Fossil Fuels
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Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels
Index
Page Number
Title
Chapter 1 -What is Fossil Fuel
4
Chapter 2 -How Does Fossil Fuel Formed
9
Chapter 3 -Oil Well
16
Chapter 4 -Types of well
28
Chapter 5 -Limits and alternatives of Fossil Fuels
34
Chapter 6 -Advantage and Disadvantage of Fossil Fuels
40
Chapter 7 -Which Countries Produce The Most Fossil Fuels
42
56
References
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Chapter 1 – what is Fossil Fuel?
Fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas, are currently the world’s primary energy source. Formed from organic
material over the course of millions of years, fossil fuels have
fueled U.S. and global economic development over the past
century. Yet fossil fuels are finite resources and they can also
irreparably harm the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the burning of fossil fuels was responsible for 79 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in
2010. These gases insulate the planet, and could lead to potentially catastrophic changes in the earth’s climate. Technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may help
reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil fuels, and nuclear energy can be a zero-carbon alternative for
electricity generation. But other, more sustainable solutions
exist: energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Oil
Oil is the world’s primary fuel source for transportation. Most
oil is pumped out of underground reservoirs, but it can also
be found imbedded in shale and tar sands. Once extracted,
crude oil is processed in oil refineries to create fuel oil, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas, and other nonfuel products
such as pesticides, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and plastics.
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The United States leads the world in petroleum consumption at 19.05 million barrels per day as of 2014. Net petroleum
imports for the U.S. were 4.5 million barrels per day. Top exporters to the United States include Canada, Mexico, Saudi
Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria. Oil poses major environmental
problems, and the world’s heavy reliance on it for transportation makes it difficult to reduce consumption. Besides the environmental degradation caused by oil spills and extraction,
combustion of oil releases fine particulates which can lead to
serious respiratory problems, and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, petroleum is responsible for 42
percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Heavier crude oils, especially those extracted from tar
sands and shale, require the use of energy intensive methods
that result in more emissions and environmental degradation
compared to conventional oil. As conventional oil from underground reservoirs runs out, more oil producers are turning
to unconventional sources such as tar sands and oil shale.
Coal
Coal is primarily used to generate electricity and is responsible for 39 percent of the electric power supply in the United
States in 2014 (down from half in 2007). The United States produces around 11.5 percent of the world’s total with Wyoming,
West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Texas leading in
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production. China is the global leader in coal production, responsible for 45 percent of world supply.
The combustion of coal releases air pollutants such as acid
rain-inducing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and mercury. The mining process can also be very damaging to the
environment, often resulting in the destruction of vegetation
and top-soil. Rivers and streams can also be destroyed or
contaminated by mine wastes. The combustion of coal is responsible for 32 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in
the United States.
The premise of “clean coal” has recently been promoted as
a way to use this abundant energy source without damaging
the environment. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), where
carbon is separated from coal and injected underground for
long term storage, could theoretically be used to mitigate the
coal industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, CCS has
yet to be proven as a safe or realistic way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from commercial power plants and the
environmental and health costs of mining remain.
Natural Gas
Natural gas comprised 27 percent of U.S. energy use in 2014
and is most commonly used to produce heat or electricity
for buildings or industrial processes. Less than two percent
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of U.S. natural gas is used as a transportation fuel, typically
for bus fleets. Natural gas is also used to produce fertilizer,
paints, and plastics. The United States produces around 19.8
percent of the world’s natural gas and consumes about21.5
percent. Natural gas is most commonly transported by pipeline, which makes Canada the key exporter to the United
States, while Russia remains the main supplier for much of
Europe. Increasingly, however, natural gas is being transported by ship in a liquefied form (LNG) to meet greater global
demand for the fuel.
Natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil, with almost
zero sulfur dioxide emissions and far fewer nitrogen oxide
and particulate emissions. Natural gas releases almost 30
percent less carbon dioxide than oil and 43 percent less than
coal. However, natural gas is still responsible for 27 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane (CH4),
is also generated by the decomposition of municipal waste in
landfills and manure from livestock production. Methane is a
greenhouse gas that is more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Capturing and burning the gas to produce usable
heat and power prevents the methane from being released
from the landfill or feedlot into the atmosphere directly.
Fossil Fuel Alternatives: Energy Efficiency and Renewable
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Energy‫ز‬.
Despite current U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, several
options exist to begin the necessary transition away from a
harmful fossil fuel economy. Improving the energy efficiency
of buildings, vehicles, industrial processes, appliances and
equipment is the most immediate and cost effective way to
reduce energy use. Planning communities where people can
safely and conveniently use public transit, walk, or bike, instead of using private vehicles, also reduces energy demand.
Finally, there are several alternative resources that can supply clean, renewable energy to replace fossil fuels, including
water, biomass, wind, geothermal, and solar.
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Chapter 2 – How Does Fossil Fuel Formed
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as
anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age
of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically
millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years.
Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include
petroleum, coal, and natural gas. Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane. Fossil fuels range
from volatile materials with low carbon: hydrogen ratios like
methane, to liquids like petroleum, to nonvolatile materials
composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates.
