Life cycle of

an oilfield
PRESENTED BY NGUYN THNH NHN

8
phases

Crude oil forms and accumulates

Time: Hundreds of millions of years ago

Production and development plan

Development licence Time: approx. 1 year

Geological surveys
Exploration licence Time:
35 years

Production and sales

Production licence Time:
approx. 1030 years

Timeline

Closedown of the oilfield

Exploration drilling
Exploration licence Time:
410 years

An oil company is given

permission to explore
Time: Now

Time: approx. 1 year

Development of the field

Development licence Time:
approx. 17 years

Crude oil forms and accumulates

Crude oil is formed from organic matter that has been buried.
The mixture of crude oil, natural gas and saltwater very slowly
migrates through porous layers of rock.
This migration takes place over thousands of years.

An oil company is given permission to explore

The authority gives companies permission by
awarding exploration licences.
Alternatively, the company may acquire licences or
licence shares from other oil companies.
One oil company is appointed as operator of an
exploration licence and is responsible for running
the operations.

Geological surveys
Geological and geophysical maps and models of an
area are prepared using methods such as:

Gravity
survey

Magnetic
survey
Seismic
survey

Electrical
survey

Radioactivity
survey

Exploration drilling
Yes

Appraisal
drilling

Oil or gas
detected

Develop for
production

Commercial
worth?

No

Temporarily
shutdown

Production and development plan

Ways to
reduce expenses

Floating production units

Reuse of installations
Subsea solutions

Lower Costs

Increase opportunities to develop

minor oil discoveries

Development of the field

Things must be done

Materials and services must be procured.
Everything then has to be installed.
A system for transporting the oil produced
must also be built.

Production and sales

When a field has been taken
into production
The production is normally
ramped up for a short period of
time.
The peak production level is
reached.

When production tails off

Inject water or gas into the
reservoir to raise the pressure.
Install pumping equipment.

Closedown of the oil field

Once an oil field no longer contains sufficient oil to justify its

continued operation the oil company is obliged to fill in the wells,
dismantle and remove all equipment from the site and restore the
area if necessary.
The license is then returned to the authorities.

Thank you for your attention.