Permian Basin Residual Oil Zone Symposium

Do you remember a wonderful show of oil that had to be the next great oil field? And do you remember the disappointment when the DST or completion tested all water?  Well, things are changing a bit in the oil patch these days and, today, not all that  news is bad.  An increasing level of attention is being paid to the intervals below the oil/water contacts in many Permian Basin oilfields.  And your experience and observatons could be really beneficial as we try to upgrade our level of understanding of the full distribution and origins of these residual oil zones (ROZs.)

The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Melzer Consulting and several participating and sponsoring organizations submitted a proposal and were recently awarded a grant by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) to research the origins and distributions of these ROZ intervals.  One of the early milestones of our study is related to telling the ROZ story (as we currently understand it) and collecting anecdotal evidence related to the ROZs around the Basin.  A symposium to this end is now scheduled for Midland College Advanced Technology Center for Thursday, October 22.  The morning session will start at 10:00 am and involve the background work that describes what we know about the origin and nature of the ROZ intervals.  A speaker from one of the six companies currently exploiting the ROZ intervals with CO2 EOR will be invited to speak at the lunch.  The afternoon will be devoted to smaller sessions wherein observations from the audience will be solicited by the breakout session personnel in an attempt to gather evidence from the audience related to frustrating (water) completions, sulfur observances, tilted oil/water contacts, anomalous water chemistry, and corrosion intervals.

The cost of the symposium is free; lunch will be provided.  If you have been around our industry a long time and have the bruises to prove it, we would love to have you come.  The grayer your hair (or the less of it you have) the better.  However, we need to know you are coming so pre-registration is required and can be accomplished by calling Joan or Linda at the Petroleum Professional Development Center (PPDC) at 432-683-2832 , registering by email with jbrooks@midland,edu or ldiaz@midland.edu, or by registering on-line at this site.

Please mark your calendar and come be with us.