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Unconventional Resources

TAM has always been focused on assisting companies in the exploration and development of resources like these and improving their economic viability.

Tight Formations and Fracturing
Tight Formations and Fracturing
Heavy Oil
Heavy Oil
Gas Storage
Gas Storage
Coal Bed Methane
Coal Bed Methane

For over a quarter of a century, TAM has been a leader in the research and development of products and techniques to improve the economics of developing unconventional resources.

Starting in the late 1980s, TAM developed open hole selective stimulation tools for coal bed methane projects in Alabama, Colorado, and Poland. In the early 1990s, TAM participated in U.S. Department of Energy projects to isolate specific intervals of the horizontal wellbores drilled in potential shale gas reservoirs. The flexible system that was developed provided a means to selectively test the flow prior to stimulation, stimulate the zone, and then re-test afterwards in order to fully evaluate the various stimulation processes. The tool system included Casing Annulus Packers, Port Collars between packers to allow for selective interval testing, and a Combination Tool to access and manually open or close the Port Collars. The success of this research project provided valuable information that is utilized today in the commercially viable development of multi-zone, selective interval treatment of shale formations for oil and gas production.

By the mid1990s, TAM was involved in the research associated with providing selective interval isolation in tight carbonate reservoir wells where cement was known to cause formation damage and thus reduce well productivity. In the late 1990s, TAM initiated research with oil companies in several areas of the USA to provide “off bottom” cementing of air-drilled, shallow, vertical wells, leaving the reservoir as an open hole completion below the shoe. Cementing was achieved without the formation damage that can result from exposure to mud and/or cement in conventional drilling and completion programs.