Abstract: A process for removing water-soluble contaminates from soil includes laying a mat over and in contact with the contaminated soil, applying water to the soil, permitting the water to be transferred from the soil to the mat, permitting the contaminants to be carried via the water into the mat, and permitting the water to be evaporated from the mat so that the contaminants precipitate in the mat.

Abstract: A method for fracturing a plurality of different subterranean production zones which are spaced along a wellbore wherein flow is established into a first or lower zone while a removable sleeve blocks flow into the other upper zones. The first zone is fractured and the sleeve is then notched, preforated, or repositioned to establish flow into a second zone while flow is now blocked into the lower, fractured zone. The second zone is fractured and this procedure is repeated until all of the desired zones have been fractured after the sleeve is retrieved to the surface.

Abstract: An apparatus for milling a window in a well tubular, e.g. a well casing, which is comprised of a whipstock and a cooperating mill. The mill has a nose portion depending from the bottom thereof and has cutting surfaces on both the bottom and the sides. The whipstock is comprised of a body which, in turn, has a tapered surface along at least a portion of its length. A guide, e.g. cylindrical pipe, is mounted on and is spaced from the tapered surface and is adapted to receive the nose portion on the mill to provide a guide path for the mill as it cuts or mills a window in the well casing. The guide is positioned so as to direct the side cutting surface of the mill into contact with the casing without contacting the tapered surface of the whipstock.

Abstract: A method for removing carbon oxides from a hydrogen stream containing more than 0.1 ppmv of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or a mixture thereof, by charging the hydrogen with a hydrocarbonaceous stream containing a minor amount of aromatics to an aromatics saturation zone; saturating at least a portion of the aromatics and methanating at least a major portion of the carbon oxide to produce a reduced aromatics content hydrocarbonaceous stream and a reduced carbon oxide content hydrogen stream; and recovering the reduced aromatics content hydrocarbonaceous stream and the reduced carbon oxide content hydrogen stream. The hydrogen may optionally be dried or further purified.

Abstract: A packed bed static mixer, and a piping network including the same, is disclosed. The packed bed static mixer includes a vertical intake portion, within which packing material consisting of small elements, is disposed. The packing elements may be spheres, PALL RING elements, or the like, and are fabricated of a material suitable for the particular application of the static mixer. The size of the packing elements is maintained to be relatively small relative to the mixer, to provide numerous mixing vortices therewithin; the packing elements are randomly packed into the static mixer. Outlets are provided which extend horizontally and radially from the bottom of the static mixer, and are typically of smaller diameter than the intake portion. Because the mixing action depends upon the size of the vortices at the interstitial voids among the packing elements, the disclosed static mixer design may be readily scaled to various diameters.

Abstract: A method for producing a heavy crude oil from a subterranean formation via a wellbore, transporting the heavy crude oil to a market and producing a distillable hydrocarbonaceous stream from the crude oil, the method includes: producing the heavy crude oil from a subterranean formation via a wellbore, mixing the heavy crude oil with a diluent to form a mixture, transporting the mixture to a selected location and converting the heavy crude oil into a product distillate hydrocarbon stream and at least one of heat, steam, electricity and synthesis gas by separating distillable components of the heavy crude oil by distillation and converting the residual portion of the heavy crude oil in a fluidized bed to at least one of heat, steam, electricity or synthesis gas. The diluent is typically a hydrocarbonaceous distillate material which may be recovered as a separate product.

Abstract: A method is provided for cooling prior to decoking a petroleum coke drum having a substantially solidified mass of petroleum coke by initiating the injection of water into the coke drum while the average temperature of the coke within the coke drum is greater than about 500.degree. F., wherein the average flow rate of water injected into the coke drum over the initial 10 minute period of water injection is from about 0.0033 to about 0.01 gpm per cubic foot of coke in the coke drum; and thereafter continuing the injection of water into the drum for a total injection time of at least about 60 minutes, at a flow rate during the 50 minute period immediately following the initial 10 minute period less than about 0.0036 to about 0.011 gpm per cubic foot of coke in the coke drum.

