Methods and systems are provided for selectively displacing water from a hydraulically continuous water zone in a porous geological formation. The method uses a data log generated from an optical flow cell assembly to identify areas in the lateral well of high free gas porosity. The release of the fluid is controlled by a valve in the bottom of the container which is created by an opening in the bottom of the container combined with a valve. The subsystem controller is operable to control a subsystem having one of the compressor, condenser, valve, refrigeration branch, and case. The type of recording medium is discriminated by the recording-medium discriminating device before the feeding operation by the feed mechanism, and the operation of the recording unit is controlled according to the type of recording medium stored in a memory.