Exploration and production

Oil and natural gas exploration and production are the first step in providing aviation fuel, gasoline for motorized vehicles, lights and heat for homes, and raw materials for industry to support the production of the myriad materials that make up our modern society. This includes plastics, fertilizers, medicines, and synthetic rubber. Our modern computer and information age would not exist without these products. 

Our present educational systems do not eloquently describe the importance of exploration and production, which include both offshore and onshore drilling. Currently, approximately 25% of U.S. oil and natural gas production comes from offshore drilling rigs and facilities. Alaska is responsible for 18% of the U.S. oil and gas market. The government owns a bit more than one-third of the property in the United States. More than half of this land is set aside as protected areas, national parks, and wilderness areas. When oil and gas manufacturers develop hydrocarbon facilities on government lands, they are required to pay a royalty to the government. Oil and gas manufacturers pay billions in taxes to individual states and the federal government. 

It has been estimated that more than 4,000 offshore production facilities exist on the outer continental shelf (OCS). These exploration wells can be drilled to depths of around 10,000 feet. Most production systems are designed to operate at depths of 6,000 feet. Oil and gas product pipeline networks extend well off the continental slope. Offshore production rigs and drilling and production platforms can be classified as onshore platforms, fixed platforms, jackup rigs, semisubmersibles, drill ships, and tension-leg platforms. 

Fixed platforms are built of concrete and steel and are firmly anchored to the sea bed for long-term production drilling. A semisubmersible platform has hollow legs that can be used as displacement tanks to raise, lower, or stabilize the platform. This type of platform is movable and typically is anchored to the sea floor by cables. Jackup platforms have movable legs that can be raised or 

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This Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production is going to take you through all of the major stages In the life of an oil or gas field from exploration, through appraisal, development planning, production, and finally to decommissioning. 

TRACS International has provided training and consultancy In Exploration and Production related issues for many clients world-wide since 1992. This book has gradually developed from course materials, discussions with clients and material available in the public domain. 

Introduction and commercial application Safety and the environment have become important elements of all parts of the field life cycle, and involve all of the technical and support functions in an oil company. The Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in 1988 has resulted in a major change in the approach to management of safety of world-wide oil and gas exploration and production activities. Companies recognise that good safety and environmental management make economic sense and are essential to guaranteeing long term presence in the industry. 

Introduction and commercial application Investment opportunities in the exploration and production (E P) sector of oil and gas business are abundant. Despite areas such as the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the North Slope in Alaska being mature areas, there are still many new fields under development in those regions, and new areas of business interest are opening up in South America, Africa and South East Asia. Some fields which have a production history of decades are being redeveloped, such as the Pedernales Field in Venezuela. 

The International Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Exploration and Production Industry (1996), Decommissioning Offshore Oil and Gas Installations Finding the Right Balance ... 

Other Databases with Patent Information. The APIPAT database has been discussed, as have the unique capabihties of the merged WPI—APIPAT file on ORBIT. Many other databases contain substantial amounts of patent information, notable among them are Derwent s biotechnology Abstracts the TULSA database (petroleum exploration and production), several specialized pharmaceutical files, PAPERCHEM, and METADEX. A very complete listing of databases containing patent information circa 1990 has been prepared (38). 

Cemented tungsten carbides also find use as a support for polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting tips, or as a matrix alloy with cobalt, nickel, copper, and iron, ia which diamond particles are embedded. These tools are employed ia a variety of iadustries including mineral exploration and development oil and gas exploration and production and concrete, asphalt, and dimension stone cutting. 

C. Vega, M.Delgado, Treatment of waste-water/oil emulsions using microwave radiation. Conference Society of Petroleum Engineers SPE international Conference on Health, Safety and environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Kuala Eumpur, Malazija, 20-22 march, 2002, SPE 74167. 

API Publ 761, Model Risk Management Plan Guidance for Exploration and Production Facilities—Guidance for Complying with EPA s RMP Rule (40 Code of Federal Regulations 68), 2nd ed., August 1997... 

API is the major national trade association representing the entire petroleum industry exploration and production, transportation, refining, and marketing. 

Wagenaar, W. A. (1992). Influencing Human Behavior Toward a Practical Approach for Exploration and Production. Journal of Petroleum Technology, November. 

Transportation of natural gas across state lines from production to consuming areas is a function of interstate pipeline companies. The modern U.S. natural gas industry also includes natural gas exploration and production companies, intrastate pipelines, local distribution companies (LDCs), end-users and, the most recent addition to the industry, marketers. 