The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in
the Earth’s crust over millions of years was first introduced by
Georgius Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in
the 18th century.
The Energy Information Administration estimates that in
2007 the primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum
36.0%, coal 27.4%, and natural gas 23.0%, amounting to an
86.4% share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in
the world. Non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8.5%,
hydroelectric 6.3%, and others (geothermal, solar, tidal, wind,
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wood, waste) amounting to 0.9%. World energy consumption
was growing about 2.3% per year.
Although fossil fuels are continually being formed via natural processes, they are generally considered to be non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to
form and the known viable reserves are being depleted much
faster than new ones are being made.
The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns. The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion
tonnes (21.3gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, but
it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about
half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion
tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year (one tonne
of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 44/12 or 3.7 tonnes
of carbon dioxide). Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse
gases that enhances radiative forcing and contributes to global warming, causing the average surface temperature of the
Earth to rise in response, which the vast majority of climate
scientists agree will cause major adverse effects. A global
movement towards the generation of renewable energy is
therefore under way to help reduce global greenhouse gas
emissions.
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Origin
Since oil fields are located only at certain places on earth
only a select group of countries are oil-independent; the other countries depend on the oil-production capacities of these
countrie‫ز‬s.
Petroleum and natural gas are formed by the anaerobic decomposition of remains of organisms including phytoplankton and zooplankton that settled to the sea (or lake)
bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions, millions
of years ago. Over geological time, this organic matter, mixed
with mud, got buried under heavy layers of sediment. The
resulting high levels of heat and pressure caused the organic
matter to chemically alter, first into a waxy material known as
kerogen which is found in oil shales, and then with more heat
into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as
catagenesis.
There is a wide range of organic, or hydrocarbon, com-
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pounds in any given fuel mixture. The specific mixture of hydrocarbons gives a fuel its characteristic properties, such as
boiling point, melting point, density, viscosity, etc. Some fuels
like natural gas, for instance, contain only very low boiling,
gaseous components. Others such as gasoline or diesel contain much higher boiling components.
Terrestrial plants, on the other hand, tend to form coal and
methane. Many of the coal fields date to the Carboniferous
period of Earth’s history. Terrestrial plants also form type III
kerogen, a source of natural gas.
Importance
A petrochemical refinery inGrangemouth, Scotland, UK
Fossil fuels are of great importance because they can be
burned (oxidized to carbon dioxide and water), producing
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significant amounts of energy per unit weight. The use of coal
as a fuel predates recorded history. Coal was used to run furnaces for the melting of metal ore. Semi-solid hydrocarbons
from seeps were also burned in ancient times, but these materials were mostly used for waterproofing and embalming.
Commercial exploitation of petroleum, largely as a replacement for oils from animal sources (notably whale oil), for use
in oil lamps began in the 19th century.
Natural gas, once flared-off as an unneeded byproduct of
petroleum production, is now considered a very valuable resource.[14] Natural gas deposits are also the main source of
the element helium.
Heavy crude oil, which is much more viscous than conventional crude oil, and tar sands, where bitumen is found
mixed with sand and clay, are becoming more important as
sources of fossil fuel.[15] Oil shale and similar materials are
sedimentary rocks containing kerogen, a complex mixture
of high-molecular weight organic compounds, which yield
synthetic crude oil when heated (pyrolyzed). These materials
have yet to be exploited commercially.[16] These fuels can
be employed in internal combustion engines, fossil fuel power stations and other uses.
Prior to the latter half of the 18th century, windmills and
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watermills provided the energy needed for industry such as
milling flour, sawing wood or pumping water, and burning
wood or peat provided domestic heat. The wide scale use
of fossil fuels, coal at first and petroleum later, to fire steam
engines enabled the Industrial Revolution. At the same time,
gas lights using natural gas or coal gas were coming into
wide use. The invention of the internal combustion engine
and its use in automobiles and trucks greatly increased the
demand for gasoline and diesel oil, both made from fossil fuels. Other forms of transportation, railways and aircraft, also
required fossil fuels. The other major use for fossil fuels is in
generating electricity and as feedstock for the petrochemical industry. Tar, a leftover of petroleum extraction, is used in
construction of roads.
Reserves
An oil well in the Gulf of Mexico
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Levels of primary energy sources are the reserves in the
ground. Flows are production of fossil fuels from these reserves. The most important part of primary energy sources
are the carbon based fossil energy sources. Coal, oil, and natural gas provided 79.6% of primary energy production during
2002 (in million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe)) (34.9+23.5+21.2).
Levels (proved reserves) during 2005–2006
• Coal: 997,748 million short tonnes (905 billion metric
tonnes),[17] 4,416 billion barrels (702.1 km3) of oil equivalent
• Oil: 1,119 billion barrels (177.9 km3) to 1,317 billion barrels
(209.4 km3)
• Natural gas: 6,183–6,381 trillion cubic feet (175–181 trillion
cubic meters), 1,161 billion barrels (184.6×109 m3) of oil equivalent
Flows (daily production) during 2006
• Coal: 18,476,127 short tonnes (16,761,260 metric tonnes),
52,000,000 barrels (8,300,000 m3) of oil equivalent per day
• Oil: 84,000,000 barrels per day (13,400,000 m3/d)
• Natural gas: 104,435 billion cubic feet (2,963 billion cubic
metres), 19,000,000 barrels (3,000,000 m3) of oil equivalent
per day
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Chapter 3 – Oil Well
An oil well is a boring in the Earth that is designed to bring
petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed
to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.
