Oil Recovery Investigations of the Petroleum Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines

Problems Being Studied The selection of the first problems to be studied was based largely upon thefollowing very practical questions asked by several of the largest operators inthe Mid-Continent field.What are the causes for the formation of excessive amounts of bad thick oilon properties that are being repressured with compressed air and how can thistrouble be prevented?Why, in some areas, does the oxygen in the air injected into an oil sandduring repressuring operations apparently change to carbon dioxide? Is carbondioxide formed by the oxidation of some of the oil in the sand? How can theformation of inert or low B.t.u. casinghead gas, loaded with nitrogen, carbondioxide and oxygen, be prevented?What percentage of the oil originally present in an oil sand can berecovered by the ordinary methods of operation when the gas originallydissolved in the oil is the main propulsive agent?What percentage of the amount of oil produced by ordinary methods can berecovered under average conditions by repressuring a so-called depleted oilsand?What are the relative propulsive efficiencies of compressed air and naturalgas in repressuring operations?What are the practical advantages of pressure maintenance and earlyrepressuring as compared with late repressuring?