ABSTRACT

Amoco and partners are extending the life of a 70 year-old south Louisiana oil field with two innovative enhanced oil recovery projects and a 3-D seismic survey. West Hackberry Field, in northern Cameron Parish, produces oil and gas from Miocene and Oligocene sands on the flanks of the largest salt dome in southwestern Louisiana.

A joint Amoco-U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project involves field testing of the applicability of air injection in two recovery processes: 1) displacing a water-invaded oil column in a watered-out oil reservoir to recover additional oil through gravity drainage and 2) repressuring a low-pressure reservoir by injecting air into the gas cap, pushing the thin oil rim to downstructure wells. The first two low pressure reservoirs in Hackberry to undergo air injection have increased production by over 70 per cent above the normal decline.

A 155-square kilometer (60-square mile) 3-D seismic survey is currently being interpreted to exploit the existing field pays and to evaluate deeper Oligocene and Eocene potential. Preliminary interpretation has identified a deep salt overhang on the field's west flank.