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Show Lukt'i(li' 6A luge - !, August 1JHO V. .. W-"A "A-- ; ;r. 7 f & i . ;:V I -- ' ?': :i;. V ': :7 Vv ;;:'7 'V :' V'VX'V.' ,:j T: - 4 vvs A sv ,.. Xv. , W "X- ,v L' ISfl and rebuilt. Several wells drilled in that area, some as deep as 10,000 feet below the lake bottom, produced nothing. The barge, which Canson said can be taken apart like a giant Lego set was dismantled again and returned to the north area of the lake where it is now being used in extensive testing and development work on the sticky substance located in the earlier drilling. The companys operations in the lake are based at Little Valley harbor near Promontory Point in Box Elder County. The harbor was built during construction of the railroad causeway across the lake more than 20 years ago. though, they say, d. Amoco Production Co., after two years of drilling, knows oil exists, beneath the lake, but the questions of ksto vV':-:vmm v ?4- only re off-dut- e, one-week-- er tool-push- :w i'jc. ot . .;,JNSv v. i. .....f The oil is taken to facilities on shore for extensive testing. Huge verticle tanks at the harbor site have the capacity to hold 10,000 barrels of oil each. They will store the oil when more extensive testing requires larger amounts of the black substance.. Horizontal tanks loaded aboard barges will be used to transport the oil from the rig to the shore. Each horizontal tank can hold 600 barrels of oil. with each barge having a 2,400-barr- capability. The entire scene on shore the three huge metal tanks, trailers which provide living quarters for the workers, a variety of boats and barges tied to docks or awaiting final assembly oil shore, tank trucks for water, a myriad is of equipment and spare parts strictly temporary, Canson said. The coring and testing may go on for another four months or so before we know the practicaility of fooling with the stuff, he said. The cost is high. Each day the company puts another $18,000 to $20,000 into the search for oil beneath the lake, and the next step taking large quantities of oil from the subterranean would require an even reservoir larger expenditure. Canson said even 10 years ago the company probably would not have carried the search this far, but rising oil prices and the worsening scarcity of the substance make this type of exploration potentially profitable. If the company decides to go into production at the Little Valley site, Canson said there would be quite a bit of activity in that desert-lik-e rural region.' It is possible Amoco would locate an oil processing plant at the site, lessening the burden of transporting the heavy, thick oil as it comes from beneath the lake to refineries that could handle it. , But, once it got going, it would go practically unnoticed, Canson said. He said in many instances oil drilling operations leave the surrounding environment in better shape ecologically than it was before the oilmens arrival. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and we do a good job of it, Canson said. a i. sk .4 I r ijufein .fjuiLjigi t -- (or Amoco Production Co. tanks and equipment. The high concentration of salt means through the underlying rock forthree life forms can survive in the mations, pushed by a kelly or square brine shrimp, algae, and brine configuration rotary drive device. water flies. When the salinity reaches a Drilling mud, a mixture of a special certain point, the algae in the water clay, fresh water and chemicals, is turns red, coloring that entire end of the pumped through a closed mud lake as if someone had dumped barrels system, which transports the oil and of red dye from an airplane. other solid material up from beneath Canson said the Red Sea in the Middle the lake bottom for the vital testing East is about the same color, also due process. The mud also controls the pressure to high salinity of the water. within the drilling hole, so dangerous Amoco is teasing the lake property blowouts can be avoided. The subfrom the State of Utah and leases stances brought to the surface in the mud indicate the presence of oil, the private property on the shore. Between 40 and 45 men work at the type of oil it is and the kind of reservoir operations. which contains it. A device called a rig and in the Individual crew members work shale-shakIt provides a base for launching sifts through the material y time. They from below the lake bottom, sorting the shifts, with 12 hours barges and boats to carry men and equipment to the rig. The boats follow a spend one week on the job and the next various types of rock formations. channel dredged south of the harbor week at home, an arrangement Canson then turn northwest for an trip said works very well. mid-lif"Monitoring the drilling mud is a I changed careers in out to the rig. partly detailed science, Canson said. The to be able to work the mud is probably the most important The trip takes the visitor schedule, he said. Most of thing in the drilling process. over water that is 27 percent salt and the workers enjoy the schedule The type we use