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By J. J. Arps

This paper reviews the methods currently in use for estimating primary oil reserves and discusses the principles on which these methods are based. Particular emphasis is placed on how these methods change with the type of information available during the life cycle of an oil property. This paper contains various novel estimating methods and shortcuts heretofore unpublished. INTRODUCTION Estimating oil reserves is one of the most important phases of the work of a petroleum engineer since the solutions to the problems he deals with usually depend on a comparison of the estimated cost in terms of dollars, with the anticipated result in terms of barrels of oil. His recommendations to management regarding the best course of action are therefore normally based on the most favorable balance between these two. Specific engineering problems which require such a knowledge of recoverable oil reserves and a projection of future rates are: [a.] the exploitation and development of an oil reservoir; [b.] the construction of gasoline plants, pipelines and refineries; [c.] the division of ownership in unitized projects; [d.] the price to be paid in case of a sale or purchase of an oil property, and the magnitude of the loan which it will support; [e.] the proper depreciation rate for the investment in oil properties; and [f.] evaluation of the results of an exploration program. This discussion will be confined to the various methods and tools which are currently in use for estimating oil reserves to be obtained during the primary phase of an oil-producing reservoir and for a projection of the future production rates. Reserves which may be obtained by secondary recovery methods or fluid injection programs and gas and gas condensate reserves will not be discussed in this paper. Unfortunately, reliable oil reserve figures are most urgently needed during the early stages when only a minimum amount of information is available. Management's interest in the oil recovery from a property—aside from its use for accounting purposes—usually declines when the property approaches its economic limit, just at the time when the reliability of the estimates is at its best. To illustrate this general idea a chart is presented (Fig. 1) showing the three periods in the life of an imaginary oil property. Time is shown on the horizontal axis, while the cumulative production and estimated ultimate recovery are plotted vertically. No particular units are used and this schematical chart is not to scale. During the first period, before any wells are drilled on a property, any estimates will of necessity be of a very general nature, based on experience from similar pools or wells in the same area, and usually expressed in barrels per acre. This will

Jan 1, 1957

By Charles Fulton

The study of the condensation of zinc from its vapor was undertaken to shed light on certain problems encountered in large-scale electric zinc-furnace work recently conducted. It is a matter of common knowledge that one of the disadvantages of the arc type, electric zinc furnace, is the production of a large amount of blue powder and proportionately little liquid spelter, for, as stated by Stansfield,1 "A notable defect in the electric smelting of zinc ores is the difficulty experienced in obtaining the distilled zinc in the liquid state; when zinc ores are smelted electrically, very little liquid metal is commonly obtained, nearly all of the zinc being in the state of powder."

Jan 8, 1918

Six hundred miles inland from Australia's east coast Port of Townsville in Queensland's sea of rock and spinifex lies Mount Isa. The town, as in most mining towns, is dominated by its mine and the mine in turn is dominated by its 503 ft copper smelter stack. This candy and white painted stack is a striking introduction to one of the world's greatest copper producing mines and a town where people of over 40 different nationalities live remote but well. Mount Isa Mines Limited is surging into the ranks of' the world's great mines on the momentum of a relentless push begun in 1956. It is as if the time lost in the lean years of the past should be caught up in a hurry.

Jan 10, 1964

By Calvin Bjorne, John Keeley

In the face of a highly competitive iron ore market, the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. developed a process now being practiced at the company's Republic mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. By this process, a specular hematite crude ore is being beneficiated to produce a high iron-low silica concentrate with a suitable size structure for the production of a high quality pellet. This process involves crushing, primary grinding and primary flotation, followed by regrinding, heating and refloating the primary flotation concentrate. The ores consist predominantly of specular hematite with relatively minor amounts of magnetite and martite in a recrystallized chert gangue. A wide variety of silicates have been identified, particularly in association with intrusives of various description. The more abundant of these are sericite, talc, grunerite and chlorite with some carbonates, primarily calcite.

