In producing the Northeast Butterly Pool crude oil it was necessary to pump sand consolidating agents into the formation, treat with large amounts of emulsion breaker, blend with high gravity crude, heat in the stock tanks as well as the heaters, and blend additionally as the oil entered the pipeline. Steam jets and drains installed in heaters and two trucks equipped with sand buckets, working 24 hours a day, were necessary to separate the produced sand from the oil and remove it from the area. Despite these problems, over 2,500,000 bbl of oil have been produced in less than 10 years from a reservoir covering 185 surface acres.
The Northeast Butterly Pool, located in Garvin County, Okla., approximately 3 miles northwest of the town of Davis, is unique in several respects. It is the purpose of this paper to share the knowledge gained in combatting the many adverse conditions present in the pool. The possibility that the solutions arrived at in exploiting this reservoir might aid in the development of future pools, which would otherwise be abandoned as non-commercial, has been an added stimulus in the writing of this case history.
The discovery well of the Northeast Butterly Pool, the W. M. Butterly No.1, was completed on Dec. 20, 1945, at a total depth of 4,422 ft and with a plugged back total depth of 4,109 ft. Producing through perforations opposite the Oil Creek sand formation, Ordovician age, the initial potential, pumping, was 240 B/D of 13° API gravity oil, with a bottom bole pressure of 2,500 psia. With one rig in use the field underwent orderly development on 10-acre spacing with five wells drilled in 1946, four in 1947, two in 1948, and one in 1949. Of the 13 wells drilled, one was a dry hole and one was plugged and abandoned during completion due to mechanical difficulties. An offset, 50 ft west of the latter, was drilled as the eleventh producing well in the pool.