is a fresh-watgel the same color red found in the dazzling morale is very high on all crews. which is absolutely waters on a the sunsets over lakes A five-ma- n processing facilities prompted the crew stays on the rig for there is nothing in it that can harm the company to move drilling operations to summer evening. several days at a time. The specialized environment. atthe south portion of the lake in an The high salinity in the north portion crew consists of a geologist, and others The entire drilling operation is a tempt to locate a higher grade product. of the lake is due to the railroad whose titles reflect the specialized clean one that does little to disturb the The drilling rig and the barge on causeway, which slows the flow of terminology of the oil industry. natural surroundings. A pollution which it floats were completely water between the north and south The is the rig supervisor boom encircles the rig to keep any oil dismantled, moved seven miles south portions. who actually works for Parker Drilling accidently spilled into the water within of Salt Lake City, which owns the bounds so it can be easily cleaned up. drilling rig and leases it to Amoco. Weve had only very minor spills in The mud-loggassists the geologist the lake, Canson said. The oil is so and keeps a log of the heavy it clings together in a mass that drilling mud, the substances it brings is very easily mopped up. up from the depths of the well and the The barge which supports the drilling warn which of gas deposits may danger is a rectangle, 90 feet by 170 feet, or indicate the proximity of valuable rig seven feet deep. It weighs a million and oil. A device called a sniffer in- tons ' by itself, and is secured to the lake ft dicates the amounts of sue types of bottom with one-inc- h cables at each gases and records any changes. corner connected to heavy piles driven The mud engineer monitors the into the rock, beneath the water. quality of the mud to ensure the correct About three feet of the barge is exchemical balance and consistency, posed above the water after the rig is while crew foremen supervise the loaded aboard. The taut cables exert continual drilling operation itself. such pressure that the moves barge Roustabouts are those crewmen who only slightly even when winds whip the are new at the job trainees of the oil waves. lake into eight-foindustry. The rig is miles from the The testing operation currently being hill on shore and by far the nearest conducted at the lake site is called object in the area, yet it has a term which neatly tallest coring, never been hit by lightening during described the procedure. electric storms. A diamond drilling bit, which costs frequent Our crane has been hit, but never between $8,000 and $9,000, is designed the rig, Canson said. with a hole in the center. The bit drills how much and whether it can be Staff Writer economically removed remain to be Y LITTLE VALLEY, Box Elder County answered. n Drilling for oil is always expensive, 10 The company has spent between $40 always a gamble, and not always million and $50 million since 1978 in an ' successful. Drilling for oil beneath the Great Salt Lake is especially risky and attempt to find the answers. A r, drilling rig currently located 18 entails more than the usual amount of research in a constant probe for miles offshore in the north portion of the lake is evidence that the company solutions to a myriad of problems. has hopes the final answers will be move. made the first Seismologists positive. blasts controlled and monitoring Using the shock waves as they rippled Amoco began actively searching for through the subsurface formations, the oil under the lake in late spring 1978 . scientists provided the first clue to the Five wells were drilled in the portion of puzzling question of whether oil could the lake north of the Southern Pacific exist beneath the lake. causeway but only one of those ' Seismic tests conducted by the State railroad to be potentially productive. proved ;.of Utah and private firms in the lake B.E. Canson, senior drilling foreman, area several years ago were positive. There could be oil remaining trapped in described what was found as very L'rock formations beneath the shallow, heavy gravity crude, a thick, sticky the last pools of what substance very unlike the flowing, salty water scientists believe was once a vast liquid oil often pictured gushing from movie set oil wells. reservoir of oil. Problems with bringing the heavy oil Geothermal activity throughout the to the surface and transporting it to has likely cooked whether it is usable for commercial purposes now remains to be deter-mine- .cry .; wv,sss 'rs.; THE BARREN land at Promontory Point in Box Elder County is now home By MARILYN KARRAS ttSSEr? vrfe ill " substance, ( AXyX'vf ' hzt V.K ; A7! , - x. .. FLOATING on salty, red water in the Great Salt Lake, the Production drilling rig stands 140 feet tall. The barge on which the rig stands also carries a small trailer to'ZOs'i. . A for crewmen quarters, extra equipment and testing co paratus. 4 |