Abstract: A method and computer system for deriving and applying normal moveout phase and time shift corrections to seismic survey traces is disclosed. Normal moveout time-shift corrections are first applied to traces in a common midpoint (CMP) or common depth point (CDP) gather, based upon stacking velocity analysis applied to envelopes of the traces. One offset in the survey, preferably the maximum offset, is selected as the reference point; the NMO time shift at this reference offset is then selected as a reference NMO time-shift. The traces in the gather are each phase-shifted based upon iterated reference phase dispersion values at the reference offset, times the ratio of the normal moveout time-shifts for the trace in the gather to that of the reference offset (raised to a power). Semblance analysis is performed to identify, for each point in normal incidence time and thus for each reflective event, the optimum reference phase dispersion value.

Abstract: A method for producing a heavy crude oil from a subterranean formation through a wellbore and converting the heavy crude oil into a product distillate hydrocarbon stream and at least one of heat, steam, electricity and synthesis gas by separating distillable components of the heavy crude oil by distillation and converting the residual portion of the heavy crude oil in a fluidized bed to at least one of heat, steam, electricity or synthesis gas. The method also produces diluent hydrocarbons useful in the production and transportation of the heavy crude oil.

Abstract: Apparatus for insertion in a well which is producing fluids from multiple zones for measuring the concentration of water in the fluids flowing through the well to determine which zone may be producing excessive quantities of water. The apparatus transmits microwave frequency range radiation within a section of the wellbore. The apparatus may utilize a portion of the well casing and a conductor member which is centered in the wellbore by spaced apart centralizers to form a coaxial transmission line within the wellbore. The apparatus may be traversed through the wellbore on a wireline type cable for continuous measurement of the water content of the water-oil mixture flowing through the well to determine which zone is producing excessive amounts of water into the production fluids.

Abstract: A method for detecting in real time the growth of a hydraulic fracture in an impermeable subterranean zone separating a monitored subterranean zone and an injection subterranean zone, which zones are penetrated by a wellbore, whereby a pressure sensor is positioned in pressure sensing communication with the first subterranean zone, and the pressure sensor is monitored for a pressure increase in the first subterranean zone, the pressure increase being indicative of a hydraulic fracture extension from the second subterranean zone through the impermeable zone to the first subterranean zone.

Abstract: A computer system for interpreting seismic signals to identify reflective horizons is disclosed. The seismic signals are retrieved and conventional corrections are applied. A seismic survey is displayed, and a human analyst places horizon lines or surfaces above or below suspected reflective events in the survey. The disclosed method then operates on a trace by trace basis to identify the location in time at which the attribute, which may be amplitude, envelope amplitude, phase, frequency and the like, meets a draping criterion. The interpreted horizon is set at the identified depth or time location, and the interpreted horizon points are connected into an interpreted horizon surface (in the case of a 3-D survey). Traces having only weak or no reflections may not have an interpreted surface point, or may have an interpolated point set therefor. An automated and efficient horizon interpretation method and system, even for large surveys of complex geology, is thus provided.

Abstract: A system and method for performing seismic prospecting and monitoring during drilling of a well are disclosed. The system generates energy, such as acoustic vibrations and electromagnetic energy, at a downhole location and imparts the same into the surrounding earth. The energy may be imparted by the drilling operation itself, or may be generated by a downhole apparatus. Downhole sensors are provided which sense the energy after it has passed through the earth surrounding the wellbore. The sensed energy is either communicated to the surface, or is communicated to a downhole computer for analysis, with the results of the analysis communicated to the surface. Due to the use of both downhole generation and sensing of the energy, high frequency energy may be used. As a result, the resolution of the resulting survey is improved over techniques which utilize surface detectors for energy traveling through the earth.

