Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Field Illstory and Produc~ngCharactenstics protection of the heater terminals, the space in the
The Cut Eank k i e l d , located in north-central head is filled wlth a thermoplastic resin. F'ig. 2 IS
Montana on the west flank of the Sweetgrass Arch, a photograph of the heater.
was discovered In 1926. O r ~ ~ i n aconsidered
ll~ a low- The formation heater IS installed on the tubing,
er Cretaceous g a s field, exploitation resulted in oil below the mud anchor custonlarily used in Cut Bank
discovery and an ensuing developnlent program re- sand wells. Installation arrangement is shown in
sulted in defining a productive area of about 39,000 F'ig. 3. Experience has ~ n d i c a t e dthat placement of
acres by drilling over 1,200 wells. Various lower the heater wlth respect to the producing horizon i s
Cretaceous s a n d s produce i n the field with the Cut critical. Inasnluch a s virtually all wells were com-
Eank sand, at average depth of 2,800 ft, being the pleted without electric logs, customary practice,
principal zone. Accun~ulated production from the after brief cleanout, is to run a radioactivity log to
field has been over 70,000,000 bbl with solution gas- define the producing zone and provide b a s i s for ac-
drive recovery n~echanismpredominant. I n 1953, to- curate measurements. The heater is located opposite
tal production from 1,100 \%ellswas about 2,500,000 the best-developed pay sectlon, with i t s base above
bbl, an average of 6 bbl per well per day. the underlying shale interval. T h i s location insures
Description and Installation complete immersion in well fluid and maximum util-
ization of heat while protecting the assembly against
bevelopment of a suitable electric formation heat-
plugging by caving.
er has been by a program of field experimentation.
Fig. 1 revlews construction details of the assembly No. 10, 600-volt, solid copper conductor with hy-
now in use. It consists of a combination of commer- drocarbon-resistant sheath i s used to connect the
clally available conlponents into an assembly suited heater to surface electrical energy source. T h l s
for service under prevailing well conditions. An im- wire, purchased in 3,000-ft lengths, i s secured to
mersion-type, 230-volt, 5-kw heater element i s in- the tubing by hose clamps and i s protected from
stalled in a c a s e of 4-in. line pipe, perforated to clamp and tubing by tank gasket material. Because
permit con~pletesubmergence of the element. Ter- the insulation is not highly abrasion-resistant, cen-
minal head of the heater, which must be completely tralizers are placed on every other tubing collar.
~ s o l a t e dfrom well fluids, i s enclosed In an assem- Current practice i s to weld three %-in. by 1'4-in.
bly of conventional pipe fittings with one terminal by 2-ln. spacers on the collar. If evidence of hole
grounded to the c a s e and the other connected to a deviation i s available, such a s that indicated by
lead wire, conducted from the heater c a s e by a '4- tublng collar wear or wire failure at a particular
in. pipe and stuffing-box arrangement. For additional depth, closer centralizer spacing is used. At the
surface, the wire i s conducted out of the tubing-
*The Carter 011 Co., B l l l ~ n g s ,Mont. casing annulus through a tubing head side outlet
$ The Carter 011 Co., Cut Bank, Mont. and stuffing-box assembly. Electrical circuit i s com-
t Presented b y H. E. Allen at the sprlng meeting of the R o c k y
pleted by connecting a ground wire to the tubing
Mountam Dlstrlct, Dlvlslon of Productlon. Casper. Wyo.,
Aprll 1954. through this stuffing box, thereby making the tubing
100 H. E. ALLEN AND R. K. D,AVIS
5 KW 2 3 0 Volt
Oil Immersion Heoter
of brief operating history and llm~tednumber of ap- day have been experienced, ~ l t hthe average galn
plications. No obvious reasons for s u c c e s s or fall- for 26 wells belng from 8.5 to 15.7 Lbl per day. Ac-
ure are now apparent. cumulated increases shohn by the tabulat~onrepre-
sent only p r e l l m ~ n a r benefits
~ because 21 of the
At January 1, 1954, electric formation heaters had heaters now In operation were installed In 1953 and
been Installed In 28 Carteroperated Cut Bank sand have recorded only b r ~ e fservlce, w h ~ c hfor the en-
wells. Two installations were completed but had tire group averages 6.7 months per well. E'lg. 5 IS
not experienced lnltial reaction; two had been re- a cornposlte product~onperformance curve for b e l l s
moved because of caving conditions, and two for I n the program, the departure of actual production
lack of response. The two wells w~thouti n ~ t i a lre- from normal decline extrapolat~on 1 s notable. I n
actions are being considered for replacement be- becember, 1953, product~on galn i s shown a s 179
cause delayed reactions have been noted since bbl per day.
heaters were removed.
l ' y p ~ c dwell performance IS portrayed by Fig. 6.
A summary of benefits i s provided in Table 1. kormat~onheater was Installed In t h ~ sbvell I n be-
Total production galn has been 47,769 bbl, of which cember. 19511 for i n ~ t i a lproduction lncrease from
2,539 bbl are attributed to cleanout procedures. In- 7.4 to 19.2 gross bbl per day. Total galn at the end
~ t production
~ d increases a s great a s 23.5 bbl per of 1953 was 7,148 bbl.
ELECTRIC FORMATION HEATERS AND THEIR APPLICATION 103