Term paper on Petroleum
Petroleum Essays
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Petroleum, or crude oil, is a naturally occurring oily liquid composed ofvarious organic chemicals. It is found in large quantities below the surfaceof the earth and is used as a fuel and as a raw material in the chemicalindustry. Modern industrial societies use it primarily to achieve a degreeof mobility on land, at sea, and in the air that was barely imaginableless than a hundred years ago. In addition, petroleum and its derivativesare used in the manufacture of medicines and fertilizers, foodstuffs,plastic ware, building materials, paints, and cloth and to generateelectricity.In fact, modern industrial civilization depends on petroleum and itsproducts; the physical structure and way of life of the suburbancommunities that surround the great cities are the result of an ample andinexpensive supply of petroleum. In addition, the goals of developingcountries to exploit their natural resources and to supply foodstuffs for theunderdeveloped populations, are based on the assumption of petroleumavailability. In recent years, however, the worldwide availability ofpetroleum has steadily declined and its relative cost has increased.Petroleum will probably no longer be a common commercial material bythe mid-21st century. Characteristics The chemical composition of all petroleum is principally hydrocarbons.Petroleum contains gaseous, liquid, and solid elements. The consistency ofpetroleum varies from liquid as thin as gasoline to liquid so thick that it willbarely pour. Formation Petroleum is formed under the earth s surface by the decomposition ofmarine organisms. The remains of tiny organisms that live in the sea and,to a lesser extent, those of land organisms that are carried down to thesea in rivers and of plants that grow on the ocean bottoms, are mixed withthe fine sands and silts that settle to the bottom in quiet sea basins. Suchdeposits, which are rich in organic materials, become the source rocks forthe making of crude oil. The process began many millions of years agowith the development of abundant life, and it continues to this day. Thesediments grow thicker and sink into the seafloor under their own weight.As additional deposits pile up, the pressure on the ones below increasesseveral thousand times, and the temperature rises by several hundreddegrees. The mud and sand harden into shale and sandstone; carbonateprecipitates and skeletal shells harden into limestone; and the remains ofthe dead organisms are transformed into crude oil and natural gas.Once the petroleum forms, it flows upward in the earth s crust because ithas a low density. The crude oil and natural gas rise into the microscopicpores of the coarser sediments lying above. Frequently, the rising materialencounters a dense layer of rock that prevents further movement. In otherwords, the oil has become trapped, and a reservoir of petroleum is formed.A significant amount of the upward-migrating oil, however, does notencounter impermeable rock but instead flows out at the surface of theearth or onto the ocean floor. Historical Development These surface deposits of crude oil have been known to humans forthousands of years. In the areas where they occurred, they were longused for such limited purposes as caulking boats, waterproofing cloth andfueling torches. By the time of the Renaissance, some surface depositswere being distilled to obtain lubricants and medicinal products, but thereal exploitation of crude oil did not begin until the 19th century. TheIndustrial Revolution had by then brought about a search for new fuels,and the social changes it effected had produced a need for good, cheapoil for lamps. People wished to be able to work and read after dark. The search for a better lamp fuel led to a great demand for rock oil ,thatis, crude oil, and various scientists in the mid-19th century weredeveloping processes to make commercial use of it. Thus the quest for greater supplies of crude oil began. For several yearspeople had known that wells drilled for water and salt occasionallycontained petroleum, so the concept of drilling for crude oil itself soonfollowed. The first such wells were dug in Germany in 1857-59, but theevent that gained world fame was the drilling of an oil well near Oil Creek,Pennsylvania, by Colonel Edwin L. Drake in 1859. Exploration In order to find crude oil underground, geologists must search for asedimentary basin in which shales rich in organic material have beenburied for a sufficiently long time for petroleum to have formed. Thepetroleum must also have had an opportunity to migrate into porous trapsthat are capable of holding large amounts of fluid. The occurrence ofcrude oil in the earth s crust is limited both by these conditions, whichmust be met simultaneously, and by the time span of tens of millions to ahundred million years required for the oil s formation. Petroleumgeologists and geophysicists, however, have many tools at their disposalto assist in identifying potential areas for drilling. Thus, surface mappingof sedimentary beds makes possible the interpretation of subsurfacefeatures, which can then be supplemented with information obtained bydrilling into the crust and retrieving samples of the rock layersencountered. In addition, increasingly sophisticated scientific techniques,having to do with the reflection and refraction of sound waves propagatedthrough the earth, reveal details of the structure and interrelationship ofvarious layers in the subsurface. Ultimately, however, the only way toprove that oil is present in the subsurface is to drill a well. An oil field, once found, may comprise more than one reservoir, that is,more than one single, continuous, bounded accumulation of oil. Indeed,several reservoirs may be stacked one above the other, isolated byintervening shales and impervious rock . Such reservoirs may vary in sizefrom a few tens of hectares to tens of square kilometers, and from a fewmeters in thickness to several hundred or more. Most of the oil that hasbeen discovered and exploited in the world has been found in a relativelyfew large reservoirs. In the U.S., for example, 60 of approximately 10,000oil fields have accounted for half of the productive capacity and reserves. Primary Production Most oil wells in the U.S. are drilled by the rotary method that was firstdescribed in a British patent in 1844 assigned to R. Beart. In rotarydrilling, the drill string, a series of connected pipes, is supported by aderrick. The string is rotated by being coupled to the rotating table on thederrick floor. The drill bit at the end of the string is generally designedwith three cone-shaped wheels tipped with hardened teeth. Drill cuttingsare lifted continually to the surface by a circulating-fluid system driven bya pump.Trapped crude oil is under pressure. Thus, when a well bore is drilled intothis pressured accumulation of oil, the oil expands into the low-pressuresink created by the well bore in communication with the earth s surface.As the well fills up with fluid, however, a back pressure is exerted on thereservoir, and the flow of additional fluid into the well bore would soonstop, were no other conditions involved. Most crude oils, however, containa significant amount of natural gas in solution, and this gas is kept insolution by the high pressure in the reservoir. The gas comes out ofsolution when the low pressure in the well bore is encountered and thegas, once liberated, immediately begins to expand. This expansion,together with the dilution of the column of oil by the less dense gas,results in the transporting of oil up to the earth s surface.The fluid may not reach the surface, so that a pump (artificial lift) must beinstalled in the well bore to continue producing the crude oil.Eventually, the flow rate of the crude oil becomes so small, and the cost oflifting the oil to the surface becomes so great, that the well costs more tooperate than the revenues that can be gained from selling the crude oil.The well s economic limit has then been reached and it is abandoned. Oil Drill Rig and ReservoirThe rotary drilling rig uses a series of rotating pipes, called the drill string, to tap into oil reservoirs.The drill string is supported by a derrick, and turned by the rotary table on its floor. Circulating,mudlike fluid driven by a pump removes cuttings as the teeth of the drill bit dig into the rock aroundthe reservoir. Reservoirs occur in many places. They form as a result of intense pressure on top oflayers of dead marine and land organisms mixed with sand or silt. This reservoir abuts a salt dome,which has trapped a layer of oil and natural gas between itself and nonporous rock. Because theyhave no place to expand, the gas and crude oil are under high pressure and will tend to rush
explosively out the channel opened by the drill rig. Enhanced Oil Recovery The oil industry...
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