Jan 6, 1964

By R. L. Frantz, R. W. Bouman

The authors investigated the comminution of quartz and limestone mixtures in a ball mill, showing that the distribution modulus of a comminuted material is the same whether it is ground separately or as part of a mixture. Analysis of the ground products indicates that quartz and limestone consume energy during ball milling in proportion to their mass fraction in the mixtures. Recently Schuhmann' made a significant contribution to comminution theory by proposing that complex comminution operations comprise the summation of many individual comminution events. By means of the single comminution event hypothesis, Schuhmann derived the Charles energy-size reduction relationship by considering that fragments of every particle crushed during a single impact have a size distribution characterized by the Schuhmann size distribution. In this paper, the size reduction of mixtures of solids in ball mills is analyzed by considering that size reduction occurs as many single comminution events. If a mixture of two materials is being ground in a ball mill, each successful impact of a ball with a particle of one material should yield an assembly of particles whose size distribution is characteristic of that material. Considering both materials to follow the Schuhmann size distribution equation, the size distribution of material 1 in the product is

Jan 1, 1962

By Robert D. Coale, Reinhart P. Ehrlich, Terry L. Thompson

The copper concentrate slurry pipeline and pumping system of the Bougainville Copper Ltd. facilities on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, is discussed. Development work necessary for the pipeline design is dealt with including a description of the 17-mile by 6-in. pipeline and pumping system as it was installed. The commissioning of the pipeline is reviewed as well as current operating performance, including data on corrosion, pump parts life, and manpower requirements.

Jan 1, 1977

By K. H. Adams, T. Vreeland

The basal stress-strain behavior, dislocation density, and strain vale sensitivity of the flow stress uqere measured at room temperature on single crystals oj-zone-refined zinc , 99.999 pct Zn, and zinc containing 0.0025 and 0.02 wt pct Al. No significant change in the stvain rate sensitivity of the flow stress occurs with the addition of aluminum. Changes in dislocation substructure and nonbasal dislocation density were obserrled with the addition of aluminum. The effect of aluminum on the basal slress-strain behavior is explained in terms of changes in nonbasal dislocation density which determines the separation distance of junctions between basal and nonbasal dislocations. The onset of basal slip is associated with the breaking of attractive junctions. The chunge in basal dislocation density was found to be proportional to the one-third power of the plastic shear strain, indepedent of purity. THE effect of impurities in solid solution on the stress-strain behavior of single crystals has been the subject of many theoretical studies. These studies have generally concentrated on the interactions between impurities and dislocations to explain the hardening effeet of impurity additions. The theories that have been proposed include those of yott and Nabarro,&apos;l&apos; Cott-re11; Suzuki; and Fisher. In practice, it is generally difficult to predict the relative importance of the vari- ous effects due to impurities. In addition, secondary effects of impurity additions such as induced changes in dislocation density and substructure in the as-grown crystals have received little attention. Many experimental investigations have been conducted on the effect of impurities on the stress-strain behavior of fcc crystals. Hcp crystals have not received much attention except for the extensive work of Levine et a1.= on magnesium alloy crystals. Stuwe~&apos;&apos; has studied the effect of copper impurity on the critical shear stress of zinc crystals and has interpreted the results in terms of the impurity atmosphere model of Cottrell and Jaswon. This report presents the results of an experimental study of the effect of aluminum additions to zinc on the basal stress-strain curve and the strain rate sensitivity of the flow stress. Etch pit techniques were used to measure and characterize the dislocation density and substructure in the zinc alloy crystals. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Specimen Preparation. Compression test specimens of four different purities of zinc were prepared from CP grade zinc of 99.999 pct purity obtained from the New Jersey Zinc Co. An analysis of this material furnished by the supplier indicated the following impurities in wt ~ct: Pb = 0.0002; Fe = 0.0002; Cd = 0.00005; other <0.60011. A quantity of material of this grade was further purified by zone refining. Zone refining was carried out under a helium atmosphere by passing a double &apos;One furnace Over a 6-ft-10ng charge at the rate of 2 in. Per hr. * total of ten double zone passes were made before the charge was removed from the furnace. The first one third of each charge was used to grow single crystals. Quantities of two

