Regarding Improvements In the Rankin Field Due to BOS [The Titan Process] by W.C. Davis, Petroleum Engineer
September 20, 2001
Mr. Ken Gerbino
Titan Oil Recovery, Inc.
9595 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 103
Beverly Hills, California 90212
RE: Rankin Unit
Harris County, Texas
Dear Ken,
As you know I was the petroleum engineer in charge of the BOS project performed on the Rankin Unit during the period July, 1990 until the end of the experiment in 1992.
The BOS microbial treatment had an immediate positive effect on the Rankin field. Oil production increased, water injection pressures went up and the overall field decline was halted. Although we only had two injections treatments over two years, the field produced approximately 24,400 barrels of additional oil over the base line expectation.
My background is as follows. I received a BS degree in geological engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1970. I have worked as a field drilling and production operations engineer, reservoir engineer and petrophysical evaluation analyst. My operations experience includes offshore as well as land work. I have worked in the North Sea, Canada, Venezuela as well as most of the major producing states (Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming, etc.). I currently perform contract petroleum engineering services for CLX Energy, Inc. and operate my own production company, Vector Minerals Corporation.
As a personal note, prior to Rankin, I had previously worked on a microbial project in Oklahoma in 1983 where we treated two wells. Neither well showed any signs of improvement in oil production; however, one of them seemed to have an acceleration of corrosion problems as a result. Needless to say, after that experience I entered the Rankin project as a cynical skeptic.
With regard to the Rankin project, this property was purchased in order to conduct the BOS experiment, and strict attention was paid to hold the entire field operations constant so that the only change would be the result of the BOS treatments. As I recall, there were several potential field enhancements (well reworks, other conventional stimulations, improving the production equipment, etc.), which could have been implemented in conjunction with the BOS treatments; however, that would have tainted the science and confused the effects of BOS.
The Rankin Field was discovered in the early 1950s and had been under an active water flood since the mid-1960s. A carbon dioxide tertiary recovery project had been attempted in the mid1980s, but had been discontinued as an economic failure shortly thereafter.
In 1987, due to depressed oil prices, about fifteen of the field's twenty or so wells had been shut in, leaving two active producing wells and three active water injectors. From that time until the first BOS treatment (July, 1990) this production arrangement had been on a steady 19% per year decline and was producing approximately 40 barrels of oil per day. The BOS treatment immediately arrested the field's decline and the oil production remained constant or slightly increased from that point forward. That in of itself is quite remarkable; however, other significant phenomena also occurred in conjunction with the increased oil production. The water injection pressures coincidentally increased dramatically which was a very positive sign. As I recall, the water injection pressures had initially been in the 300 to 400 psi range prior to the BOS treatment. After the BOS treatment, the pressure on the injection wells gradually increased to around 1,100 psi. I was concerned that we had plugged up our injection wells, which is a common occurrence, in my experience, using conventional polymers to reprofile water floods. I shut in the injections wells and the pressures in all three of them decreased to zero in 3-5 minutes. This reaction indicated that the pressure increases we had observed were the result of a blocking off the thief zones in the reservoir away from the well bore. This is an independent verification that reprofiling had indeed occurred — a very welcome event. Had the well bore itself been plugged up, the shut-in pressures would have decreased very slowly over an hour or longer.
A second BOS treatment was applied in February, 1992 and I don't recall that the second treatment had such a dramatic effect, but rather continued the newly established production trends. During the BOS experiment, the casing head gas produced by the wells stayed pretty much the same. We concluded the BOS experiment in late 1992 without changing any of the operating parameters. The field was subsequently sold to another operator. I don't know the details after 1992; however, the production records reflect that the "BOS trend" of oil production appears to have lasted through 1994. After that, production declined, and the field is currently producing about 12 barrels of oil per day. Based on an original 19% per year decline, Rankin should have reached 12 barrels of oil per day five and one half years ago. This is just one indication of how extraordinary the BOS process worked at Rankin.
In summary, the 1990 BOS treatment appears to have greatly extended the life of this mature water flood. A rough estimation is that an additional 24,400 barrels of oil could be attributed to the BOS treatment during the four and one half year period from July, 1990 until December, 1994. I saw the results at Rankin with my own eyes and I know what we did and didn't do. I firmly believe the BOS stimulation worked successfully at Rankin.
Sincerely,
W.C. Davis
Petroleum Engineer
518 17th Street • Suite 745 • Denver, Colorado 80202
Phone (303) 825-7080 • Fax (303) 825-7082
