By Wade Warren

SDN Managing Editor

Motorists on FM 1611 are accustomed to almost daily changes at the Kinder Morgan facilities as its CO2 plant continues to rise from what was a former cotton field.

And changes in the landscape in that area can be expected over the next couple of years.

“We do expect to see a slow down in the use of heavy duty machinery installing the gas handling equipment over the next one to two years,” said Scott Wehner, an engineer in the Midland office of Kinder Morgan.

But that doesn’t mean the end of activity for the operators of the SACROC unit.

“As far as the use of pulling units and drilling rigs, I don’t think they will ever go away,” said Wehner.

“Once you have a project like this, you have to maintain it,” said Wehner.

Wehner said more expansion could be possible to maintain the facility at its maximum operating capacity.

By the end of this year, Kinder Morgan will have put in some $300 million in capital in the SACROC unit.

And it’s paying off.

The field now has a life expectancy of a minimum of 20 years – and every day, Kinder Morgan employees work to increase its life even more.

And it was just a few years ago, many local people were already beating the drums to the funeral march for the field.

“Our production today is right around 28,000 barrels of oil daily,” said Wehner.

The figure was 8,500 when Kinder Morgan took over the field in 2000.

Wehner said the company is willing to try new technology to increase production.

“We haven’t drilled a horizontal well in the field but there may be an opportunity to,” said Wehner.

Wehner also said the company might use offshore technology to add to production totals.

The engineer said a lot of technology used offshore was developed in the Permian Basin.

“It would be an interesting turn of events to bring some technology from off-shore to this field,” said Wehner.

“This would just give us one more tool to manage the reservoir,” said Wehner.

Presently, around 85 people are employed by Kinder Morgan and hundred more are, and have been involved in the new construction.

At the peak, some 700 workers from all over the United States were working on the project.