Jan 1, 1969

By Herbert Haas

CHEAP power is essential to large-scale mining and metallurgical operations, particularly where fine grinding of large tonnages has to be resorted to, as is the case with an increasing number of. mines treating disseminated copper ores, or low-grade gold ores, in the grinding of which considerable power is consumed. A comparison of the cost of generating power with Diesel engines and steam turbines and a brief discussion of the different factors governing the profitable use of either type of prime mover may be timely in view of the importance of. a cheap supply of power to the mining industry, and the prominence that has lately been given to Diesel engines in America. As many of our most important mines and largest producers of metals are located in sections where neither cheap coal nor water power is available, and the price of oil fuel is increased by long hauls, the Diesel. engine will. become a prime mover of increasing importance. This applies particularly to the Southwestern States, where an ample supply of cold water for condensing purposes is unusual and local climatological conditions interfere in securing the high vacua essential to high turbine efficiency. About 12 times as much water will be required for condensing purposes with steam turbines under general conditions as is needed for jacket-cooling of two-stroke, cycle Diesel engine; four-stroke cycle Diesel engines require only one-twentieth of the cooling water. Another condition favoring the use of Diesel engines is the high load factor at which most mine power plants operate. The influence of load factor on the cost of generating power is shown in Tables 1 and 2 and in Fig. 1.

Jan 7, 1916

By George Lehman

THE Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co. had an orebody at Miami, Ariz., of close to 100,000,000 tons of low-grade copper ore, and the method of mining this ore most profitably was of great importance. The selection of a method was practically limited to a "top-slicing," a "shrinkage-stope" or a "caving" method. The "top-slicing" method would give a high extraction of the developed ore, at a high mining cost, and the ?shrinkage-stope" or "caving" methods ) a lower extraction of, the developed ore, at a lower mining cost. ORE-DRAWING TESTS To decide on the method to be used it was necessary to know about what extraction of the ore could be obtained by the "shrinkage-stope" or "caving" methods. As no definite information regarding the question was available at the time, C. E. Mills, the general manager, thought that some information could be obtained by experimenting in drawing ore, covered with capping, from an experimental box. Some work had already been done along these lines by W. C. Browning for the Inspiration Copper Co. and by myself for the Live Oak Development Co. The idea was to represent as nearly as possible, in the experimental box, the conditions within an area of caved stopes of caved ore all ready for drawing. That is, the area was supposed to represent a semibroken mass with the capping above it in the same condition and ready to follow the ore downward as it was drawn out of the chutes under the ore. To represent the above condition, in the experimental box, crushed ore from the mine was placed in it to a given height, and red barren capping from the mine was placed on top of the ore.

Jan 9, 1916

By AIME AIME

THE value to the engineering profession of a liaison between the engineering societies of Russia and America, through Engineering Council, was the subject of a meeting in the Engineering Societies Building attended by over 500 persons. In introducing the subject, Mr. N. A. Stephanoff, President of the Russian Society of America, said: In Russia, engineers were divided into two classes: those who had graduated from the high technical schools and the practical engineers who had graduated from special technical schools. These technical schools were divided into three groups: The first corresponded to the German polytechnical schools with many departments, mechanical, chemical, metallurgical, mining, etc. The second group corresponded to the French special schools of the "Écoles des Ponts et Chaussées." "École des Mines." The third group was formed by the Military and Naval Academies of Engineers. In 1910, Russia&apos;s high technical schools had about 45,000 students, whose training covered a period of not less than five years, and who enjoyed all opportunities afforded by laboratories in no way inferior to those of Germany.