History
Bottom Part of an Oil Drilling Derrick in Brazoria County,
Texas (Harry Walker Photograph, circa 1940)
The earliest known oil wells were drilled in China in 347 CE.
These wells had depths of up to about 240 metres (790 ft.)
and were drilled using bits attached to bamboo poles. The oil
was burned to evaporate brine and produce salt. By the 10th
century, extensive bamboo pipelines connected oil wells with
salt springs. The ancient records of China and Japan are said
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to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting
and heating. Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan
in the 7th century.
According to Kasem Ajram, petroleum was distilled by the
Persian alchemist Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) in
the 9th century, producing chemicals such as kerosene in the
alembic (al-ambiq), and which was mainly used for kerosene
lamps. Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in
order to produce flammable products for military purposes.
Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available in Western Europe by the 12th century.[2]
Some sources claim that from the 9th century, oil fields
were exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan,
to produce naphtha for the petroleum industry. These fields
were described by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those oil wells as hundreds of shiploads.
When Marco Polo in 1264 visited the Azerbaijani city of Baku,
on the shores of the Caspian Sea, he saw oil being collected
from seeps. He wrote that “on the confines toward Geirgine
there is a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance,
in as much as a hundred shiploads might be taken from it at
one time.”
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1904 oil well fire at Bibi-Eibat
In North America, the first commercial oil well entered operation in Oil Springs, Ontario in 1858, while the first offshore
oil well was drilled in 1896 at the Summerland Oil Field on the
California Coast.
The earliest oil wells in modern times were drilled percussively, by repeatedly raising and dropping a cable tool into
the earth. In the 20th century, cable tools were largely replaced with rotary drilling, which could drill boreholes too
much greater depths and in less time. The record-depth Kola
Borehole used non-rotary mud motor drilling to achieve a
depth of over 12,000 metres (39,000 ft.).
Until the 1970s, most oil wells were vertical, although lithological and mechanical imperfections because most wells to
deviate at least slightly from true vertical. However, modern
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directional drilling technologies allow for strongly deviated
wells which can, given sufficient depth and with the proper
tools, actually become horizontal. This is of great value as
the reservoir rocks which contain hydrocarbons are usually
horizontal, or sub-horizontal; a horizontal wellbore placed in
a production zone has more surface area in the production
zone than a vertical well, resulting in a higher production rate.
The use of deviated and horizontal drilling has also made it
possible to reach reservoirs several kilometers or miles away
from the drilling location (extended reach drilling), allowing
for the production of hydrocarbons located below locations
that are either difficult to place a drilling rig on, environmentally sensitive, or populated.
Life of a well
A schematic of a typical oil well being produced by a pump
jack, which is used to produce the remaining recoverable oil
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after natural pressure is no longer sufficient to raise oil to the
surface.
The creation and life of a well can be divided up into five
segments:
•Planning
•Drilling
•Completion
•Production
•Abandonment
Drilling
The well is created by drilling a hole 12 cm to 1 meter (5 in
to 40 in) in diameter into the earth with a drilling rig that rotates a string with a bit attached. After the hole is drilled, sections of steel pipe (casing), slightly smaller in diameter than
the borehole, are placed in the hole. Cement may be placed
between the outside of the casing and the borehole known
as the annulus. The casing provides structural integrity to
the newly drilled wellbore, in addition to isolating potentially dangerous high pressure zones from each other and from
the surface.
With these zones safely isolated and the formation protected by the casing, the well can be drilled deeper (into potentially more-unstable and violent formations) with a smaller
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bit, and also cased with a smaller size casing. Modern wells
often have two to five sets of subsequently smaller hole sizes
drilled inside one another, each cemented with casing.
To drill the well
Well Casing
• The drill bit, aided by the weight of thick walled pipes
called “drill collars” above it, cuts into the rock. There are different types of drill bit; some cause the rock to disintegrate
by compressive failure, while others shear slices off the rock
as the bit turns.
• Drilling fluid, a.k.a. “mud”, is pumped down the inside of
the drill pipe and exits at the drill bit. The principal components
of drilling fluid are usually water and clay, but it also typically
contains a complex mixture of fluids, solids and chemicals
that must be carefully tailored to provide the correct physical
and chemical characteristics required to safely drill the well.
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Particular functions of the drilling mud include cooling the
bit, lifting rock cuttings to the surface, preventing destabilization of the rock in the wellbore walls and overcoming the
pressure of fluids inside the rock so that these fluids do not
enter the wellbore. Some oil wells are drilled with air or foam
as the drilling fluid.
