New Chevron energy project shows promising results

Dharan, Saudi Arabia --- ESI-AFRICA --- 20 December 2010 - America’s second-largest energy company "’ Chevron Corporation "’ says a pilot project to boost production by injecting steam into an oil field shared by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait is showing “very promising” results.

Chevron is trying to boost production from the Wafra field in the so-called Neutral Zone shared between the two countries by as much as 600 000 barrels a day, once a new method for injecting steam is applied on a large scale.

“We have 16 steam-injection wells in the field and I can tell you that the results that came out were very promising,” Chevron vice president and global advisor for reservoir management Ganesh Thakur told an industry conference here.

“The Wafra field will become the world’s largest project for oil recovery with steam injection, once the company applies it to the entire field,” he added.

Chevron began injecting steam at the site in June 2009 to extract more crude. The San Ramon, California-based company is still testing the steam-flooding technology on a small part of the Wafra field.

“The cost of the pilot project is US$340 million (R2.3 billion), and to apply the technology to the entire field would cost several billion dollars,” assistant to the Chevron president Gary Greaser told Bloomberg.

“The decision to apply the technology to the entire field will be made in 2013,” he added.