Jan 1, 1920

By Robert C. Emmett, Donald A. Dahlstrom

FOR many years gravitational classification has been employed as a basic tool in beneficiation of minerals and coal. While improvements have been made to increase efficiency and fields of application, the basic flow pattern has remained relatively unchanged in most gravitational classifiers. Feed slurry is introduced into a settling pool wherein the coarser solids settle against either an upward or horizontal fluid current, or a combination of both, and are withdrawn in a concentrated underflow stream. The finer solids below the classification point possess too low a settling velocity and thus are primarily swept out through a weir overflow by the bulk of the fluid. Because of its simplicity, efficiency, and low power and maintenance costs, gravitational classification finds a wide acceptance for separations in the range of 20 to 325 mesh. Two factors resulting from the basic flow pattern employed in gravitational classification present difficult problems for certain installations. If classification at 60 to 200 mesh of separation is desired, capacity in terms of gallons of overflow per minute per square foot of settling pool area must be low to allow required solids to settle to the underflow. If a thousand or more gal per min of feed slurry must be handled, either a very large classifier or a number of smaller units must be employed, taking up floor space and head room. Examples of this are the large classifiers, wetting tanks, or settling tanks used in the coal industry for recovery of process water from fine solids. Units as large as 50 or 60 ft in diam and 60 ft high, requiring substantial amounts of steel, are not uncommon. A second factor is the lack of self-regulation in gravitational classification. As overflow rate increases, mesh of separation increases correspond-ingly. This normally heightens difficulties of bene-ficiation. If a fine mesh of separation is required at varying feed rates, the problem is more than doubled in complexity. One of the primary advantages of gravitational classification is low power requirement. Gravity feeds or very low pressure heads are employed. However, fluid energy is still present in the inlet stream and provision must be made to dissipate it properly to obtain uniform upward or horizontal currents. Rather than waste this energy, it would be desirable to utilize it to secure a greater degree of self-regulation and simultaneously increase classification capacity per square foot of area. A free vortex could be realized by a tangential entry of feed, resulting in generation of centrifugal force to complement force of gravity in its action. With greater force it should be possible to gain finer separation at any overflow rate per square foot of settling pool area as compared with conventional gravitational classification. Furthermore, as feed rate increases, centrifugal force will also increase and at least partially offset faster currents sweeping solid particles to the overflow. A more stable classification point should result. The liquid-solid cyclone is the most common application of a free vortex in the beneficiation field.&apos; Many previous papers have emphasized uniformity of flow pattern within the cyclone which is largely responsible for the sharp classification that can be obtained.&apos;-4 If a free vortex can be maintained in a non-pressurized vessel with a free surface it may be possible to realize a third advantage of sharper classification. This open-top cyclone would then achieve a minimum energy loss comparable to that with conventional classifiers, and a mesh of separation coarser than 150 mesh, extending the range of application of the free vortex. This is not presently possible with ordinary cyclones. To test the applicability of the free vortex to gravitational classification, a 30-in. diameter open-top cyclone was constructed at Northwestern University. The cylindrical section was 30 in. high and the conical section included an angle of 60". The feed nozzle was a standard 4-in. pipe entering tan-gentially, with centerline 17 1/2 in. below the top of the cyclone. The conical section was flanged near

Jan 1, 1954

By George C. Howard, P. P. Scott

During the drilling of wells, fractures which are created or widened by drilling fluid pressure are suspected of being a frequent cause of lost circulation. A study of the variables which are believed by the authors to he related to fracturing led to the premise that the presence of an effective lost circulation material in a drilling mud stream would serve to plug small fractures at the moment they are encountered or created and thereby a a possible cause of lost Circula. tion by preventing fluid pressure from widening and extending the fractures. A large number of lost circulation materials were classified and tested in simulated fractures and in shallow wells. Granular type materials with a gradation of particle sizes were found to be the most effective for plugging. Within the limits of pumpahility, the concentration in mud of each lost circulation material tested was found to be a controlling factor in determining the maximum size fracture which could be sealed. A new type centrifugal sorter was given preliminary tests and found to be capable of concentrating cuttings for rejection and reclaiming lost circulation materials. INTRODUCTION The control and prevention of lost circulation of drilling fluids is a problem frequently encountered during the drilling of oil and gas wells. Lost circulation or lost returns may be defined as the loss to formation voids of the drilling fluids or cement slurries used in the process of rotary drilling and well completion. The loss may vary from n gradual lowering of mud level in the pits to a complete loss of returns. Not to be confused with lost circulation is the continuous reduction in mud volume caused by the loss of the fluid phase of muds as filtrate and the solid phase as filter cake during the continuous filt~ation process which occurs on permeable formation surfaces. The loss of drilling fluids and their costly constituents is only one of the detrimental effects experienced when circulation is lost. The loss of drilling time, plugging of potentially productive formations, stuck drill pipe, blow-outs, excessive inflow of water, and excessive caving of formatioils are other effects which contribute to make the control and prevention

