Anadarko is committed to finding and producing the energy our world needs and overcoming challenges through engineering, science, technology and talent. While some innovations create new opportunities for Anadarko, others improve our ability to do a job more safely or in a more environmentally friendly manner.
Anadarko has a proven track record of developing unconventional resources through special production methods or technologies that can be performed in an efficient and economical way.
These resources include:
- Tight gas
- Coalbed methane (CBM)
- Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
- Fractured reservoirs
Tight Gas
Tight Gas is natural gas that is found in reservoirs with low porosity and low permeability. Producing the gas can be compared to drilling a hole into a concrete driveway.
Anadarko has been working to produce natural gas from tight sands since the early 1980s using water-fracture technology. Since then, we've been enhancing and improving our drilling and completion techniques to increase well productivity, reduce cost and preserve the environment. We leverage this tight-gas expertise in the following locations:
- Wattenberg field of northeastern Colorado
- Greater Natural Buttes area of eastern Utah
- Pinedale and Wamsutter areas of Wyoming
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 gas to flow. CBM is a valuable and potentially expanding piece of our overall portfolio.
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) flood projects in the Salt Creek and Monell fields in Wyoming helped turn EOR into a core area for Anadarko.
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, Anadarko's fractured-reservoir plays continue to offer highly economic drilling opportunities. Applying the company's expertise in horizontal drilling, we are breathing new life into mature fields.