Basic Data for Oil and Gas Wells

The natural gas industry is essentially a byproduct of the oilindustry. When first discovered the gas was usually regarded as a nuisance, and even whenfound immediately associated with oil, or suspected to be so, it was customaryto blow it freely into the air, in the hope that gas would shortly be replacedby a flow of oil. The early methods of production, transportation, andutilization were neither economical nor efficient; the chief value of gas wasbased on its use as a fuel, with no regard to (1)its effect upon the oil withwhich it was associated, (2) its importance as a lifting agent, or (3) to itspossibilities for the manufacture of byproducts. The spread of scientific research among major gas and oil companies, manufacturers, and academic groups, has gradually brought recognition of thefact that many of the technical problems bearing on production, transportationand utilization are common to both the gas and the oil industry. A few of theproblems that have received serious study, and from which highly gratifyingresults have been obtained, are:gas measurement,oil well and gas wellcapacity tests,elimination of field waste,design of pipe lines andcompressor stations,extraction of constituents which might interfere withthe normal flow of gas through the line,control of reservoir pressure,estimation of reserves of both oil and gas,control of water encroachment,measurement of factors which influence fluid movement through sands,solubility of gases in oils,effect of dissolved gases upon the propertiesof the solution. These investigations have demonstrated that almost everyproblem relating to oil production also involves some phase of natural gasengineering. During the past 15 years the use of experimental methods for the discovery andmeasurement of obscure, influencing factors, which cannot be determined purelyby hydrodynamic or thermodynamic analyses, have contributed much towards theprogress made in solving the problems of the oil and gas industries.