Jan 1, 1951

By P. P. Scott, George C. Howard

During the drilling of wells, fractures which are created or widened by drilling fluid pressure are suspected of being a frequent cause of lost circulation. A study of the variables which are believed by the authors to he related to fracturing led to the premise that the presence of an effective lost circulation material in a drilling mud stream would serve to plug small fractures at the moment they are encountered or created and thereby a a possible cause of lost Circula. tion by preventing fluid pressure from widening and extending the fractures. A large number of lost circulation materials were classified and tested in simulated fractures and in shallow wells. Granular type materials with a gradation of particle sizes were found to be the most effective for plugging. Within the limits of pumpahility, the concentration in mud of each lost circulation material tested was found to be a controlling factor in determining the maximum size fracture which could be sealed. A new type centrifugal sorter was given preliminary tests and found to be capable of concentrating cuttings for rejection and reclaiming lost circulation materials. INTRODUCTION The control and prevention of lost circulation of drilling fluids is a problem frequently encountered during the drilling of oil and gas wells. Lost circulation or lost returns may be defined as the loss to formation voids of the drilling fluids or cement slurries used in the process of rotary drilling and well completion. The loss may vary from n gradual lowering of mud level in the pits to a complete loss of returns. Not to be confused with lost circulation is the continuous reduction in mud volume caused by the loss of the fluid phase of muds as filtrate and the solid phase as filter cake during the continuous filt~ation process which occurs on permeable formation surfaces. The loss of drilling fluids and their costly constituents is only one of the detrimental effects experienced when circulation is lost. The loss of drilling time, plugging of potentially productive formations, stuck drill pipe, blow-outs, excessive inflow of water, and excessive caving of formatioils are other effects which contribute to make the control and prevention

Jan 1, 1951

By Ernest Stütz

(New York Meeting, October, 1918.) THE problem of increasing blast: furnace efficiency through diminution of flue-dust production while operating with burdens consisting largely of fine ores has of recent years attracted the attention of metallurgists, whether directly or indirectly interested in the economies of iron smelting, and the various methods evolved from theory or practice have been submitted to wide discussion. After the very thorough and, at that time, exhaustive view of the whole subject, which was afforded to the industry by the meeting of this Institute in February, 1912, the subject was again taken up at the meeting of the Verein deutscher Eisenhüttenleute at Diisseldorf in December, 1912. While American and German conditions are not entirely identical, it may be of interest to give here the words of the gentleman summing up the discussion at the Diisseldorf meeting: &apos; The chief advantage offered by the use of briquettes lies in the fact that disturbances in the furnace, caused mostly by the presence of fine ores in the burden, are avoided, and that blast pressure can be considerably reduced. The resulting economies cannot be overrated, as, with lower blast consumption per ton of product, the installation will be able to take care of increased production. In consequence of lower pressure and speed of blast, heat is more efficiently utilized, flue gas temperature is lowered, and coke particles are less liable to be carried along with the flue dust, of which considerably less is produced. Finally, by increased regularity of operation and higher . temperature in the lower parts of the furnace, the quality of the product is improved. The question of briquetting iron ores has grown to be one of the most important in the iron industry, and, it is not any more a question of what is the cost of briquetting ton of ore, but what, in using ore briquettes, is the cost of production of a ton of iron.&apos;

Jan 7, 1913

By Shosei Serata, Bruce Gardner

A system of three new field instruments has been developed to measure, in situ, the three basic classes of geomechanical parameters: material properties, stress state, and creep deformation. The significance of this development is that it represents a successful adaptation of recent computer technology to underground rock mechanics work, opening up new possibilities in underground mining methods. The system was developed to meet the application requirements of the stress control method of mining, a method which is based on the actual geomechanical conditions of the underground, rather than upon conventional linear-elastic, idealizations of ground conditions. These instruments enable in situ measurement not only of elastic, but also post-elastic, yielding, and failure conditions of geological materials, establishing the stress control method on a truly scientific foundation. In order to evaluate the present status of this field instrumentation system, case examples of underground mine openings designed with the stress control method are reviewed and analyzed, in terms of the effectiveness of the three instruments for informing and guiding the site-specific application of stress control design.

