M.C.

Petroleum Consulting & Training

Basic Petroleum Industry

Presented by Moncef CHEKIR

December 2010
 Content

– Origin of Petroleum: Source rock

– Migration of Petroleum
– Traps
– Reservoir rock
– Drilling Techniques
– Well Completions
– Production Techniques
– Surfaces Facilities
– Field Life Cycle
What are Oil and Gas?

• Oil and Gas are substances found within the

earth’s crust.

• They are thought to come from decomposed

plant and animal matter.

• Scientists believe the plants and animals died

long ago, and were slowly buried by thick
layers of sediments. Over a long period of
time, and with pressure and temperature, the
organic materials were converted into the oil
and gas which are found today.
(For example, we know that present day garbage dumps give off methane gas)
What else do we know about oil and gas?
Oil in it’s natural state can
be thick or thin, black or
light colored.

When oil is refined, many

Many other materials also
products can be obtained:
come from petroleum:
 Energy for power  Plastics
 Gasoline for cars  Materials for clothes
 Diesel fuel for trucks (e.g: polyester fabrics)
and trains  Chemicals for
 Hi-octane fuels for everyday use
planes  Paints
 Heating oil for houses
Did you know that oil has natural gas in it?

• When oil is produced, some gas is

produced with the oil.
• The natural gas is in solution, just
like the carbon dioxide which is put
inside of pop to give it its fizz.
• A barrel of oil may contain anywhere
from 1 cubic ft of gas, to over 10,000
cubic ft, depending on the type of
reservoir.
• That’s enough gas in a single barrel
of oil to fill your whole house!
Where can we find Oil and Gas?
Some people think that oil is in big pools underground.

Actually, most oil is trapped in the tiny pore spaces

between grains of rock or sand. Most of these pores are
too small to be seen with the naked eye.
So, how do we find oil-bearing rocks?

• Oil and gas are found in Natural Traps within the earth.

• These traps consist of domes or faults. Impermeable

rock above the trap prevents the oil and gas from
migrating up to surface. An “impermeable” rock is one
that fluid cannot pass through.

• Without traps, the oil and gas could migrate all the way
to the surface and evaporate.
Here’s an example of a dome-shaped
Oil reservoir.

Oil
Water

• Note the layer of impermeable rock which prevents the oil from
migrating upwards.
• Also, note the layer of water below which prevents the oil from
escaping down. Why?
Here’s an example of a Gas reservoir.

Gas
Water

Again, note the impermeable layer of rock preventing

the gas from escaping.
Here’s an example of an Oil reservoir with a Gas cap

Gas
Oil
Water

Why do you suppose the gas is on top?

How do we find the oil reservoirs?

• Geophysicists find reservoirs by bouncing sound

waves off them, and timing how long it takes for the
sound to come back
• Computers process the data to construct pictures of
what the earth looks like underground.

source t = 1.2 sec t = 1.42 sec

t = 1 sec

receivers

Gas
Oil
What do we do after we find a reservoir?

?
?
?
We Drill Into It ! ! !
What do we drill with ?
 A Drilling Rig !
Here are a few different types of drilling rigs available:
Land Rig
Jackup Rig
For drilling in water
depths from 15 ft
to +/- 350 ft.
For drilling on land

Inland Barge

Drill Ship Semi-Submersible Rig

For drilling in water depths
from 8 to 30 ft. Drill ships and semi-submersible rigs are for
drilling in water depths from 100 to 5000+ ft.
What’s a drilling rig ?
A Drilling Rig is:

A package of special equipment put together to enable us to

drill into the earth.

• A drilling rig has many different parts:

a derrick, a substructure, hoisting equipment, engines
for power, drill pipe, steel tanks, pumps, solids control
equipment, and many other pieces.

