The Spraberry Trend, aka the Spraberry Field, is a large oil field in the Permian Basin of west central Texas. The Field covers significant portions of six counties, and has a total area of approximately 2,500 square miles. It is one of the largest in the nation for total proved reserves. Named for Abner Spraberry, the Trend is part of a larger oil-producing region known as the Spraberry-Dean Play in the Midland Basin. Mr. Spraberry owned the Dawson County farmer who owned the land containing the 1943 discovery well.
Incredibly oil rich, the oil in Spraberry is difficult to recover. Dubbed “the world’s largest uneconomic oil producing play in the world”, there were three years of incredibly enthusiastic drilling with some promising results followed by declines in production. The trend is made up of mostly “Spraberry Sand”, the sand makes oil recovery difficult. The rock in this area is naturally fractured. Even with many technological advances, Spraberry retains about 90% of the reserves originally figured. Today, Spraberry has produced more than a billion barrels of oil.
Tar (oil) sands are a complicated combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen, which is a heavy black viscous oil. Tar sands can be mined and processed to extract the oil-rich bitumen, which is then refined into oil. It is a more difficult process because the bitumen in tar sands cannot be pumped from the ground in its natural state. Tar sand deposits are mined, usually using strip mining or open pit techniques, or the oil is extracted by underground heating with additional upgrading.
The equipment used to mine tar sands is big, tough and powerful. Tar sand mining requires some of the largest earthmoving equipment available today. The thick, heavy oil sands are filled with tarry bitumen, which is then piled in long benches using hydraulic or electric rope
shovels. Powerful mining trucks haul it away for refining. Some of the key pieces of equipment used in the process include: electric drive trucks, some powered with Cummins engines and haul trucks. Super shovels (hydraulic or electric rope shovels) are also very important. Smaller dozers are used for flattening piles. And generators, always generators.
With new technologies and new pipeline projects, companies are completing construction of crude oil pipeline projects. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. has completed a project totaling more than 145 miles and expected to provide 200,000 bpd of additional capacity from the Bone Spring, Spraberry and Wolfberry producing areas in nine West Texas counties. The goal is to provide new capacity in the areas of the Trend showing significant production growth.
Excising oil from tar sands is a process requiring significant power resources and backup power resources. Depco has the ability to support equipment and camps with all the required power needs. At Depco Power Systems, we buy new, used and rebuilt equipment, including Caterpillar engines, Cummins generators, used diesel generators and more. As an independent company in business for more than 20 years, we find the best products at the best prices and guarantee first-rate customer service.
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