Russia dominating world production. In the United States, drilling was concentrated in the Appalachian oil fields until the Beaumont Texas, Spindletop Hill discoveiy on Januaiy 10, 1901, which then shifted exploration and production to the Southwest. 

The world s largest petroleum reseiwes, in Turkey and the Middle East, were discovered just prior to World War I. Exploration and production continued to expand throughout the region in the 1920s, and culminated in the discoveiy of the vast oil resources of Saudi Arabia in 1938. 

Benefits of Advanced Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Technology. (1999). Washington DC United. States Department of Energy. 

After field processing of wellhead products is complete, the oil and gas production phase of the industry passes into the refining stage, where the crude oil and field gas are further processed to make the products that ultimate users will purchase. The prices that refiners will pay determine the maximum allowable costs for oil and gas exploration and production. An oil or gas producer must be able to provide the product at a competitive price. For a vertically integrated oil company, no actual sale may take place, but the economics are much the same. 

Jahn, F. Cook, M. and Graham, M. (1998). Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production. Amsterdam, The Netherlands Elsevier Science Publishers. 

Petroconsultants, Inc. (1996). Petroleum Exploration and Production Database. Houston, TX Author. 

H. W. Frago and R. D. Powell. Re-use of certain oil exploration and production waste as supplemental fuel in the manufacture of cement. In Abstracts Volume, page 151. Annu Aapg-Sepm-Emd-Dpa-Deg Conv (Denver, CO, 6/12-6/15), 1994. 

Oil, gas, and geothermal wastes. Certain wastes from the exploration and production of oil, gas, and geothermal energy are excluded from the definition of hazardous waste. These wastes include those that have been brought to the surface during oil and gas exploration and production operations, and other wastes that have come into contact with the oil and gas production stream (e.g., during removal of waters injected into the drill well to cool the drill bit). 

CHARM CHARM is used to carry out environmental risk assessments of discharges of exploration and production of chemicals, from platforms into the marine environment... 

Use of biotechnology in the oil industry is almost unknown. As a whole, only a few initiatives related to use of biofiltration for gas treatment has reached refining operations. In the exploration and production segment of the oil industry, MEOR has been known and employed to a certain extent in secondary or tertiary recovery of oil. 

Texaco Exploration and Production Technology Division, which was working with EBC on crude oil biodesulfurization ... 

Visser J.P., 1998. Development in HSE Management in oil and gas exploration and production, in Hale et al. (Eds.), Safety Management the challenge of change, Pergamon, Oxford. 

The Hydrocarbon Processing Industry (HPI), has traditionally been reluctant to invest capital where an immediate direct return on the investment to the company is not obvious, as would any business enterprise. Additionally financial fire losses in the petroleum and related industries were relatively small up to about the 1950 s. This was due to the small size of facilities and the relatively low value of oil and gas to the volume of production. Until 1950, a fire or explosion loss of more than 5 million U. S. Dollars had not occurred in the refining industry in the USA. Also in this period, the capital intensive offshore oil exploration and production industry were only just beginning. The use of gas was also limited early in the century. Consequentially its value was also very low. Typically production gas was immediately flared or the well was capped and considered as an uneconomical reservoir. Since gas development was limited, large vapor explosions were relatively rare and catastrophic destruction from petroleum incidents was essentially unheard of. The outlays for petroleum industry safety features were traditionally the absolute minimum required by governmental regulations. The development of loss prevention philosophies and practices were therefore not effectively developed within the industry. 

Floating exploration and production facilities are sometimes provided on jackup rigs, semi-submersible vessels or ex-crude oil shipping tankers converted to production treatment vessels. These facilities are essentially the same as fixed offshore platform or installations except they are moored in place or provided with a temporary support structure instead of provided with fixed supports to the seabed. The major process fire and explosion risks are identical to the risks produced on offshore platforms. They have one addition major facility risk, that is the maintenance of buoyancy of the installation. Should fire or explosion effects cause a loss of buoyancy (or even stability) the entire facility is at risk of submergence. Adequate compartimization and integrity assurances must be implemented in these instances. 

The IEA (2006) estimates the necessary capital investments for the oil industry until 2030 at US (2005) 4.3 trillion, or 164 billion per year exploration and production account for almost three quarters of the total ( 120 billion per year). For comparison, the IEA (2004) estimated the capital requirements until 2030 at only US 3 trillion. During the last five years an average of 100 billion was spent annually. 

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