What the thread losing steam? We have hardly touched Australia yet.
The thread is cruising, but I struggle a bit to keep up
Some spots in Qld N.T. have their own oil wells, some unkown to the enemy (Gov). The oil is so thin it can be used as deisel straight, just filter. Some years back a bit was sneaking into the system and got sprung. Rumor that motors blow up etc, big checks, fines on ones caught, all because they missed out on tax. Their media mates played it up. Large areas out there to hide a well. My son worked on two leases one 7,000,000. acres, another 5,000,000.
First a few facts about oil and gas exploration in Australia, and then a few of my own anecdotes.
This first quote is pretty technical, and comes from a froggy study into the Amadeus Basin oil field, which underlies the area of which you speak. It more-or-less explains why there are thousands of holes all over the place out there.
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Résumé/Abstract
The Mereenie Oil and Gas Field, situated in the Amadeus Basin in Central Australia, is the largest onshore oil field in Australia, containing some 367 million barrels of original oil in-place and 900 billion cubic feet of original gas in-place.
Oil is contained in an elongated, anticlinal trap in multilayered reservoirs as rims associated with large gas-caps. Expansion of solution and gas-cap gas is the primary oil recovery mechanism. However, most of the oil is contained in narrow, thin rims in tight reservoirs which are considered marginally economic for development.
The Pacoota Sandstone is the major oil bearing unit. The rims have been partially developed by drilling wells at a one kilometre spacing. The Pacoota Sandstone is CambroOrdovician in age with six to nine percent porosity and 5 to 50 md permeability.
Dedicated production wells have been drilled for the upper and lower reservoirs at an optimum distance from the gas-oil contact to maximise primary recovery. Based on production performance, the average, primary oil recovery factor in the developed rim area is estimated at 28% of the original oil in-place. A previous reservoir simulation study had indicated that two to three percent incremental oil recovery could be achieved by reinjecting the produced gas into the gas-cap. Recent modelling has shown a 10% to 14% incremental oil recovery by reinjecting gas directly into the oil rims.
This innovative rim injection technique provides direct displacement of bypassed and unaccessed oil as well as pressure maintenance. The optimum spacing (between producers) for this gas injection technique is estimated at 1.5 km compared to 1 km for the primary development.
Simulation modelling shows that, unlike primary oil recovery, this secondary recovery is less dependent on well distance from the GOC. A pilot test is currently underway. Based on the encouraging results from the pilot test and simulation results, a field development strategy is proposed.
my bolding
I've bolded some bits that I think are relevant. The point is that oil is recovered from some areas by re-injecting gas into the rim wells and blowing the oil out of the production wells. If they didn't cap most of the holes, there would be oil pissing out of the ground everywhere, like in the
Beverly Hillbillies.
Here's a more betterer way of saying it:
Oil and Gas Glossary
Gas Drive
The use of the energy that arises from gas compressed in a reservoir to move crude oil to a well bore. Gas drive is also used in a form of secondary recovery, in which gas is injected into input wells to sweep remaining oil to a producing well.
Here's an excerpt from a message board full of petroleum experts.
Oil Field Engine Bulletin Board
Allan Wright said:
A stripper well is a well that will produce less than 10 barrels of oil per day. Back in the old days when a lot of wells produced hundreds of barrels per day, they were called gushers.
An oilwell is normally completed one of two ways.
(1) They drill the well and run the casing from the surface to the oil pay zone and cement the outside of the casing. They will continue to drill into the oil pay zone and leave this part uncased. This is called an open hole well.
(2) They drill the well deep into the oil pay zone and then run casing from the surface to the bottom of the well and then cement the outside of the casing. They will then shoot holes in the casing in the oil pay zone at designated intervals. The oil, water and gas comes into the well bore through these holes.
In the early days they would put nitroglycerin in the bottom of the well and set it off to crack the formation so more oil would come into the well bore.
Now they use acid and sand injected at high pressure to fracture the formation with.
Have a good one
Allan
my bolding
Now, the whole point of all this, getting back to your point . . .
Some spots in Qld N.T. have their own oil wells, some unkown to the enemy (Gov). The oil is so thin it can be used as deisel straight, just filter.
. . . is that there are wells everywhere, and it's a fair bet that a few enterprising souls have come up with the idea of bypassing the whole service station thingy. I think you might have only identified the secondary enemy though. The government might like its tax income, but not near as much as the oil companies enjoy theirs. If I had a secret oil well, I'd be hiding from Shell and BP more than from Canberra.
You're right about the oil coming out of the ground looking like diesel, and I'm sure some of it would work just as well, but I can imagine a few expensive failures too.
The most capped-off wells I've ever seen were on Barrow Island in the late 1970s. I think they capped them off and ran away when the Poms blew up the Montebello Islands with atom bombs, but I don't know what they're doing out there now.
Here's a little more about the history of oil and gas exploration in Australia:
National Newsletter of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia
I'll get to the Jindalee over-the-horizon radar next episode.
Cheers,
Dave
Well, at least you won't have far to look. lionking.
