Possible Natural Soda Drive in the Salt Creek Type of Pool, and Its Significance in Terms of Increased Oil Recoveries

Value of New Recovery Methods The oil industry is deeply interested in the probability that improvedmethods of oil recovery will give commercial value to many old oil fieldspreviously regarded as nearly exhausted, and will add greatly to the life andyield of newly discovered pools. Because of the newness of many recoverymethods now being given a trial the respective value of these various methodsis uncertain. It can be stated with confidence, however, that no single newmethod will apply to all oil fields, and that one must know the conditionsobtaining in a specific field in order to selcct the method which will givebest results in that field. That the movement of oil-field waters, if properly controlled, has abeneficial effect upon oil production, is not yet universally recognized, andhas in a measure been lost sight of since such general interest has beenaroused in the value of natural gas as a prime factor in the recovery of oil.In some instances the helpful influence exerted by waters arises solely fromtheir hydrostatic pressure and may be partly offset by chemical reactionsbetween water and oil. In other instances the waters may be neutral chemicallywith respect to the oil, and in yet others the dissolved salts of edge watersmay actually aid water pressure in loosening oil from the sand and inincreasing its recoverability. The purpose of this article is therefore partlyto emphasize the value of natural or artificial edgewater movement (undersuitable control) as an aid to oil recovery, and partly to describe edgewaterconditions at Salt Creek, Wyo., which suggest that a direct relation existsthere between the amount of sodium carbonate dissolved in the waters and theirbeneficial "water drive" effects.