Identification of technical barriers and preferred practices for oil production in the Appalachian Basin

The Appalachian Basin is characterized by great number of stripper wells and marginally producing oilfields that face a number of production problems. The purpose of this study was to identify the main problematic issues and preferred solutions for oil production in the Appalachian Basin. Investigation and identification of oil production problems and preferred solutions began with searches in the Society of Petroleum Engineer (SPE) library, and Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) website. In addition, journals, workshop, conference were used to find additional information. Formal interviews were arranged with oil producers to gain more insight into problems in the Appalachian Basin. Accordingly, the following production problems were identified and ranked in order of decreasing importance: water production, poor understanding of reservoir heterogeneity, limited availability of compatible water for water injection, lack of sufficient reservoir data such as permeability, porosity, and primary production data for reservoir characterization, and paraffin and asphaltene causing operational issues. The technologies that are investigated included: water controls treatment, water-handling methods, and reservoir characterization using Artificial Neural Networks, paraffin and asphaltene control. In addition, corrosion problems and electrical cost reduction are discussed.