Texas Makes Up Its Mind

To try to keep the world oil glut from getting any worse, the Texas Railroad Commission--overseer of one-third of the U.S. output--rigidly limits the production of regular (i.e., primary-recovery) wells. But as part of its long-range campaign to spur oilmen to go after oil otherwise left behind, the commission grants unlimited production of secondary-recovery wells. These are wells in fields where the underground pressure that normally drives up the oil is exhausted and the oil can be brought up only by other means.

This hard way of getting out oil has now become a hot way. In the past ten years secondary-recovery operations have increased sixfold, though they still account for only 5% of Texas' 80 million bbl. monthly output.

Texas oilmen are now wrangling over the future of unlimited secondary production. What sparked the dispute is the plan of some secondary-recovery oilmen to start operations in the giant Spraberry Trend--the largest field they have yet tackled. This scares some of Texas' biggest oilmen who are engaged principally in primary production. Having heard the arguments of both sides, the Railroad Commission last week was trying to make up its mind. Best bet is that the commission will place limits on secondary production, too, but make them generous. "It gives them incentive," says William J. Murray Jr., a member of the three-man commission, "and it damned sure is conservation. We've got an oil surplus right now, but some day we're going to need it mighty bad."

High Cost of Conservation. Leading the opposition is Jersey Standard's Humble Oil & Refining Co., Texas' biggest producer. It wants secondary-recovery wells closed down each month much as the ordinary wells are (which are now allowed to pump only eight days a month). Secondary-recovery operators claim that it harms their kind of wells to close them down. The secondary-recovery operators also argue that they deserve preference because it costs 50% to 150% more to operate by their methods.

Waterflooding is the favorite technique. Water, sometimes treated with chemicals to increase its density, is pumped into an oil-bearing formation, forcing the oil to a nearby well. In most situations, water-flooding recovers 40% to 65% of the oil in a reservoir.

Fireflooding. New methods may produce even better results. One new meth od, called fireflooding, uses an electric coil in a well shaft to ignite the oil. Air is then pumped in to fan the blaze. The moving wall of fire thins the oil so that it flows ahead of the blaze to another well.

Unlike coal-mine fires, an underground oil blaze does not seep through to the surface, can be extinguished by cutting off the air supply. In a field near Palestine, Texas, when waterflooding failed, fire was used. Production in one well alone jumped from i to 50 bbl. a day.

The industry is also about ready with another new way, called miscible-phase displacement. A solvent, such as propane or butane gas, is forced into an oil-bearing formation. The solvent washes the oil out of the rocks and sand, moving it to a producing well. If the technique, now under laboratory and limited field tests, proves to be economically feasible, it will bring about almost total recovery of oil in fields once abandoned.

Railroad Commissioner Murray has no fear that encouraging secondary recovery is bad. So far, 15 billion bbl. of oil have been pumped out of Texas fields by primary methods, and primary means can recover another 15 billion bbl. Another 10 billion bbl. can be recovered by secondary methods currently in use. Still remaining in the ground, however, will be another 50 billion bbl. "You can see," says Murray, "why we get starry-eyed about conservation."

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