Mud log in process, a common way to study the lithology
when drilling oil wells
• The generated rock “cuttings” are swept up by the drilling
fluid as it circulates back to surface outside the drill pipe. The
fluid then goes through “shakers” which strain the cuttings
from the good fluid which is returned to the pit. Watching for
abnormalities in the returning cuttings and monitoring pit volume or rate of returning fluid are imperative to catch “kicks”
early. A “kick” is when the formation pressure at the depth of
the bit is more than the hydrostatic head of the mud above,
which if not controlled temporarily by closing the blowout
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and ultimately by increasing the density of the drilling fluid
would allow formation fluids and mud to come up through
the annulus uncontrollably.
• The pipe or drill string to which the bit is attached is gradually lengthened as the well gets deeper by screwing in additional 9 m (30 ft.) sections or “joints” of pipe under the Kelly
or top drive at the surface. This process is called making a
connection, or “tripping”. Joints can be combined for more efficient tripping when pulling out of the hole by creating stands
of multiple joints. A conventional triple, for example, would
pull pipe out of the hole three joints at a time and stack them
in the derrick. Many modern rigs, called “super singles”, trip
pipe one at a time, laying it out on racks as they go.
This process is all facilitated by a drilling rig which contains
all necessary equipment to circulate the drilling fluid, hoist
and turn the pipe, control down hole, remove cuttings from
the drilling fluid, and generate on-site power for these operations.
Completion
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Modern drilling rig in Argentina
After drilling and casing the well, it must be ‘completed’.
Completion is the process in which the well is enabled to
produce oil or gas.
In a cased-hole completion, small holes called perforations
are made in the portion of the casing which passed through
the production zone, to provide a path for the oil to flow from
the surrounding rock into the production tubing. In open hole
completion, often ‘sand screens’ or a ‘gravel pack’ is installed
in the last drilled, uncased reservoir section. These maintain
structural integrity of the wellbore in the absence of casing,
while still allowing flow from the reservoir into the wellbore.
Screens also control the migration of formation sands into
production tubulars and surface equipment, which can cause
washouts and other problems, particularly from unconsolidated sand formations of offshore fields.
After a flow path is made, acids and fracturing fluids may
be pumped into the well to fracture, clean, or otherwise prepare and stimulate the reservoir rock to optimally produce
hydrocarbons into the wellbore. Finally, the area above the
reservoir section of the well is packed off inside the casing,
and connected to the surface via a smaller diameter pipe
called tubing. This arrangement provides a redundant barrier
to leaks of hydrocarbons as well as allowing damaged sec-
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tions to be replaced. Also, the smaller cross-sectional area of
the tubing produces reservoir fluids at an increased velocity
in order to minimize liquid fallback that would create additional back pressure, and shields the casing from corrosive
well fluids.
In many wells, the natural pressure of the subsurface reservoir is high enough for the oil or gas to flow to the surface.
However, this is not always the case, especially in depleted
fields where the pressures have been lowered by other producing wells, or in low permeability oil reservoirs. Installing a
smaller diameter tubing may be enough to help the production, but artificial lift methods may also be needed. Common
solutions include down hole pumps, gas lift, or surface pump
jacks. Many new systems in the last ten years have been introduced for well completion. Multiple packer systems with frac
ports or port collars in an all in one system have cut completion costs and improved production, especially in the case of
horizontal wells. These new systems allow casings to run into
the lateral zone with proper packer/frac port placement for
optimal hydrocarbon recovery.
Production
The production stage is the most important stage of a well’s
life; when the oil and gas are produced. By this time, the oil
rigs and work over rigs used to drill and complete the well
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have moved off the wellbore, and the top is usually outfitted with a collection of valves called a Christmas tree or production tree. These valves regulate pressures, control flows,
and allow access to the wellbore in case further completion
work is needed. From the outlet valve of the production tree,
the flow can be connected to a distribution network of pipelines and tanks to supply the product to refineries, natural
gas compressor stations, or oil export terminals.
As long as the pressure in the reservoir remains high enough,
the production tree is all that is required to produce the well.
If the pressure depletes and it is considered economically
viable, an artificial lift method mentioned in the completions
section can be employed.
Workovers are often necessary in older wells, which may
need smaller diameter tubing, scale or paraffin removal, acid
matrix jobs, or completing new zones of interest in a shallower reservoir. Such remedial work can be performed using
workover rigs – also known as pulling units, completion rigs
or “service rigs” – to pull and replace tubing, or by the use of
well intervention techniques utilizing coiled tubing. Depending on the type of lift system and wellhead a rod rig or flushby can be used to change a pump without pulling the tubing.
Enhanced recovery methods such as water flooding, steam
flooding, or CO2 flooding may be used to increase reservoir
pressure and provide a “sweep” effect to push hydrocarbons
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out of the reservoir. Such methods require the use of injection wells (often chosen from old production wells in a carefully determined pattern), and are used when facing problems with reservoir pressure depletion, high oil viscosity, or
can even be employed early in a field’s life. In certain cases
– depending on the reservoir’s geomechanics – reservoir engineers may determine that ultimate recoverable oil may be
increased by applying a water flooding strategy early in the
field’s development rather than later. Such enhanced recovery techniques are often called “tertiary recovery”.
