Pump, burn and ship (2-1)
Proved Reserve – Once an oil well is drilled, and the oil field boundaries are
known, a petroleum engineer calculates how many barrels of oil can be
extracted. (1 barrel of oil contains 42 gallons of crude oil)
This may take anywhere from a couple years to hundreds of years.
Proved Reserves do not include oil that has yet to be discovered.
Oil Production – The amount of oil produced (pumped) per day.
Oil Consumption – The amount of oil used per day.
Draw a blue line upwards from the 15 countries with the highest proved reserves,
where each mm of line represents 1 billion barrels of oil.
Draw a green line upwards from the 15 countries with the highest production, where
each cm of line represents 1 million barrels produced per day.
Draw a red line upwards from the 15 countries with the highest consumption, where
each cm of line represents 1 million barrels consumed per day.
Discussion questions:
1. Is the U.S. self sufficient? What implications does this have?
2. Even though Russia only has 69 billion barrels of oil, geologists believe that
Russia has over twice the reserves of the entire mid-east combined. Why isn’t
this oil being produced?
Who has the oil? (2-2)
The United States has very little oil compared to the World Reserve. We produce
approximately 35% of our oil, the rest coming from imports from other nations.
Where is the oil in the United States?
Re-label your U.S. map to read: Oil Production in the United States – 2002
Use the patterns listed on your map and the oil production data sheet to color in the
map. Use one color only.
Discussion Questions:
1. What regions of the U.S. have the majority of the oil?
2. Does Hawaii produce any oil? Why?
3. Is Colorado self sufficient in oil?
4. Which states are self sufficient?
5. Most oil is found in sedimentary basins. Why is this?
Oil Generation (3-1)
Read the activity, 3-1 through 3-2.
Oil Generation Sequence:
1. Organisms die, and accumulate among sediments in a basin. Most oil is
generated from 1 celled organisms, not dinosaurs, like you have been led to
believe.
2. Burial by sediments must be quick, which deprives bacteria of O2. O2 is
necessary for bacteria to decay an organism.
3. Heat from deep burial, and time change the organic material into oil and natural
gas, which is contained within the burial rock. This is called the source
rock…source of the oil. These are generally black shales.
Crude oil contains many substances. Note 3-3
Discussion Questions:
1. Most oil is found in rocks between 2 and 60 million years old (Cenozoic). Why not
older?
Oil Field Slides (4-1)
Pumping oil north of Denver, in the Busy Bee oil field, Adams County.
Pumper and storage tank (white to stay cool)
Drilling rig. In Colorado, the typical depth is 7,000 feet, which takes about 10 days
to drill. 10 Flatbed trucks move this rig. It is 110 feet high, and uses 30 foot length
pipes.
Workover rig. These go from well to
well, doing repairs and maintenance.
Historical photo of numerous derricks. Separate derricks were constructed for
each well and left in place.
Aerial view of the Busy Bee Field. Wells are ¼ mile apart from each other, which
efficiently drains the field.
Secondary recovery techniques increase the amount of oil extracted from a reservoir.
Gusher: This doesn’t occur
anymore. Careful engineering during
drilling prevents blow outs, except in
rare cases.
Offshore Platform: If the oil is found offshore, this is how they drill for it, and
pump it. Many rigs like this are offshore in the Gulf and Atlantic coast.
Prudhoe Bay, North Slope of Alaska.
Prudhoe Bay, North Slope of Alaska. When the mud thaws in the summer, it is
impossible to travel on anything that is not paved. Most exploration occurs when
the ground is frozen.
Map of the Busy Bee Oil Field.
Reservoir – storage area
Reservoir Rock – Rock that has oil, gas, or water within it.
2 key properties that a rock must have both in order to produce oil:
Porosity – holes in rock between grains of rock. A good reservoir rock might
have 10-20% porosity.
Permeability – rock that will allow fluids to move through the rock. Pores are
connected to each other.
Shale is very porous, but has almost no permeability.
If a reservoir rock contained natural gas, oil and water, how would they layer?
Mud is pumped down pipe, out the bit, and
circulates back up, flushing the rock
cuttings upward.
Pipe
Bit
We will study 2 types of electric logs: SP and Resistivity
SP – Spontaneous Potential - current forms from drilling fluids (mud) which
enter rocks around the borehole. The more current, the more drilling fluids
moved in, which indicates permeability.
Resistivity – Measures resistance to a current passing through rock.
water has low resistivity..in other words, electricity flows relatively well
through water.
oil has high resistivity..electricity flows poorly through oil.
Construct a cross-section of the underground rocks from the Flader 2 to the Flader 2B wells.
Shale is colored Grey
Siltstone is colored Orange
Sandstone is colored Yellow
Limestone is colored Blue
4-4 Trapped Down Under
Rock Formation Symbols
Salt
++++++++
++++++++
++++++++
Granite
To accumulate oil in a reservoir rock:
1) Oil must form in a source rock (black shale)
2) Oil migrates upwards, out of the source rock into a porous and
permeable reservoir rock.
3) Above the reservoir rock must be a trap…a non-permeable rock,
which prevents the oil from migrating further. Shale and salt are
always impermeable, and limestone is sometimes impermeable, and
form good traps.
Oil = Green
Gas = Red
Using this color scheme, draw in possible oil and gas accumulations on
your handout, and label all possible source rocks.
5-3 Underground Puzzle
Prudhoe Bay