Petroleum resources

No method has been devised to estimate with complete accuracy the amount of cmde petroleum that ultimately will be produced from the world s conventional oil and gas fields. Degrees of uncertainty, therefore, should be attached to all such estimates. These uncertainties can be expressed in several ways, the most important of which is achieved by dividing a resource into various categories. Several petroleum resources classifications have been proposed, and a comprehensive discussion of them (1), as well as the definition used in the assessment of the undiscovered resources of the United States (2), have been provided. Seven commonly used categories of resources are given here. 

Resources represent the total amount (including reserves) of petroleum that exists in a form and amount such that economic extraction is currendy or potentially feasible. 

Reserves constitute the petroleum that has been discovered and can be produced at the prices and with the technology that exist when the estimate is 

Proved reserves are estimates of petroleum reserves contained primarily in the drilled portion of fields. 

Indicated reserves constitute known petroleum that is currendy producible but caimot be estimated accurately enough to qualify as proved. 

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SASOL. SASOL, South Africa, has constmcted a plant to recover 50,000 tons each of 1-pentene and 1-hexene by extractive distillation from Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons produced from coal-based synthesis gas. The company is marketing both products primarily as comonomers for LLDPE and HDPE (see Olefin polymers). Although there is still no developed market for 1-pentene in the mid-1990s, the 1-hexene market is well estabhshed. The Fischer-Tropsch technology produces a geometric carbon-number distribution of various odd and even, linear, branched, and alpha and internal olefins however, with additional investment, other odd and even carbon numbers can also be recovered. The Fischer-Tropsch plants were originally constmcted to produce gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels to fill the lack of petroleum resources in South Africa. 

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... 

During the 1960s and early 1970s the choice was not so much petroleum versus coal but which petroleum route to use. However, there has now arisen a growing awareness of the fact that petroleum resources are not unlimited. This led to substantial increases in petroleum prices. 

We need to know about the quantity and quality of oil and gas reseiwes because the prosperity of the world is dependent upon petroleum-based fuels. The debate about forthcoming oil shortages—as soon as 2004 or perhaps later in the twenty-first century— hinges on our understanding of petroleum reserves and future resources. Global catastrophic changes are predicted by some if a shortage occurs early in the twenty-first century however, others are less concerned, because of new estimates of reseiwes and potential petroleum resources. 

Hinman, G. W. (1991). Unconventional Petroleum Resources. In The Energy Sourcebook, ed. R. Howes and A. Faiiiberg. New York American Institute of Physics. Lee, S. (1996). Applied Technology Series Alternative Fuels. New York Taylor Francis. 

Development of new proven petroleum resources are also cost-intensive operations, but generally lack the high risk of nearly total capital loss that exists in exploration... 

Producing companies locate the subsurface petroleum resources recover the oil, gas or condensate and then market the recovered resource to customers. These activities involves planning and carrying out exploration, drilling and well completion, and the production activities. 

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