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Chapter 4 - Types of well
A natural gas well in the southeast Lost, California, US.
Fossil-fuel wells come in many varieties. By produced fluid, there can be wells that produce oil, wells that produce
oil and natural gas, or wells that only produce natural gas.
Natural gas is almost always a byproduct of producing oil,
since the small, light gas carbon chains come out of solution
as they undergo pressure reduction from the reservoir to the
surface, similar to uncapping a bottle of soda pop where the
carbon dioxide effervesces. Unwanted natural gas can be a
disposal problem at the well site. If there is not a market for
natural gas near the wellhead it is virtually valueless since it
must be piped to the end user. Until recently, such unwanted
gas was burned off at the well site, but due to environmental
concerns this practice is becoming less common. Often, unwanted (or ‘stranded’ gas without a market) gas is pumped
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back into the reservoir with an ‘injection’ well for disposal or
repressurizing the producing formation. Another solution is
to export the natural gas as a liquid. Gas to liquid, (GTL) is
a developing technology that converts stranded natural gas
into synthetic gasoline, diesel or jet fuel through the Fischer-Tropsch process developed in World War II Germany. Such
fuels can be transported through conventional pipelines and
tankers to users. Proponents claim GTL fuels burn cleaner
than comparable petroleum fuels. Most major international
oil companies are in advanced development stages of GTL
production, e.g. the 140,000 bbl/d (22,000 m3/d) Pearl GTL
plant in Qatar, scheduled to come online in 2011. In locations
such as the United States with a high natural gas demand,
pipelines are constructed to take the gas from the wellsite to
the end consumer.
Raising the derrick
Another obvious way to classify oil wells is by land or off-
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shore wells. There is very little difference in the well itself. An
offshore well targets a reservoir that happens to be underneath an ocean. Due to logistics, drilling an offshore well is far
more costly than an onshore well. By far the most common
type is the onshore well. These wells dot the Southern and
Central Great Plains, Southwestern United States, and are the
most common wells in the Middle East.
Another way to classify oil wells is by their purpose in contributing to the development of a resource. They can be characterized as:
• Wildcat wells are drilled where little or no known geological information is available. The site may have been selected because of wells drilled some distance from the proposed location but on a terrain that appeared similar to the
proposed site.
• Exploration wells are drilled purely for exploratory (information gathering) purposes in a new area, the site selection
is usually based on seismic data, satellite surveys etc. Details
gathered in this well includes the presence of Hydrocarbon
in the drilled location, the amount of fluid present and the
depth at which oil or/and gas occurs.
• Appraisal wells are used to assess characteristics (such
as flow rate, reserve quantity) of a proven hydrocarbon accumulation. The purpose of this well is to reduce uncertainty
about the characteristics and properties of the hydrocarbon
present in the field.
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• Production wells are drilled primarily for producing oil or
gas, once the producing structure and characteristics are determined.
• Development wells are wells drilled for the production
of oil or gas already proven by appraisal drilling to be suitable
for exploitation.
• Abandoned well are wells permanently plugged in the
drilling phase for technical reasons?
Oil extraction in Boryslav in 1909
At a producing well site, active wells may be further categorized as:
• Oil producers producing predominantly liquid hydrocarbons, but mostly with some associated gas.
• Gas producers producing almost entirely gaseous hydrocarbons.
• water injectors injecting water into the formation to maintain reservoir pressure, or simply to dispose of water pro-
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duced with the hydrocarbons because even after treatment,
it would be too oily and too saline to be considered clean
for dumping overboard offshore, let alone into a fresh water resource in the case of onshore wells. Water injection into
the producing zone frequently has an element of reservoir
management; however, often produced water disposal is into
shallower zones safely beneath any fresh water zones.
• Aquifer producers intentionally producing water for re-injection to manage pressure. If possible this water will come
from the reservoir itself. Using aquifer produced water rather than water from other sources is to preclude chemical incompatibility that might lead to reservoir-plugging precipitates. These wells will generally be needed only if produced
water from the oil or gas producers is insufficient for reservoir
management purposes.
• Gas injectors injecting gas into the reservoir often as a
means of disposal or sequestering for later production, but
also to maintain reservoir pressure.
Lahee classification
• New Field Wildcat (NFW) – far from other producing
fields and on a structure that has not previously produced.
• New Pool Wildcat (NPW) – new pools on already producing structure.
• Deeper Pool Test (DPT) – on already producing structure
and pool, but on a deeper pay zone.
• Shallower Pool Test (SPT) – on already producing structure and pool, but on a shallower pay zone.
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• Outpost (OUT) – usually two or more locations from nearest productive area.
• Development Well (DEV) – can be on the extension of a
pay zone, or between existing wells (Infill).
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Chapter 5 - Limits and alternatives of Fossil Fuels
P. E. Hodgson, a Senior Research Fellow Emeritus in Physics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, expects the world energy use is doubling every fourteen years and the need is
increasing faster still and he insisted in 2008 that the world oil
production, a main resource of fossil fuel, is expected to peak
in ten years and thereafter fall.
