A WELL OF KNOWLEDGE
Red Raider No. 1 is Texas Tech's test oil well--the deepest test well owned by a university in the United States.
Written by Scott Slemmons
Drilling students on their knowledge, Texas Tech University uses the biggest drill of all. Red Raider No. 1 is Texas Tech’s test oil well — the deepest test well owned by a university in the United States.
The well has completed its first major test of technology and procedures. Texas Tech petroleum engineers and researchers from BP America and Trican Production Services Inc. tested new technology and procedures in mid-February 2003, for extending the operational life of oil and gas wells. The procedure involved lining oil well tubing with a seamless coil of polyethylene pipe without having to remove the tubing from the well. Researchers hope that this will help protect equipment from corrosive well environments.
The testing required five days of well servicing in order to evaluate the operational procedure.
Texas Tech’s Department of Petroleum Engineering completed its Red Raider No. 1 test oil well in late December 2001. The facilities’ construction was funded by donations from the oil and gas industry, which donated approximately $425,000 of equipment and services.
The Texas Tech test well facilities are located on 8.7 acres of university property in Lubbock County. The well was drilled to 4,120 feet and completed with 9-5/8 inch, 43.5 lb/ft., N-80 casing. The well’s purpose is to provide a location for training undergraduate students in oilfield operations. Also, the well is used as a full-scale research facility for the installation, testing and development of oil and gas production.
The well’s size also will make it flexible enough to simulate well types ranging from high- and low-rate wells, to offshore dual wells, to injection wells.
James C. Cox, Ph.D., assistant professor of petroleum engineering, says Texas Tech’s test well could become an important testing site for future petroleum technology. “We hope that these facilities will become a central location for the development and testing of forward-thinking technologies that not only extend the producing life of West Texas oil wells, but of all the wells around the world.”
Steve Taylor, general manager of Trican, comments that his company is looking forward to testing new technology with researchers from Texas Tech.
“We think that the well-lining systems being tested here will positively change some critical aspects of energy operations in the future,” Taylor says. “Installations, such as the test well here at Texas Tech, are critical to bringing products like ours to the market, and we are gratified that the university has assumed an industry and academic leadership position with the construction of this facility.”
Cox notes that the test well also is an important educational tool. “This is a great opportunity for our petroleum engineering students to see these types of operations. Their experiences will make them more aware of the planning and preparations required for moving real oilfield equipment onto a location.”
Unlike a conventional producing well, the Red Raider No. 1 is completed with two tubing strings — one string is used to inject oil, water and gas into the well bore, while the second one produces the fluids to the surface. This closed circulatory system provides the researchers with a controlled oil well environment.
To simulate, as closely as possible, the performance of an actual oil well, real crude oil and natural gas are used in Red Raider No. 1.
Because 90 percent of the United States’ oil is produced with the assistance of some form of artificial lift, a majority of the test well research is directed toward the development, design and testing of new artificial lift systems.
Last summer, the Texas Tech Department of Petroleum Engineering continued its expansion of the test well facilities by installing crude oil and water storage tanks, a gas pipeline connection, pump stations, metering and measurement packages and separation and treating units. When completed, the facilities will be capable of testing all forms of artificial lift at anticipated rates as high as 10,000 barrels per day of liquid and 1 million cubic feet per day of gas. Future development of the test well site will include the installation of new configurations of pipe for the study of how oil and gas move within a pipeline.
Researchers with the university expect to learn much more from the test well as time goes on. Knowledge, like the Red Raider No. 1, is a deep well to be explored.
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