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Obviously , the resident control freak will blow his top for me mentioning i on heret, but there are, thanks to maggulus, some excellent pictures of the just drilled Utah core samples on the forum.
On my phone so can't link on here but they look rock hard which will be much to Hoodoo's chagrin!
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/********************/valkor-technologies-tomco-greenfield-petroteq-heav-t121-s3225.html#p59661
Https://ibb.co/86YYXxv
https://ibb.co/L5rVM5c
Source: QED Telegram Channel
Not sure if these look promising for us or Hoodoo? They look solid as rock....
Wonderful
About the consistency of a good wax shoe polish!
If only we knew of a technology that could process this using water and surfactants into a high grade synthetic fuel, at the well-side without the need for a refinery?!
I'm going to say it's wax as well Will, and hope it can be heated and pumped 🤞
So are these samples actually with QED now? If they are they definitely haven't taken long to arrive. Hopefully these can be tested ASAP and they could be ready to roll. Definitely doesn't look like the sample fits Hoodoo description of what they say it is!!
Certainly have a waxy sheen to them. Yesterdays date written on them so hopefully on the way QED :)
The RNS told us that Valkor had to process the oil samples to remove impurities before it could be sent. I don’t think core samples from a new well is that sample.
A google search tells me that Huff and puff with CO2 takes typically 30 days injection, 60 days soak before production starts. Maybe they will just go for getting a barrel or two for testing and not wait that long?
But I think we’ve got a little longer to wait before the ‘purified samples’ are sent to us for testing.
This isn’t an overnight turn around.
As you guys know, my opinion has always been that Hoodoo's approach has been highly cynical: trying to waste time and money in order to extract concessions out of Heavy Sweet Oil. My research has indicated that they've tried every possible avenue to disrupt and delay with filings, appeals, etc.
Amongst which, appeals/filings/proceedings to: DOGM, DOGM Board, SITLA, SITLA Board, US Department of the Interior. No doubt state and federal court in due course, if they decide to continue trolling.
Hoodoo's business model appears to be to buy up large tracts of mineral leases — ostensibly to develop — in reality, it appears to be the exception rather than the rule.
Instead, my view Hoodoo are 'lease-squatting' land that looks like it will attract genuine companies at a later date, so they can charge a royalty without taking any real risk themselves (or force a JV where Hoodoo just contribute the land/mineral rights). I'm sure they Hoodoo offer some surveying and other data, but that frankly seems of very limited materiality.
[I coined the term 'lease-squatting' up for the sakes of illustrating the issue, as it reminds me of domain-name squatting.]
From the Utah state's perspective, the majority of their income derives from royalties on the minerals *produced* (e.g. $x per tonne/bbl/etc). The fees for the lease itself are usually not especially high.
Economically, Hoodoo's model is a kind of rentseeking, IMO.
Heavy Sweet Oil threw a spanner in the works by bypassing Hoodoo — they acquired leases on the same acreage for bituminous/asphaltic materials, and *not* the liquid hydrocarbons that Hoodoo leased in the expectation that would be what their potential "clients" would be looking for.
You'll see a more comprehensive layout of some recent information I discovered over on The Quadrise Shareholders' Forum as I can't post inline images here, but it seems quite clear to me as a non-lawyer that the SITLA leases define the substances separately.
Naturally, that won't stop Hoodoo's lawyers wasting everyone's time and money by looking for a tiny hole to crawl through.
Nice to see actual evidence of boots on the ground doing something in Utah for once.
Whilst it might be a little wait for the correct type of oil samples to be sent and reach the QED lab, these core samples however, are the smoking gun evidence Valkor/HSO need in order to go back to the DOGM board and pursue their unitization project which could be for 100+ wells. And as for Hoodoo getting in the way, I'd like to see them try and challenge those core oil samples as being "Free flowing" oil as they kept spouting on about in the DOGM meeting, which is the oil they have leases over, not this solid wax grade oil. Fingers crossed things keep pushing on.
"these core samples however, are the smoking gun evidence valkor/hso need in order to go back to the dogm board and pursue their unitization project which could be for 100+ wells"
fantastic news
my 'back of a *** packet' calculations came up with an uplift in the sp of about 4p for 20 wells. utah alone could be a 'company maker' project
@Crownos - the shale formations HSO are targeting are not waxy (sweet, low wax, very heavy). Other projects in the region with conventional reservoirs *are* waxy, which is likely where the confusion is coming from — they aren't tapping the shale formations though.
Fair doo's DN, I guess I had the wax idea in my mind because I read an article not long ago about Utah and the waxy oil some companies are pursuing, plus the fact it looks a little waxy like a candle in the images made my mind drift to that description. Either way, would be fun to see Hoodoo argue that its free flowing oil lol.
Indeed Fyoz,
I saw it in one of Quadrises RNS's issued on the 29/08/2023 stating Valkor's intentions where they said. "Separately, Valkor is seeking 2.5 acre down-spacing of the wells (compared with the standard of 40 acres) to allow drilling of 111 wells within the same area."
So thats 111 wells, not sure about the Bpd per well is, but its a big project nonetheless, fingers crossed.
Crownos
From the Valkor update RNS:-
"This oil well is expected to yield between 20 and 40 barrels per day"
I based my calculations on the lower value, and assumed that would be typical
Crownos — HSO are planning on doing huff 'n puff. The inject extremely hot steam down the well to heat the target formation and liquify the bitumen; that liberates it from the rock/sand material it's trapped inside — the bitumen can then be forced to the surface as an (extremely hot) liquid.
However, heat doesn't travel very far from the heat/injection source, so you need lots of wells packed closely together to make the project economically and operationally viable.
As some context:Â huff 'n puff is a cyclical process. After heating the well, they switch exclusively to extraction from that same well; the ground will cool over time and the flow rate drops.
Eventually, they switch back to the heating phase. And the cycle of heating/extraction continues until it is not economically sensible due to diminishing amounts of material for each unit of heat invested (e.g. nat gas).
So you can think of all the wells as a chequerboard that they are continually moving between heat and extracting (hence the name huff 'n puff). And that new drilling needs to be conducted regularly as existing wells are exhausted.
Credit goes to PharaohRocher who explained the matter to me.
Just to be clearer on what that implies:
When you are *heating* a well using conventional huff 'n puff, there is no oil being extracted. So 0 bpd. Then you switch to extraction, which results in some high number of bpd that quickly diminishes as the ground cools down.
Important context: I saw from HSO's plans that they are considering switching to steam flood at some point, which means they inject steam constantly from a central well, and then continually extract from multiple surrounding wells (you've probably seen that from the presentation HSO gave at DOGM Board, with the proposed future "hex shaped" clusters of wells with one central well, surrounded by several extraction wells).
Undoubtedly, during this pilot project they will be looking to figure out what the thermal characteristics of the formations are.
For example:
- how much thermal energy do they need to inject to produce liquid bitumen;
- how long does a well produce for, and what does the production curve look like (i.e. related to thermal conductivity);
- how far out does the heat radiate, and does it match computer simulations/modelling;
- what is the ratio of heating time to extraction time;
Etc etc.
So, plenty of hard work will be required to determine whether it's going to be financially and operationally viable, but it's a fantastic first step to get the drilling going.