The principle of supply and demand holds that as hydrocarbon supplies diminish, prices will rise. Therefore, higher
prices will lead to increased alternative, energy supplies as
previously uneconomic sources become sufficiently economical to exploit. Artificial gasoline and other renewable
energy sources currently require more expensive production
and processing technologies than conventional petroleum
reserves, but may become economically viable in the near
future. Different alternative sources of energy include nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and geothermal.
One of the more promising energy alternatives is the use
of inedible feed stocks and biomass for carbon dioxide capture as well as biofuel. While these processes are not without problems, they are currently in practice around the world.
Biodiesels are being produced by several companies and
source of great research at several universities. Some of the
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most common and promising processes of conversion of renewable lipids in to usable fuels is through hydro treating and
decarboxylation.
Environmental effects
Global fossil carbon emission by fuel type, 1800–2007.
Note: Carbon only represents 27% of the mass of CO2
The U.S. holds less than 5% of the world’s population, but
due to large houses and private cars, uses more than a quarter of the world’s supply of fossil fuels. In the United States,
more than 90% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the
combustion of fossil fuels. Combustion of fossil fuels also
produces other air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur
dioxide, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals.
According to Environment Canada:
“The electricity sector is unique among industrial sectors in
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its very large contribution to emissions associated with nearly all air issues. Electricity generation produces a large share
of Canadian nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide emissions,
which contribute to smog and acid rain and the formation of
fine particulate matter. It is the largest uncontrolled industrial source of mercury emissions in Canada. Fossil fuel-fired
electric power plants also emit carbon dioxide, which may
contribute to climate change. In addition, the sector has significant impacts on water and habitat and species. In particular, hydro dams and transmission lines have significant effects
on water and biodiversity.”[25]
Carbon dioxide variations over the last 400,000 years,
showing a rise since the industrial revolution.
According to U.S. Scientist Jerry Mahlman and USA Today:
Mahlman, who crafted the IPCC language used to define
levels of scientific certainty, says the new report will lay the
blame at the feet of fossil fuels with “virtual certainty,” mean-
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ing 99% sure. That’s a significant jump from “likely,” or 66%
sure, in the group’s last report in 2001, Mahlman says. His role
in this year’s effort involved spending two months reviewing
the more than 1,600 pages of research that went into the new
assessment.
Combustion of fossil fuels generates sulfuric, carbonic, and
nitric acids, which fall to Earth as acid rain, impacting both
natural areas and the built environment. Monuments and
sculptures made from marble and limestone are particularly
vulnerable, as the acids dissolve calcium carbonate.
Fossil fuels also contain radioactive materials, mainly uranium and thorium, which are released into the atmosphere.
In 2000, about 12,000 tonnes of thorium and 5,000 tonnes of
uranium were released worldwide from burning coal. It is estimated that during 1982, US coal burning released 155 times
as much radioactivity into the atmosphere as the Three.
Burning coal also generates large amounts of bottom ash
and fly ash. These materials are used in a wide variety of applications, utilizing, for example, about 40% of the US production.
Harvesting, processing, and distributing fossil fuels can
also create environmental concerns. Coal mining methods,
particularly mountaintop removal and strip mining, have neg-
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ative environmental impacts, and offshore oil drilling poses a
hazard to aquatic organisms. Oil refineries also have negative environmental impacts, including air and water pollution.
Transportation of coal requires the use of diesel-powered locomotives, while crude oil is typically transported by tanker
ships, each of which requires the combustion of additional
fossil fuels.
Environmental regulation uses a variety of approaches to
limit these emissions, such as command-and-control (which
mandates the amount of pollution or the technology used),
economic incentives, or voluntary programs.
An example of such regulation in the USA is the “EPA is implementing policies to reduce airborne mercury emissions.
Under regulations issued in 2005, coal-fired power plants will
need to reduce their emissions by 70 percent by 2018.”
In economic terms, pollution from fossil fuels is regarded
as a negative externality. Taxation is considered one way to
make societal costs explicit, in order to ‘internalize’ the cost
of pollution. This aims to make fossil fuels more expensive,
thereby reducing their use and the amount of pollution associated with them, along with raising the funds necessary to
counteract these factors.
According to Rodman D. Griffin, “The burning of coal and oil
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have saved inestimable amounts of time and labor while substantially raising living standards around the world”.Although
the use of fossil fuels may seem beneficial to our lives, this
act is playing a role on global warming and it is said to be
dangerous for the future.
Moreover, these environmental pollutions impacts on the
human beings because its particles of the fossil fuel on the air
cause negative health effects when inhaled by people. These
health effects include premature death, acute respiratory illness, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis and decreased
lung function. So, the poor, undernourished, very young and
very old, and people with preexisting respiratory disease and
other ill health, are more at risk.
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Chapter 6 – Advantage and Disadvantage
of Fossil Fuels
Advantages of Fossil Fuels
1. Well Developed
The technology we use to harness the energy in fossil fuels
is well developed. The main reason for this is that fossil fuels
have been used to power our world for many decades.