• Did you know that some drilling rigs can drill as deep as
6 miles? That’s as deep as Mt. Everest is tall!
This picture shows the hoisting equipment on a rig. This equipment is
used to raise or lower the drill string, which is picked up in 30 foot
long segments, or “joints”, of drill pipe.
The hoisting
equipment consists of:
derrick
a crown block,
a traveling block,
drilling line,
This shows a 30 foot
and a drawworks section of drill pipe
being added to the drill
to pull the drilling line pipe already in the hole.
up or down.
substructure

Drill string
spare drill pipe
Drill bit
Here’s a picture of the drill bit drilling the rock.

The drill string is turned at Drilling mud is

surface, which turns the
bit at the bottom of the
hole.
The teeth on the drill bit
grind the rock into
fragments, or “cuttings”.
pumped down the
inside of the drill pipe,
through jet nozzles in
the bit, and into the
“annulus”. This is the
space between the
sides of the hole and
the drill pipe.
The mud lifts the
cuttings and circulates
them back to surface
where they are
removed.
 The Drilling Mud Cycle

1) Clean drilling mud is taken from the

4) the mixture is circulated
steel mud tanks and pumped down
across screens at
the inside of the drill pipe.
surface

3) the mixture of drilling mud and drill

cuttings are circulated up the
6) Clean mud falls annulus
screens through the
screens and is
returned to the
pits

mud pump

5) the drill cuttings are removed, and 2) the mud is circulated through the drill bit
form a cuttings pile. This can be into the annulus, lifting the cuttings
hauled off and disposed of. removed by the drill bit.
Here’s a sequence showing
how holes are drilled,
Then, steel casing is run and
First, a large drill bit is used
cemented on the outside to keep the
to drill a short interval of hole.
hole from collapsing.

0’

200’
 how holes are drilled,….

0’
Next, Then, this
a smaller bit is new hole is
run inside the also cased
first casing. off and
cemented.
This bit drills
out the bottom
of the casing,
and drills new
hole.
200’

500’
how holes are drilled,….

and smaller
Again, a casing is
smaller hole run to keep
is drilled the hole
out, from falling
in.
how holes are drilled,….

In this way,…... the

hole is drilled in
stages, until the
target reservoir
rock is penetrated.

At this point, the

geologists must
figure out if there is
oil or gas in it.
How do Geologists tell if the reservoir has oil or gas?

They do this by running logs across the zone. Logs are tools run on electric cable
(“wireline”) which record the physical properties in the rock such as resistivity,
porosity, density, radioactivity, and pore pressure.
Electric Logs !

Gamma Electrical Porosity

Radiation Resistivity

good
Sand
Shale 200’
porosity
Here’s an
Siltstone poor example of what
Shale
resistivity,
probably poor a log looks like.
porosity
Siltstone water
Geologists look
Dolomite 500’
at logs to decide
Shale whether or not
good
porosity
to complete a
good

Looks
resistivity, well (if there is
may have
like
good
oil or gas poor oil), or abandon
porosity
sand
quality poor
it (if there’s no
3000’
resistivity, good oil).
probably porosity
water
Can you tell where the geologist would complete this well?
Gamma Electrical Porosity
Radiation Resistivity

200’ good porosity

poor
resistivity, poor porosity
probably
water
500’ good porosity

poor porosity

}Right here! This shows a clean sand,

good
good porosity
resistivity,
may have oil
Looks or gas poor
porosity
with good porosity and resistivity.
like
good
sand
quality poor
3000’ resistivity, good
probably water porosity
If the well looks good
on the logs, we run a
final string of casing
across the production
zone, and cement it in
place.
Then, we run perforating
guns in the hole and
perforate (shoot holes ) in
the casing across the
productive zone.
tubing

Production tubing is run,

with a packer to isolate
the produced zone from
Packer
the casing above.
Finally, the well is
produced into a
pipeline, which takes
it to production
facilities on surface.
 Produced Gas
The production facilities on surface separate out
the gas, oil, and water into their separate phases.

Oil

Production Separator
Produced
Water
From there, the oil and gas
may be refined further before
being ready to market.

Produced Gas

Storage Tanks

Oil

Production Separator Oil Refinery

Produced
Water
Finally, the gas and oil can be
sold to power cars and heat
houses.
And That’s Where Oil and Gas Come From!

The End.