Using Computers to Keep Track
of Geological Data
This picture shows a tiny part of a computer program used to
manipulate data from thousands of wells. The Carrel 1-11
in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, is the example.
The next part of the program (below) gives information about the
completion of the Red Fork Formation in the Carrel 1-11. This is a decent
gas well, neither extremely great nor extremely bad for its depth
(13,050'). Note that the well's "IPF" (inital production, flowing) initially made 1285 thousand cubic feet of gas per day plus 26 barrels
of oil. The "flowing" part tells us that no pump was
needed to produce this well....the hydrocarbons flowed out under their own
pressure.
Under "Pressures", you will see that the "FTP"
(flowing tubing pressure at the wellhead in pounds per square inch, or PSI) was 950 pounds. This is a fair
pressure, and indicates that the well is likely to produce for some time.
Just as an example, a well making 5000 MCFD with a FTP of
pressure of several thousand pounds would make a PG jump for joy.
This ain't one of those.
Finally, this part of the program shows the production
history of the Carrel 1-11. Notice that the well started producing in late
1982. Oil production is shown in green, and gas production is red.
Oil is given in barrels per month (scale on the left, numbers are Exponential
Notation ) and gas is shown in MCF (thousand cubic feet) per
month (scale on the right). In 1996 oil production was about 200 barrels per month (green scale
on left) and gas production was about 9500 MCF per month (red scale on
right).
Notice that cumulative production of 20.8 thousand
barrels of oil and 1,764 million cubic feet (OR 1.7 billion cubic feet ) is
given at the bottom of the chart. At the current time (2005), oil
sells for about $50 a barrel and gas sells for about $6 per MCF.
Therefore, the value of all the oil and gas produced through 2001 (At 2005 prices) is about
$1.4 million dollars for the oil plus about $10.2 million dollars for the
gas...for a total value of $11.6 million dollars.
Don't forget that it
currently costs about $2 million dollars to drill and complete a well like this
one! If the well is no good (a dry hole), the $2 million dollars is lost.
Only about 10% of all the exploration tests drilled produce enough oil or gas to
pay for the cost of drilling them! Exploration tests are usually defined
as holes drilled more than one mile from existing oil or gas production.