2. Cheap and Reliable
Fossil fuels are cheap and reliable sources of energy. They
are excellent types of fuel to use for the energy base-load,
as opposed to some of the more unreliable energy sources
such as wind and solar.
Disadvantages of Fossil Fuels
1. Contribute to Global Warming
Fossil fuels are not green sources of energy. In fact, they
contain high amounts of carbon and have been blamed for
being the main contributor to global warming.
2. Non-Renewable
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Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources. This means
that there is a finite amount of fossil fuels available and the
reserves are not replenished naturally. This is not entirely correct, as fossil fuels are products of millions of years of natural
processes such as anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. The thing is, as opposed to renewable energy sources
such as wind and solar, it takes millions of years before the
formation of fossil fuels takes place in any noteworthy quantities.
3. Unsustainable
We are spending our fossil fuel reserves in a non-sustainable manner. Luckily, this forces us to think different when it
comes to energy, which results in the growth of renewable
and green sources of energy.
4. Incentivized
One of the major reasons why fossil fuels are as cheap is a
history of government incentives. Coal, natural gas and petroleum received $4.22 billion most in direct subsidies – solar
got $1.13 billion.
5. Accidents Happen
They are not nearly as serious as accidents related to nuclear power, but on the other hand, fossil fuels will never have
the safety of solar and wind. The picture above is from the
Deep-water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Chapter 7 -Which Countries Produce the
Most Fossil Fuels?
Which country takes the most fossil fuels out of the ground?
The answer to this question is relatively predictable: China.
Today China is the world’s biggest consumer of energy and
the vast majority of that comes from burning coal mined in
China itself. Little surprise then that China is number one in
terms of taking fossil fuels out of the ground.
However, absolute numbers can obscure as much as they
can enlighten. 1.3 billion People live in China, but only 30 million live in Saudi Arabia. Yet, if people want to say there is a
lot of wind power in Texas, Scotland or anywhere else they
inevitably reach for the cliche “The Saudi Arabia of Wind”.
What really matters then is both how many fossil fuels a
country takes out of the ground in absolute terms, but also
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in per-capita terms. Such numbers can be instructive. If you
produce a rather large number of fossil fuels, then you might
be not overly enthusiastic about the potential of global climate treaty to limit their use.
So, which countries lead the world in extracting fossil fuels
from the ground?
First things first. There are three types of fossil fuel: oil, coal
and natural gas. The first is a liquid, the second a solid and
the third a gas. So, how do we measure the total amount of
oil, coal and gas each country extracts? Calculating their total
weight is one option, but this runs into an obvious problem. If
you burn a tonne of oil it will release significantly more energy
than if you burn a tonne of coal. However, the heat released
when you burn a tonne of coal gets close to something that
we can use to reasonably compare the extraction of oil, coal
and natural gas. A tonne of oil releases approximately 42 gigajoules (GJ) of energy. This lets us define a “tonne of oil equivalent” (toe) measure. In other words one toe of coal or natural
gas is the amount of coal or natural gas that will release the
equivalent energy of one tonne of oil (42 GJ).
This comparison has drawbacks, as does any metric. Many
things can be done with oil, coal or natural gas. However, for
a variety of reasons, engineering and economic, we do not
do everything with all fuels. You cannot fly a Boeing 747 with
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coal or natural gas. Similarly, oil is almost never used for the
production of electricity or steel. So, the economic value of
each fuel is largely ignored by this measure. Likewise, it does
not directly measure greenhouse gas emissions, which some
may deem to be a more important measure of fossil fuel extraction.
These caveats made, I will now go through each fossil fuel
in turn, before adding it all up, and then finally making a brief
comparison of fossil fuel production with fossil fuel consumption.
All production and consumption statistics quoted below
are annual numbers for 2013. Fossil fuel production and consumption data are taken from BP’s statistical review of world
energy, and population data is taken from the excellent Gapminder website.
Oil
Oil has been the world’s largest source of energy for the last
half century. And the top three oil producers are Saudi Arabia,
Russia and America, between them producing around 38%
of the world’s oil. In total, the world’s 15 largest oil producing
nations (shown below) produce 80% of the world’s oil.
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On a per-capita basis things are somewhat different. America and Russia, the number two and three nations in terms of
total production, drop out of the top 15. At the top is Kuwait,
which produces just over 50 tonnes of oil per-person each
year. This is approximately twenty times higher than annual
per-capita oil consumption in America, and in excess of one
hundred times annual per-capita oil consumption China.
The only developed nations in the top 15 are Norway and
Canada, and unsurprisingly the list is dominated by Middle
Eastern countries. God, if he exists, appears to have placed
most of the oil in just the wrong spot.
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Coal
Global coal production and consumption is now dominated by China, which produces and consumes approximately
half of the world’s coal. And China dominates growth in coal
as well, with its production doubling in the last decade and
making up 70% of the global increase in coal production over
that period. In addition, other major sources of coal production growth such as Australia and Indonesia are major exporters to China. So, globally if you are thinking about coal you
should really be thinking about China.
