ipaa ogis new york, page-6

Osi, I wrote to TB on the weekend and got a quick reply. One question I asked was about the gas causing problems at Defender, because i havent been able to get my head around why it is a problem, given that many wells produce both oil and gas. He stated that it is producing roughly 5000 cfg/bo produced. Compare this to say Earl which had the highest gas production rate of the Nth Stockyard wells, which was 360 mcfg/day when the oil production rate was 289 bopd, a gas/oil ratio of 1245 cfg/bo. So the gas production rate is about 4x higher. He stated that the normal pressure configuration of the Niobrara formation at Defender exacerbates the situation.

My takeaway from that is that the extra gas, under lower reservoir pressure, is causing much more turbulent flow, which would explain why its carrying so much sand and debris through the pumps and affecting their performance.

They have already changed the pumping location from downhole to surface (see March 19th announcement), to control the hydrostatic pressure and (imo) to reduce the flow turbulence disturbing and carrying sand/debris into the pump. I note in the March 29th release the surface (rod) pump location resulted in what must have been a lower pressure given the reduction in fluid rates produced. In the last announcement it only says the problems continue, but doesnt say whether its pressure problems (and therefore production rate), or whether its debris causing pump damage. Debris or pump damage was not mentioned in either of the last 2 announcements, so my interpretation (i.e. my guess) is tht pressure remains the key problem with the pump at the surface, and changing the stroke rate on the rod pump didnt overcome that problem.

Hence the need to return to a downhole pump conifguration, and presumbly the jet pump mechanism is seen as the solution for controlling pressure, fluid turbulence, and hence derbis/sand.

Cheers, Sharks.

Cheers, Sharks.