Western gas sands project status report, August 1-31, 1980

August progress of government-sponsored projects, directed towards increasing gas production from the low permeability gas sands of the western United States, is summarized in this report. Superior Oil has not yet made a decision concerning the use of their lease as a possible MWX site. Bartlesville Energy Technology Center has completed embedment tests of 20/40 mesh bauxite into grey berea and typical tight gas sand cores. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, numerical routines have been developed for computing unsteady growth of hydraulically-driven cracks in plain and circular geometries. Three studies have been initated at Sandia National Laboratories: laboratory determination of the fracture crack-tip process zone; detailed petrographic characterization of a Mesaverde tight gas sand lens and surrounding shale; and determination of oil-base drilling fluid invasion in support of the MWX.