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However, China’s per-capita coal production is much more
mediocre than the above graph implies. After all, there are
over 1.3 billion people living China. In per-capita terms China produces less coal than America, a reminder that China
hass a long way to go before catching up with America. And
Australia’s coal production per-person is perhaps most startling. Astonishingly it produces almost eight times more coal
per-person than China, and produces three times more than
any other country.
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Natural Gas
America and Russia are by far the world’s two largest producers of natural gas, accounting for almost 39% of the world’s
annual output. The world’s top 15 countries produce 78% of
the world’s natural gas, a similar percentage to that seen with
oil.
Qatar is the world’s fourth biggest producer of natural gas,
yet its population is only 2 million. A country with 0.03% of
the world’s population therefore produces 5.4% of the world’s
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natural gas. And it is therefore by a long way the world’s biggest producers of natural gas on a per-capita basis. Norway
is similarly impressive, producing five times more natural gas
on a per-capita basis than any other developed country, and
ranking fourth globally.
Densely populated Holland also has notably high natural
gas production, a result of production from the vast Groningen gas field, which was discovered in the 1950s. The history
of natural gas production in Holland may be instructive for
how things will play out with shale gas in similarly densely
populated Britain.
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Total Fossil Fuel Production
Unsurprisingly, the three largest producers of fossil fuels
are China, America and Russia, with Saudi Arabia being the
fourth largest producer of fossil fuels over all. And fossil fuel
production is a largely non-European affair – only Norway appears in the top 15. In fact, the United Kingdom is the next
ranked European country at number 26.
The top 15 countries extract 78% of the world’s fossil fuels,
and only four of the top 15 are developed countries.
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Because of its vast natural gas production, Qatar has the
world’s largest per-capita fossil fuel production. In total, Qatar’s per-capita fossil fuel production is just under 120 toe. For
comparison, typical developed countries consume just over
3 toe in fossil fuels per-capita each year.
Middle Eastern Countries dominate the list of the biggest
per-capita fossil fuel producers, making up half of the top 15.
Again, there is a lack of European countries, with only Norway appearing in the top 20.
And despite being the top two countries in absolute fossil
fuel production, America (19th) and China (34th) do not rank
very high in per-capita terms.
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And what about consumption?
Some of the world’s biggest consumers of fossil fuels, such
as Japan and South Korea, are missing from all of the above
lists. So, I will finish by making a brief comparison between
the top 15 countries in terms of fossil fuel production and fossil fuel consumption. The top 3 producers of fossil fuels – China, America and Russian – are also the top 3 consumers of
fossil fuels. However, of the world’s 15 biggest consumers of
fossil fuels, 6 are not among the 15 biggest producers of fossil fuels. Unsurprisingly, they are almost all developed economies: Japan, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, United Kingdom
and Italy.
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Differences in the production and consumption of fossil fuels can perhaps best be illustrated using the ratio between
national fossil fuel production and consumption. This is an
approximate measure of self-sufficiency. Though, a far from
fool-proof one. A country can produce an excess of one fossil fuel, but still be fundamentally dependent on imports for
another fossil fuel. An example is Holland, which produces an
excess of natural gas, but is highly dependent on imports for
coal and oil. Despite its limitations, this measure shows the
wide global variation in how self-sufficient countries are.
The world’s biggest producers and consumers, China and
America, are both very similar. Each country has a production:
consumption ratio of just over 0.75, and they are both largely
self-sufficient in terms of coal, but import large amounts of
oil.
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Almost every developed country consumes more fossil fuels than it exports. In fact, Canada, Australia and Norway are
the only developed economies that produce more fossil fuels than they consume. Norway produces 10 times more fossil fuels than it consumes, a ratio that is higher than any other
country. This astonishingly high ratio is achieved both by its
high per-capita production of fossil fuels, but also by generating almost 100% of its electricity using hydro-electric dams.
In contrast, developed economies such as Japan, South
Korea and France produce essentially no fossil fuels, and are
almost 100% dependent on imports.
These differences in production and consumption of fossil
fuels will play a significant role in determining how countries
treat international climate negotiations. It is no surprise that
influential groups in Canada and Australia oppose any serious
efforts to limit global carbon emissions. Similarly, China’s relatively high levels of self-dependence are largely reliant on
China’s extensive coal reserves. China will not be able to significantly expand its consumption of oil or natural gas without
a massive increase in imports or the expansion of fracking
in China. These realities are now leading China to consider a
huge expansion of plants which will convert coal to synthetic
gas and oil, which will inevitably increase carbon emissions.
In contrast, American energy policy appears to be based
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around the contradictory goal of reducing the amount of fossil fuels consumed in America, while increasing the amount
of of fossil fuels extracted in America. And America is not
alone, with Britain similarly considering a massive expansion
of shale gas extraction, while reducing consumption of fossil
fuels. These complex realities will make the future of national
fossil fuel production and consumption difficult to predict.
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Reference
http://www.eesi.org/topics/fossil-fuels/description
http://energyinformative.org/fossil-fuels-pros-andcons/
http://www.theenergycollective.com/robertwilson190/447121/who-produces-most-fossil-fuels
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well
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