Exploring and Drilling for Oil and Gas

After Tom Sheeran

What are Oil and Gas?

Oil and Gas are substances found within the earths 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 its natural state can be thick
or thin, black or light colored.

When oil is refined, many

products can be obtained:

Many other materials also come

Energy for power Gasoline for cars Diesel fuel for trucks and trains Hi-octane fuels for planes Heating oil for houses from petroleum:
Plastics Materials for clothes (example: polyester fabrics) Chemicals for everyday use Paints

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.

Thats 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.

Heres 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?

Heres an example of a Gas reservoir.

Gas

Water
Again, note the impermeable layer of rock preventing the gas from escaping.

Heres 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 sec

t = 1.2 sec

t = 1.42 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:
Jackup Rig Land 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.

Whats 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? Thats 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 drillstring, 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, and a drawworks to pull the drilling line up or down.
substructure Drill string Drill bit

This shows a 30 foot section of drill pipe being added to the drill pipe already in the hole.

spare drill pipe

Heres a picture of the drill bit drilling the rock.

The drill string is turned at surface, which turns the bit at the bottom of the hole.

Drilling mud is 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 teeth on the drill bit grind the rock into fragments, or cuttings.

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 steel mud tanks and pumped down the inside of the drill pipe.

4) the mixture is circulated across screens at surface

screens

6) Clean mud falls through the screens and is returned to the pits

3) the mixture of drilling mud and drill cuttings are circulated up the annulus

mud pump

5) the drill cuttings are removed, and form a cuttings pile. This can be hauled off and disposed of.

2) the mud is circulated through the drill bit into the annulus, lifting the cuttings removed by the drill bit.

Heres a sequence showing how holes are drilled,

First, a large drill bit is used to drill a short interval of hole. 0 Then, steel casing is run and cemented on the outside to keep the hole from collapsing.

200

Next,
a smaller bit is run inside the first casing.
This bit drills out the bottom of the casing, and drills new hole.
200

Then, this new

hole is also cased off and cemented.

500

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

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.

Heres an example of what a log looks like.

Geologists look at logs to decide whether or not to complete a well (if there is oil), or abandon it (if theres no oil).
Gamma Radiation Electrical Resistivity Porosity

Sand
Shale Siltstone Shale Siltstone Dolomite Shale
poor resistivity, probably water 500

good porosity

200

poor porosity

Looks like good sand quality

good resistivity, may have oil or gas poor resistivity, probably water

good porosity

poor porosity good porosity

3000

Can you tell where the geologist would complete this well?
Gamma Radiation Electrical Resistivity Porosity
good porosity

200
poor resistivity, probably water
poor porosity

good porosity

500
good resistivity, may have oil or gas

poor porosity good porosity

}Right here! This shows a clean sand,

with good porosity and resistivity.

Looks like good sand quality

poor porosity poor resistivity, probably water

good porosity

3000

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.

Production tubing is run, with a packer to isolate the produced

zone from the casing above.
tubing

Packer

Finally, the well is produced into

a pipeline, which takes it to production facilities on surface.

The production facilities on surface separate out the

gas, oil, and water into their separate phases.

Produced Gas

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 Produced Water

Oil Refinery

Finally, the gas and oil can be sold to

power cars and heat houses.

And Thats Where Oil and Gas Come From!

The End.

About the Author: Tom Sheeran has been working in the oil and gas industry for over 18 years. He worked summers on a drilling rig while going to school to earn a degree in Petroleum Engineering. After graduating, he went to work for Chevron in the Rocky Mountains. In 1990 he began working for Chevron Overseas Petroleum, and since then has worked all over the world, in Scotland, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Venezuela, Angola and Nigeria. Tom is currently employed by Chevron Nigeria Ltd. and is living and working as a resident in Lagos, Nigeria. Tom and his wife Shallini have 2 children, and home-schooled in the U.S. for several years before moving overseas. Tom developed this presentation for kids so they may learn more about the oil industry. You may contact Tom at:

Tom A. Sheeran Sr. Drilling Engineer Chevron Nigeria Ltd. SHTA@chevron.com

TAS Oct. 1998