Sept. 2001 Vol. 222 No. 9  Exploration

Perry A. Fischer,  Engineering Editor

Geohazards study, big buyouts and corny fuel

The MMS has made available a new study, Improved geohazards and benthic habitat evaluations: Digital acoustic data with ground truth calibrations (MMS 2001-050). The objective of the study is to develop a framework and criteria for identifying seafloor features and areas resulting from hydrocarbon venting / seepage. A parallel purpose is to understand how to detect chemosynthetic communities from 3-D seismic surface-amplitude data and standard, high-resolution acoustic data collected for geohazards evaluation.

Detailed datasets were collected on 29 features in the Gulf of Mexico upper continental slope (<1,000-m depths). Areas of seafloor with hydrocarbon venting / seepage are nearly always represented on high-resolution seismic profiles as acoustic-wipeout zones. Mud vents, mudflows and mud volcanoes do not usually support complex chemosynthetic communities, and hydrocarbons reaching the seafloor are only slightly biodegraded. Mineral-prone features such as mounded carbonates, hardgrounds or barite-carbonate-encrusted areas also do not support densely populated, complex chemosynthetic communities.

In addition to direct seafloor verification, datasets were analyzed and a synthesis of feature characteristics was derived. Using 3-D-seismic surface amplitude and phase data provided a powerful additional element for interpreting seafloor geology and, to some extent, biology, when used in conjunction with good quality high-resolution seismic and side-scan sonar data.

The quality of interpretation of seafloor geology using remotely sensed acoustic data is dependent on a variety of variables, including frequency and source-firing rate, towing configuration, filtering, and recording-data storage modes.

Copies of the report from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, are available for $10.00. For more information, call (504) 736-2752.

Egyptian gas discoveries. Apache Corp. hit a new-zone discovery in its Khalda Concession in Egypt’s Western Desert. Yasser-19 tested 21.9 MMcfg and 1,560 bbl of condensate a day on a 52/64-in. choke, with 2,085 psi of FTP. Yasser-19 was drilled to assess possible bypassed attic oil in the Bahariya and Kharita zones and to explore for new reserves in the deeper Alam el Bueib (AEB) section. The well discovered 66 ft of pay in the AEB, 73 ft of bypassed attic oil in the Bahariya formation and an additional 14 ft in the Kharita. Only the AEB 3E formation, a new pay zone, was tested.

Also at Khalda, the Kenz-28 well was drilled to assess bypassed attic-oil potential in the AEB and to explore for new reserves in the Jurassic-age Khatatba formation. The well discovered 77 ft of AEB pay and two new payzones. Kenz-28 tested at a combined daily rate of 23.1 MMcfg and 3,077 bbl of condensate.

Centurion Energy Int. also had a gas strike in Egypt with its Gelgel prospect in El Manzala concession. The Gelgel-1 exploration well spudded on July 27, 2001, and reached a 4,101-ft TD in the Kafr El Sheikh formation just six days later. Although the well has not yet been tested, logs and RFT pressure tests indicate multiple gas bearing sands in the upper Kafr El Sheikh formation, with 51 ft of net pay.

Diamond buyer. Norwegian-based Petroleum Geo-Services ASA has acquired Diamond Geophysical Service Corp. The transaction comprised an undisclosed amount stock and cash to the former shareholders of Diamond. "Due to the wishes of our Diamond counterpart, we have agreed not to disclose those numbers," Erik Hokholt, a spokesman for PGS told Reuters. "PGS had increased its share capital by 900,000 new shares, and the majority of those shares will be used in the transaction."

"The aim of the transaction is to strengthen our sales organization in the Gulf of Mexico. The GOM was the only place in the world where we had used brokers, and now we are going away from that," Hokholt said.

Devon buys Mitchell. Devon Energy Corp. will acquire Mitchell for $3.1 billion in cash and stock plus $400 million in assumed debt. The buyout will make Devon the second largest independent natural gas producer in the U.S., and will expand Devon’s year-end reserve base by about 38%. Devon will also add 2.5 Tcf of proved gas-equivalent reserves. Mitchell properties are nearly all in Texas, with 71% of those being gas. Devon will also acquire gas processing plants, pipelines and other midstream assets valued between $800 million and $1 billion.

Corny fuel. The last thing this editor would want to do is aggravate farmers. Corn-derived ethanol has been beneficial to them and has been touted as a fossil fuel substitute and a fuel additive. Unfortunately, Cornell University agricultural scientist David Pimentel has some bad news for farmers. He says that neither increases in government subsidies – currently about $1 billion a year – nor hikes in the price of oil can overcome this fact: it takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than combustion of ethanol produces.

"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning," says Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. DOE panel that investigated the energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production several years ago. He subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of the corn-to-fuel process.

Pimentel’s analysis found that 1 acre of U.S. corn yields about 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 1,000 gallons of fossil fuels. Adding the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 Btu is needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol, which has an energy value of only 77,000 Btu. "Put another way," Pimentel says, "About 70% more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that is actually in ethanol. His findings will be published in the September, 2001 edition of the Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences and Technology.

Comments? Write: fischerp@gulfpub.com