Conventional petroleum

Conventional crude oils Conventional petroleum Convergence methods Conversion processes Convertal... 

The decrease in petroleum and natural gas reserves has encouraged interest in and discovery and development of unconventional sources of these hydrocarbons. Principal alternatives to conventional petroleum reserves include oil shale (qv) and tar sands (qv). Oil shale reserves in the United States are estimated at 20,000 EJ (19.4 x 10 Btu) and estimates of tar sands and oil sands reserves are on the order of 11 EJ (10 x 10 Btu) (see Tarsands Shale oil). Of particular interest are the McKittrick, EeUows, and Taft quadrangles of Cahfomia, the Asphalt Ridge area of Utah, the Asphalt, Kentucky area, and related geographic regions. 

As of 1995, there were only a few commercial oil shale faciUties operating in the world. These faciUties are located in countries where the economic, pohtical, and environmental requirements for commercial oil shale development are met. There are commercial oil shale faciUties in Bra2il, China, Estonia, and Israel. No commercial oil shale faciUties have existed in the United States because the costs of shale oil processing exceed those associated with conventional petroleum cmde processing. 

Other Oil Shale Operations. As of this writing, commercial production of shale ok is stkl being conducted in the People s RepubHc of China and Estonia. However, production rates continue to dwindle owing to the avakabkity of conventional petroleum and other sources of energy as well as continued worldwide energy conservation. 

Commercial shale ok production in the People s RepubHc of China is stkl being carried out in Fushin and Maoming. However, production in both areas is declining because of continued emphasis on conventional petroleum and coal. Annual shale ok production in China is about... 

When petroleum occurs in a reservoir that allows the cmde material to be recovered by pumping operations as a free-flowing dark-to-light colored hquid, it is often referred to as conventional petroleum. In some oil fields, the downhole pressure is sufficient for recovery without the need for pumping. Heavy oil differs from conventional petroleum in that its flow properties are reduced and it is much more difficult to recover from the subsurface reservoir. These materials have a much higher viscosity and lower API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity than conventional petroleum, and primary recovery of these petroleum types usually requires thermal stimulation of the reservoir. 

By far the largest known concentrations of conventional petroleum reserves are in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait (Table 1). The largest concentration of reserves is in the Burgan field (10.2 x 10 (64.2 x 10 bbl)) in Kuwait (10), which... 

Fig. 1. Growth of wodd s reserves of conventional petroleum. To convert to bbl, multiply by 6.29.

The key factor influencing the varying interpretations is that although there is an enormous volume of petroleum resources in the ground throughout the world, it is found in deposits that differ in quaUty and quantity from country to country. Only a small fraction of these resources are conventional petroleum resources (160.1 x 10 m (1006.8 x 10 bbl)) and are in the category of proved reserves. An additional... 

X 10 m (585 x 10 bbl) of conventional petroleum is estimated to be undiscovered in the world. This estimate is of undiscovered petroleum resources that are economic to produce by means of normal production technology. 

Perhaps the biggest contribution that technological advancement in petroleum production will make is bringing large volumes of unconventional petroleum resources, eg, heavy oil and tar sands, into a viable economic realm by lowering the unit cost of production. Compared to the inventory of conventional petroleum reserves and undiscovered resources, the physical inventories of such unconventional petroleum resources are extremely large for example, the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada, are estimated to contain 360 x 10 m (2250 x 10 bbl) of in-place petroleum (19). This volume is equivalent to the total inventory, ie, the combined cumulative production, reserves, and undiscovered resources, of world conventional cmde petroleum. In... 

In addition to conventional petroleum (qv) and heavy cmde oil, there remains another subclass of petroleum, one that offers to provide some rehef to potential shortfalls in the future supply of Hquid fuels and other products. This subclass is the bitumen found in tar sand deposits (1,2). Tar sands, also known as oil sands and bituminous sands, are sand deposits impregnated with dense, viscous petroleum. Tar sands are found throughout the world, often in the same geographical areas as conventional petroleum. 

Fig. 1. Relative viscosity data for conventional petroleum, heavy oil, and bitumen.

Many of the reserves of bitumen in tar sand formations are available only with some difficulty, and optional refinery methods are necessary for future conversion of these materials to Hquid products, because of the substantial differences in character between conventional petroleum (qv) and bitumen (Table 1). 

The fact that we have peaks within a 2D space implies that where no peak is found represents a true detector baseline or electronic noise level. In a conventional petroleum sample, a complex unresolved mixture response causes an apparent detector baseline rise and fall throughout the GC trace. It is probably a fact that in this case the true electronic baseline is never obtained. We have instead a chemical baseline comprising small response to many overlapping components. This immediately suggests that we should have more confidence in peak area measurements in the GC X GC experiment. 

It uses the same mobile equipment required for conventional petroleum production technology. 

The Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin hosts immense unconventional natural gas hydrate reserves that are often co-located with conventional petroleum resources. Osadetz et al. (2005) reported that the conventional resources are co-located with an immense gas hydrate resource estimated between 2.4 x 1012 and 87 x 1012 m3 of raw natural gas. Because the expected decline in conventional natural gas production from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin cannot be replaced by conventional production from frontier regions alone, this immense hydrate resource offers a solution to replace the expected decline in conventional gas reserves. 

Convective mass transfer rate, 25 279 Conventional petroleum, 13 640 Conventional polymers, 13 541 Conventional reactive silicones, in fiber finishing, 22 593... 

However, to define conventional petroleum, heavy oil, and bitumen, the use of a single physical parameter such as API gravity or viscosity is not sufficient and is only a general indicator of the nature of the material. Other properties, such as the method of recovery, composition, and most of all, the properties of the bnlk deposit, must also be included in any definition of these materials. Only then will it be possible to classify petroleum and its derivatives (Speight, 1999). 

Vegetable oils have the potential to substitute a fraction of petroleum distillates and petroleum-based petrochemicals in the near future. Possible acceptable converting processes of vegetable oils into reusable products are transesterification, solvent extraction, cracking and pyrolysis. Pyrolysis has received a significant amount of interest as this gives products of better quality compared to any other thermochemical process. The liquid fuel produced from vegetable oil pyrolysis has similar chemical components to conventional petroleum diesel fuel. 

Biodiesel represents an increasingly important alternative to conventional petroleum-based fuels. However, biodiesel will not be able to completely replace petroleum-based diesel given the current worldwide demand for this energy source." Most likely, biodiesel will find widespread use in the form of blends with conventional diesel as is currently occurring in some countries in... 

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