Day four we also split into two groups and visited different sites then swapped locations. We visited a CPR production site that was orga - nized by Mark Balderston and guided by CPR employees. At this site, students also learned about fishing tools. The second location was Western Midstream’s Latham Gas Plant . David Van Der Vieren, DJ Basin Regulatory Group, and other Western Midstream employees took us around the plant to see how associated gas from the nearby oil wells is collectively processed. We were given a very thorough walkthrough of the plant, starting from compressors, dehydration, to acid gas stripping and cryogenic towers. The fact that the plant only needs a handful of people to operate is really amazing to us.
On the last day, we toured a CPR drilling rig. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two drilling rigs we were fortunate to visit this year. After that we had a group lunch and headed back to campus.
We are very grateful to all of our hosts for their time and interest in our Field Session 1. We know the large group and the pandemic protocols were not easy to work with this year. To our dearest alums: We greatly appreciate your commitment and support to the PE De- partment and our students!
Below left students are listening to Mark Balerston and reps from Well
Whisper. Below we got a look at capped well heads.
FIELD SESSION 316 BY ELIO DEAN
A common sight during field session II was students listening to instructor Wes
Buchanan going over what they were going to do and learn that day.
You can also see our new storage shed to the left of the red and blue trailer.
This much-needed storage was paid for from donations to the PE Field
Supplementary Fund.
Field Session II is back in person, although reduced capacity. This year we had approximately 80 PE students go through the coming of age-old ritual of camping in Massadona and learning about the different petroleum systems in the Piceance and Uinta Basins. Due to COVID there were changes in the delivery of the course but all the geologic outcrop locations were visited. The main change was breaking the course into two sections with each spending one week camping and one week on campus for lectures.
During the week on campus both sections were overlapping, and presenters from Chevron, Koda, Caerus, and PLS graciously shared their knowledge and experience on their respective assets.
Chervon presenters Cliff Cuffey and Rose Mizell covered the We - ber formation geology and engineering complexity of the Rangely oil field. Although the oil field has been producing for more than 90 years, Chevron showed that there is a lot of life left in the asset.
From Koda , Rob Zaback and Ken Babcock presented their compa- nies work on the Green River formation, showing how geoscientist and reservoir engineers work together to characterize challenging lacustrine conventional assets. The Green River is notorious for its waxy crude, and vertical heterogeneity from alternating sand - stone, limestone, shale zones. Identifying opportunities in mature assets was a key message shared.
22 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES