时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(五月)


英语课
By Mil Arcega
Washington
25 May 2007
 


Technology and high gasoline prices are helping 1 to coax 2 hard-to-extract oil from California's oil fields.  Production at some of the state's older oil fields is expected to dry up in about 25 years, but Chevron 3 says new ways to pump thick crude from the ground could more than double their life expectancy 4. VOA's Mil Arcega reports.






Bakersfield's oil field


Bakersfield's oil field



Oil fields outside Bakersfield, California, produce nearly 170 million barrels per year - about 80 percent of the state's oil supply.  Production at most of these wells has been declining for 25 years.  But continuing demand and increasingly high gasoline prices have producers looking for new ways to squeeze every drop.


Chevron petroleum 5 engineer Paul Harness says the latest techniques use soundwaves to pinpoint 6 hidden oil deposits. "The 3-D model tells us what we should expect to get from that well.  Our production information tells us what it's actually making.  If there's a large enough gap, we know exactly what well to work on."


But what they are finding several hundred meters below ground is heavy crude, so thick it takes steam to reduce its viscosity 7.  Chevron engineer Jeff Hatlen says it would have been too expensive to pump the oil out just a few years ago.


"[By diverting the water] just outside of the oil, we can draw down the water and remove its ability to move into the oil column," explained Hatlen.


He says the technique could more than double the life expectancy of California's oil fields, some of which are expected to dry up in 25 years. "It's really about applying technology, benefiting from price environments to allow us to sustain development," he added.  "I suspect we're going to hit recoveries that I couldn't have imagined 5, 10 years ago."


Chevron says the same technology has been used at some of its overseas oilfields to boost production capacity as much as tenfold.   




n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
v.哄诱,劝诱,用诱哄得到,诱取
  • I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
  • He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。
n.V形臂章;V形图案
  • He wore shoulderstrap rank slides with sergeant's chevrons.他佩戴标示级别的肩章,上面有中士的V形标志。
  • The chevron or arrow road sign indicates a sharp bend to the left or right.V形或箭头路标表示有向左或向右的急转弯。
n.期望,预期,(根据概率统计求得)预期数额
  • Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
  • The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。
n.原油,石油
  • The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
  • The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。
vt.准确地确定;用针标出…的精确位置
  • It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出,现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
  • I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。
n.粘度,粘性
  • The viscosity shows a rather pronounced variation with temperature.温度对粘度的影响十分明显。
  • The reciprocal of viscosity is known as fluidity.粘度的反意就是流动性。
学英语单词
abbreviated argument
ability to harden
absorbed manufacturing expense
acid-fast nonphotochromogen
aerial transparency
an Antarctic expedition
Anamniota
aposteme
as-yet-unknowns
badly-designeds
badmouthed
ball socket adjuster
bopeep
C.I.G.S.
cheer
chlodwig
christmas pyramid
chromidium
cobblestone
compound tide
concurrently-shared resource
crushed zone
culpable homicide
cyclophorus formosaensis
daily traffic flow
dame barbara hepworths
desulfurases
developpes
Diemel
EABV
fiducial point
financial-service
fishing basket
floribundas
fourty equivalent unit
front vertex focal distance
fuel lifetime
General Foods Co.
genus cronartiums
global schema
gnawing at
golden clematiss
gotten cracking
grave's
half duty
hannemann
hide sorter
high volume account
homeappliance
homoveratric acid
humanas
husbands
hypabyssally
i-swowen
immunological unresponsiveness
index servo
integrative
inter-bourse
interabangs
joint cummulative distribution function
knob gobblers
Kyamepromazine
land use capability survey
Lutefium
marchia barclayana
mathematical modeling
metromalacia
mishent
movement picture
orthogonality conditions
painted sandgrouse
pallidoidosis
pandurata
pharmacons
pomatuming
profit ratio of paid-in capital
pseudomones sp.
pulsus
QBE
recovered solvent
roller comnveyor
rotation of the Earth
scolopendrium
side-draw
silvertipped
songfully
spallanzani
Still water runs deep
supported type abutment
sync non-linearity
thiomerin
Tukulan
two-liter
undefined
unexpended ammunition
Unified Threat Management
vacuum tube modulator
ventriculus mesencephalicus
waterslides
whatsernames
whrinny
Yalutsangpu River