 appraisal wells & 10 exploration wells were drilled as well as a 47 km gas pipeline to PGT Queensland Gas Pipeline.
There were also some other things to consider. The project was based on the Pocahontas Gas Partnership, San Juan Basin, & GRI Warrior Basin/Rocky Mtns. work. The "White Paper" was used as the basis of development. A Decision & Risk Analysis (D&RA) was also run on the project as well as acreage set up for the pilot project.
Some of Conoco’s conclusions & recommendations with this project are as follows:
PC Pumps continue to be an effective lift system for CBM production.
Problems with equipment operation can be traced to D&RA.
New projects should consider productivity ranges for equipment.
Pumping these CBM wells down slowly, rather than over only a few days, was critical to the continued success of the PCPs.
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