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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Tulsa Geological Society

Abstract


Tulsa Geological Society Digest
Vol. 24 (1956), Pages 36-36

Drilling with Gas: Abstract

O. J. Lilly1

Abstract

EDITOR'S NOTE: We did not receive an abstract of Mr. Lilly's talk from him and must use the paragraph from the A. A. P. G. Bulletin2 announcing his itinerary as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Association.

"The problem of gas well completions in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado in the Mesaverde formation of upper Cretaceous age called for a new technique over drilling-in with the use of cable tools or drilling-in with mud and rotary tools. In May, 1951, the El Paso Natural Gas Company successfully completed the first gas well using natural gas to clean drill cuttings and cavings from the bore hole. This new technique of gas well completion has reduced well cost, increased initial production and deliverability, and has made the Mesaverde formation commercially gas-producing in the San Juan basin. Since May, 1951, approximately 1,000 gas wells have been completed with the use of natural gas as a circulating medium. It has been conservatively estimated that more than 2,000 gas wells can be completed in the future by using this method. The method can, no doubt, be adapted to other oil and gas provinces through a detailed geologic study of the sediments".


 

Acknowledgments and Associated Footnotes

1 Shiprock Uranium Corporation and Consultant, Farmington, New Mexico. A. A. P. G. Distinguished Lecturer

2A. A. P. G. Bull., Vol. 39, No. 10, Oct., 1955, p. 2123.

Copyright © 2006 by the Tulsa Geological Society