Jan 1, 1984

By J. K. Furst

The reasons for manufacturing steel by the deplex process are, briefly…

Jan 1, 1915

By John H. Puffer, Andreas H. Vassiliou

The Bemco mine area is within the Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock terrain of the New Jersey Highlands province. Rocks In the area include a pyroxene granite, a hornblende granite, a quartz-oligoclase gneiss and a pegmatite and its host rock, a lens of amphibolite which becomes a sulfide-rich pyroxenite near the ore zone. The ore-bearing zone occurs along the hanging wall and foot-wall contact of the pegmatite which was emplaced discordantly into the amphibolite-pyroxenite.

Jan 1, 1985

By Martin F. Littmann

FOR magnetic devices employing reactors with high rates of flux change very thin magnetic tapes have been employed. One of the more interesting of

Jan 1, 1957

By D. R. Hanson

The acoustic vibrational spectra of impacted rock slabs were examined at the Denver Research Center, US Bureau of Mines, in an attempt to characterize the behavior of partially detached mine roof rocks. The ultimate goal of this study was to develop a technique or instrument that could provide a quick, accurate, quantifiable measure of mine roof stability. The power spectra of unstable rock slabs were found to contain more energy in the range of 200 to 1000 Hz than solid rock. Comparison of the power contained between 500 and 1000 Hz with that between 3000 and 3500 Hz provided a quantitative measure of rock stability. A lightweight prototype field instrument was designed, constructed, and field tested. This battery-powered instrument computes the power contained in the two frequency bands, compares their magnitude, and displays a number related to the stability of the block tested. Field tests showed the instrument provided reliable measurements of block stability even under conditions of noise that would have seriously degraded the accuracy of the standard methods of roof sounding.

Jan 1, 1986

By R. Maddin, S. K. Tung

SUCCESS of the dislocation theory in formulating the transitional lattice theory proposed by Har-greaves and Hill in 1929&apos; is well established for low angle grain boundaries. The theoretical work of Burgersa and Read and Shockley,3 together with the experimental observations of Aust and Chalmers4 and Parker and colleagues,6 leaves little doubt as to the structure of grain boundaries with differences of orientations up to between 15" and 20". Beyond these angles, the structure of the boundary is not so clear, and is still a matter for conjecture. There have been notable experiments devised from which the data could be used to calculate energetics for possible arrangements of atoms in forming a large angle boundary.6 Most of these experiments deal with diffusion through and along the grain boundary. The recent work of Rhines and Cochart7 and Rhines, Bond, and Kissel18 was concerned with the relative movement of grains in aluminum bicrystals under constant tensile loads with their boundaries aligned at 45 " to the tension axis. The gliding along the grain boundary was cyclic and began after an incubation period. The velocity of gliding increased with the sum of the angular difference, 8, between the operative slip direction in the conjugate crystals and the angular difference between the active slip planes as measured between their traces upon the grain boundary. The initial gliding rate varied with temperature, and the logarithm of the average gliding taken over a considerable period was a linear function of the reciprocal of the absolute temperature: the slope gave an activation energy of 11,000 ±1,000 cal per mole. Since the rate of grain boundary shear is sensitive to the misorientation of the grains themselves, as shown by several workers,7,8 it is suggested that further work of this type might be fruitful in adding information regarding the behavior of boundaries under stress. The techniques devised by Chalmers" added impetus to the facility for observing grain boundary behavior, in that they provided a simple means for producing bicrystals of predetermined orientation so that the angle of the boundary could be controlled,

Jan 1, 1958