Anadarko is committed to safely finding and producing the energy our world needs, as well as overcoming challenges through engineering, science, technology and talent. Some innovations create new opportunities for Anadarko; others improve our ability to do a job more safely or in a more environmentally sensitive manner.
Anadarko has a long history of developing unconventional resources through special production methods or technologies that can be performed in an efficient and economical way.
These resources include:
- Tight sands and shales
- Coalbed methane (CBM)
- Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
- Fractured reservoirs
Tight Sands and Shales
Tight sands and shales have very low porosity and low permeability. Producing natural gas from these reservoirs can be compared to drilling a hole into a concrete driveway.
Anadarko has been working to safely produce natural gas and oil from tight sands since the early 1980s, and in recent years, the company has become a leading producer in shale plays in Pennsylvania, Texas and Louisiana. To produce oil and natural gas from tight sands and shales requires advanced horizontal drilling techniques and the application of fracture-stimulation technology. Anadarko continuously strives to enhance its drilling and completion techniques to increase well productivity, protect the environment and reduce the amount of surface space needed to produce energy. We are leveraging this expertise in the following core areas:
- Eagleford Shale in Southwest Texas
- Marcellus Shale in north-central Pennsylvania
- Wattenberg field of northeastern Colorado
- Greater Natural Buttes area of eastern Utah
- Pinedale and Wamsutter areas of Wyoming
- Haynesville Shale in eastern Texas and western Louisiana
- Utica Shale in central Ohio
Coalbed Methane
Coalbed methane is the natural gas that is both generated and stored within coal seams. To produce the gas, water is drawn out of the coal seam, creating a pressure change that allows the natural gas to flow.
Unlike conventional natural gas, CBM operations produce large amounts of water. When geology allows, the excess water is reinjected into neighboring formations. In a Wyoming field where reinjection was not possible, we constructed a 48-mile pipeline that carries the water to a field location with an underground aquifer that matches the quality of the produced water. Here, the water is stored for potential future use.
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Anadarko has extensive experience applying improved recovery techniques to diverse oil projects. EOR is used to increase the amount of oil that can be produced from mature reservoirs after primary recovery methods have run their course.
Our carbon dioxide (CO2) EOR projects in the Salt Creek and Monell fields in Wyoming helped turn EOR into a core area for Anadarko. These operations also benefit the environment by taking CO2 that would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere and injecting it underground to prolong the life of these fields.
Fractured Reservoirs
A fractured reservoir is composed of numerous disjointed and disconnected layers of hydrocarbon-bearing rock, primarily found within the Chalk trend in Central and East-Central Texas.