Word: sanding
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Exploration crews have been probing the Tuscaloosa Sand since the early 1960s, but the gas proved elusive. Formed 65 million years ago in northern Louisiana and swept southward by ancient rivers, it lay hidden under a layer of limestone that distorted the echoes of shock waves by which geologists map underground formations. But a Chevron geologist's hunch, confirmed by tests using computer techniques, led prospectors to a swampy field on the Parlange plantation. When the drill bit spun into a zone of extreme pressure 21,345 ft. down, the gas and steam crushed the well casing, ripped...
...acre and a one-third share in future production. The state of Louisiana, controlling 5 million acres, leased land on the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain for $324 an acre and a choice site elsewhere at $1,500 an acre in competitive bidding. So far, the Tuscaloosa Sand has yielded 14 producing or potentially producing wells...
...paycheck from an energy company. A recent report to the Governor of Louisiana estimated that 85% of the state's potential oil-and gas-producing deposits have not yet been drilled, but most of the unexplored reserves are very deep and difficult to find, as in the Tuscaloosa Sand. There the wells are four times as deep as the average U.S. well. Drilling one costs about $5 million if it is a producer, almost as much if it is a dry hole-and dry holes outnumber the producers 3 or 4 to 1. Louisiana officials argue that the heavy...
While the search for gas in the Tuscaloosa Sand is being conducted mostly by private business, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing funds to assemble information on the Gulf Coast's geopressured zones. In theory, the water from these zones, emerging at a wellhead pressure of 6,000 lbs. per sq. in. and a temperature much above boiling, could spin turbines and yield heat for such purposes as oil refining, food processing and rice drying. The gas that is dissolved underground in the hot water fizzes out of solution at atmospheric pressure to be captured for fuel...
Other sticky problems will challenge the engineers and designers. Sand will probably have to be screened out by costly stainless-steel filters at the bottom of each well. The corrosive quality and high temperature and pressure of the brine will demand specially designed piping, valves and moving machinery. The exhaust water will have to be pumped back into the earth to avoid turning the area into a swamp. The economics will look more encouraging, however, if Congress adopts a provision now in a pending tax bill that will allow a tax credit...