Abstract: A method and composition for removing deposits of heavy hydrocarbonaceous materials and finely divided drilling fluid solids from a wellbore using a composition containing an alkyl polyglycoside, an ethoxylated alcohol, a caustic and an alkyl alcohol by injecting the composition into the wellbore, maintaining the composition in the wellbore for a selected time and thereafter producing the composition from the wellbore.

Abstract: A method and a drilling fluid/cement slurry composition for cementing a wellbore. The drilling fluid/cement slurry composition comprises A cement slurry composition comprising:a) a cementitious material;b) a drilling fluid; andc) a dispersant selected from the group consisting of water soluble polymers comprising allyloxybenzene sulfonate or allyloxybenzene phosphonate polymerized with at least one of acrylic acid, acrylamides, alkyl acrylamides, maleic anhydride, itaconic acid, sulfonated or phosphonated styrene sulfonated or phosphonated vinyl toluene, sulfonated or phosphonated isobutylene, acrylamidopropane sulfonate, acrylamidopropanephosphonate, vinyl alcohol, sulfonated or phosphonated propene and alkali, alkaline earth and ammonium salts thereof.

Abstract: A computer system and method of operating the same, to execute multiple analysis application programs upon multiple persistent databases, each arranged to a vendor-specific format for geological and geophysical data, is disclosed. According to the disclosed embodiments of the invention, an abstract object interface is provided, by way of which the analysis application program need not be aware of the vendor format of the persistent database upon which operations are being executed. The abstract object interface includes program code by way of which, upon execution, a hierarchy of objects are instantiated. Prior to instantiating objects according to the geologically-related information, the user selects a particular source of data, for example by selecting a catalog corresponding to one of the vendor formats.

Abstract: A method for carrying out a well treatment in a well (e.g. fracturing, sand control, etc.) wherein a high-viscosity treatment fluid containing a gel (e.g. a polymeric gelling agent) is flowed down the well along with a bacteria selected from the generic classes of Enterococcus and Corynebacterium or a mixture of the two, which is capable of digesting and/or cleaving the gel to reduce the viscosity of the gel at the conclusion of the well treatment.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for removing solids from a substantially horizontal section of a wellbore which allows the use of coiled tubing as a workstring without requiring the removal of the production tubing from the wellbore. Guide tubing, which is left in the wellbore, extends from the surface through the horizontal section and is adapted to guide a string of slightly smaller-diameter, coiled tubing through the horizontal section. Wash fluid, e.g. water, flows through a nozzle on the coiled tubing and out through openings in the guide tubing directly into the solids to form a slurry therewith. The slurry is then pumped out of the wellbore through the production tubing and/or reenters the guide tubing through other opening(s) therein to flow to the surface through the annulus which exists between the coiled tubing and the guide tubing.

Abstract: Spacer fluids comprising a dispersant selected from the group consisting of water soluble polymers comprising allyloxybenzene sulfonate or allyloxybenzene phosphonate polymerized with at least one of acrylic acid, acrylamides, alkyl acrylamides, maleic anhydride, itaconic acid, sulfonated or phosphonated styrene, sulfonated or phosphonated vinyl toluene, sulfonated or phosphonated isobutylene, acrylamidopropane sulfonate or acrylamidopropanephosphonate, vinyl alcohol, sulfonated or phosphonated propene and alkali metal, alkaline earth metal and ammonium salts thereof and water with optional additional components such as surfactants, viscosifiers and wetting materials to form a rheologically compatible spacer fluid for use between a drilling fluid and a cement slurry and a method for using such spacer fluids to displace drilling fluids from a wellbore space with a cement slurry.

Abstract: A coiled-tubing system having a reel onto which steel tubing is wound in layered coils. A layon roller comprised of a compliant material is maintained in physical contact with the tubing on the reel to prevent premature unwinding of the tubing during operation. The roller is moved towards and away from the tubing to maintain the roller in contact with the tubing as it is payed out and reeled onto the reel. The system includes a level wind mechanism having a means therein for adjusting the tension in the tubing as it passes through the level wind mechanism.