INTRODUCTION TO OIL AND GAS

BY – CRG ENGINEER SADDAM HUSSAIN

 OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION

Hydro carbon exploration ( or oil and gas exploration ) is the

search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits
of hydro carbons , particularly petroleum and natural gas , in the
earth using petroleum geology.

NOTE – Natural Gas contains 90-99% of hydro carbons which

predominately of methane ( the simplest hydro carbon )
together with smaller amount of ethane , propane and
butane.
Major Industry
UPSTREAM - It is E&P ( Exploration and
Production). This involves the search for underwater
THIS ENERGY SECTOR HAS natural gas fields or crude oil fields and the drilling of
THREE KEY AREA : exploration wells and drilling into established wells to
recover oil and gas.

MIDSTREAM - Midstream entails the

transportation , storage and processing of oil and
gas. Once resource are recovered , it has to be DOWNSTREAM - It refers to the
transported to a refinery which is often in a filtering of the raw material obtained
completely different geographical region compared during the upstream phase.
to the oil and gas reserved. Transportation can
include anything from tanker ships to pipelines and
trucking fleets.
 Oil Field

• What is an Oil Field?

• An oil field is a tract of land used for extracting petroleum, otherwise known as
crude oil, from the ground. Although some contest the exact origin of oil, most
consider petroleum a fossil fuel created from dead organic material often found
in ancient seabed thousands of meters below the surface of the earth.
BREAKING DOWN Oil Field
An oil field consists of a reservoir in the rocky strata of
the Earth which traps hydrocarbons. An impermeable
or sealing rock layer covers the reservoir. Typically,
industry professionals use the term "oil field" with an
implied assumption of economic size.

There are more than 65,000 oil fields around the

world, many of the largest located in the Middle East.
There have been tens of thousands of oil fields have
been discovered. However, the concentration of 94-
percent of known reserves is in fewer than 1500 major
oil fields. The locations of oil fields have been the
origin of past geopolitical conflicts and environmental
concerns.

Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia, which started

production in 1951, is by far the largest oil field
uncovered so far. There are also offshore oil fields,
and the Safaniya field is the world's largest. Located in
the Persian Gulf off the Saudi Arabian coast,
the Safaniya field is thought to hold more than 50
billion barrels of oil.
 MOPU’S AND FPSO’S
MOPU ( MOBILE OFFSHORE PRODUCTION UNIT )
DEFINING MOPU’S :
A mobile offshore production unit is any type of portable structure that can be
reuse when procuring oil and gas from the seabed. These are typically used when
the depth of drilling is over 500m. If the water is any shallower , then fixed platform
are constructed.

NOTE : The MOPU’S classification includes all types of FPSO Vessels , as well as spar
and tension leg platform , semi-submersible production units and
production barges.

NOTE : 1 BARREL OF OIL = 158.82 LITRES

FPSO’S : FLOATING PRODUCTION STORAGE
AND OFFLOADING.
DEFINING FPSO’S :
 FPSO’S CONTINUED

STORAGE : This is the second most important feature and the ‘S’ in the acronym FPSO.
Second most important because just as it is important to filter the
excavated oil from its oceanic reservoirs, it is equally important to store
it as well. For this purpose , the FPSO is built in such a way that the tubes
and the pipes and the tanks are perfect for storing the distilled product
from crude raw material. They are safe and sturdy so as to resist any
chances of unwanted oil spillage and thus contamination of the marine
life form.
OFFLOADING:
The ‘O’ in the concept of FPSO. The offloading aspect is important
when the FPSO has to transfer its contents into ships designed as oil
carriers or to pipelines that act as transfer agents. In simple terms , off-
loading refers to removing the cargo in a FPSO and transferring it to the
another cargo – carrying vessel or equipment. The offloading parts is very
 FPSO
CONTINUED

tricky as the process is carried out in the middle of the sea and thus requires a lot
of concentration and focus in order to avoid any sort of spillage.

NOTE : It has to be noted that even while the entire working process of a FPSO
is very intriguing , the designing aspect is very amazing. This is because
the system has to be constructed in such a way that it remains invulnerable
to the constant changes that take place in the middle of the ocean or the
seas.
They are cheap and agile alternative to the installation of expensive
pipelines in areas that will only yield fuel for short period of time.
 EXPLORATON OF OIL AND GAS

SEARCHING OF OIL AND GAS

The search for oil and gas requires a knowledge of geography , geology

and geophysics. Crude oil is usually found in certain types of geological

structure fault traps , salt domes et cetera , which lies under various

terrains and in wide range of climate. After selection of area many

types of geophysical surveys are conducted for precise evaluation of

the subsurface formation.

 Types of
surveys

Magneto
Aerial Gravimetric Seismic Radiographic Stratigraphic
metric
Surveys Surveys Surveys Surveys Surveys
Surveys
 Surveys
continued

MAGNETOMETRIC
SURVEY :

Magnetometers hung from airplanes measure variation in the earth’s magnetic field in order to locate
sedimentary rock formations which generally have low magnetic properties when compared to other
rocks .

Aerial surveys :

Photographs taken with special camera in airplanes , provides the 3D view of the earth which are used
to determine load formation with potential oil and gas deposits.
 SURVEY
CONTINUED

GRAVIMETRIC
SURVEYS :

Because large masses of dense rock increase the pull of gravity , gravimeters
are used to provide information regarding underlying formation by
measuring difference in gravity.

SEISMIC SURVEYS :

Measurements are obtained from shock waves generated by setting off

explosive charges in small diameter holes from the use of vibrating or percussion
devices on both land and water and also from underwater blasts of compressed
air . The elapsed time between the beginning of the shock wave and the echo is
used to determine the depth of the reflecting substrate.
 SURVEY
CONTINUED

RADIOGRAPHIC SURVEYS:

Radiography is the use of radio waves to provide information similar to that obtained from seismic
surveys.

STRATIGRAPHIC SURVEYS:

Stratigraphic sampling is the analysis of cores of subsurface rocks for traces of gas and oil . A
cylinder length of rock , called a core cut by a hollow bit and pushed up into the tube (core barrel)
attached to the bit. The core barrel is brought to the surface and the core is removed for analysis.
UNITS OF OIL AND GAS FLOW RATE
OIL FLOW RATE – BBL/DAY

(barrels /day)

GAS FLOW RATE – MMSCFD

(million standard cubic feet/day)

1M = 1OOO Standard Cubic Feet.