State Lands Energy Resource Optimization Project

Project SLERO, for which The University of Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology was the lead contractor and coordinating institution, was a five-university consortium study of hydrocarbon resources on Texas State Lands. The five universities are The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, the University of Houston, Texas Tech University, and Lamar University, and the entire program was aided by the cooperation of the Texas General Land Office. This 4-year project was funded through the Office of the Governor of Texas. Project personnel included geologists, petroleum engineers, geophysicists, and chemists. The interdisciplinary nature of this project was directed toward a more thorough understanding of the geologic controls on production and the development of appropriate recovery technologies to address the specific needs of State Lands reservoirs. Transfer of these technologies to industry, in particular to independent operators, is expected to result in increased efficiency of hydrocarbon recovery from State Lands and increased revenue to the Texas Public School Fund. The project was divided into three parts: (1) play analysis and resource assessment, (2) reservoir characterization, and (3) development of advanced extraction technology.