PetroBakken, a pioneer of technological change in Bakken-type plays, is testing a full range of natural gas flooding methods as agents for enhanced oil recovery, Chief Executive Officer John Wright told the company’s annual general meeting.
Asked to compare natural gas flooding with other methods, he said PetroBakken has examined three “tried and true” concepts in the Bakken — waterflooding, natural gas flooding and carbon dioxide flooding — and concluded that CO2 is “probably the best technical solution.”
Natural gas ranks second and waterflooding is viewed as the least effective, Wright said.
Because of the “incredibly poor quality” of Bakken rock, injecting fluid is difficult, he said, describing CO2 as a “great fluid to inject into the reservoir and a horrible fluid to run through your facilities, because it forms carbonic acid (which) eats through everything.”
Gas cheaper, less corrosive
PetroBakken’s investor presentation said natural gas is cheaper and less corrosive than CO2 and the bulk of the gas can be recovered and sold, enhancing the full-cycle economics of EOR assuming gas prices recover.
Wright said that once primary recovery has taken place in the Bakken, his company expects to produce only 15 percent-17 percent of the oil-in-place, which he said would have been viewed as a “miracle” 10 years ago.
“The flip side of that is we’re going to leave 83 percent to 85 percent of the oil behind because we don’t have a way to get it out,” he said.
Cracking the code
Wright disclosed that PetroBakken is “pushing hard” with natural gas flooding and expects to have six pilots under way by the end of 2012.
If that concept cracks the code on the next layer of growth, the company “will be off to the races again,” he said.
As a result of two asset sales, PetroBakken will use some of the proceeds to raise its 2012 capital program to C$875 million from its earlier budget of C$700 million, with the majority earmarked for the Cardium play.
The company is targeting 2012 exit production rates of 52,000-56,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with first-quarter output posted at 46,722 boe per day (86 percent light oil and liquids), up 12 percent from a year earlier, while 68 (47 net) wells were drilled.
—Gary Park
