UNIT FOUR RECOVERING THE OIL Special Terms Oil Reservoir: Sand or porous rock saturated with

oil. This is always a more accurate description of most petroleum deposits than oil pool. Drive:
Natural pressure which forces oil to the surface. Dissolved-gas Drive: Pressure from gas dissolved
in oil. The dissolved gas expands and forces the oil to move. Gas-cap Drive: Pressure from a large
amount of gas above the oil. The gas expands and forces the oil to move. Water Drive: Pressure
from water below the oil that forces the oil to move Christmas Tree: A system of valves to control
the rate of flow at the surface Secondary Recovery: Reworking an oil field to recover oil that pre-
viously could not be brought to the surface. Proved Reserves: The amount of oil already
discovered that will be recovered by known technology. Ultimate Resources: The amount of oil
believed to be in the ground based on estimates by oil geologists. Both proved reserves and
ultimate resources are measured in barrels of oil. a particular well of Vocabulary Practice 1. What
is a more appropriate name for most petroleum deposits than oil pool? PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 2.
How is the term drive used in the petroleum industry? 3. What is a dissolved-gas drive? 4. What is
a gas-cap drive? Whot in o natos delno

PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 2. How is the term drive used in the petroleum industry? 3. What is a
dissolved-gas drive? 4. What is a gas-cap drive? 5. What is a uwater drice? 6. In the petroleum
industry, what does a Christmas tree refer to? 7. What is secondary recovery? 8. What are proved
reserves? 9. What are ultimate resources? Femsant A Christmas tree-the pipes and valves that
mark the location of most wells after they have been brought in.

42 PETROLEUM INDUSTRY Recovering the Oil We have used the term oil pools to refer to deposits
of petroleum as though there were underground lakes of oil. A more accurate term, however, is
one that is often used in the petroleum industry: oil reservoirs. The deposits are, sand or porous
rock that have been saturated with oil. Oil does not really flow rapidly through s to move. There
are three kinds of natural drives, as the forces that cause the oil to move are called. Each drive
involves the gas and water that are almost always found with oil, as we have previously observed.
other words, more often like piles of or rock, of course; it must be forced Dissolved-gas drive. First
is the dissolved-gas drive. Dissolved gas is mixed with the oil. As it expands, it exerts a pressure
which pushes the oil through rock or sand. Recovery is low when this type of drive is encoun-
tered. Second is the gas-cap drive. Gas has not only dissolved in the oil; a large amount of it has
formed above the oil. As the gas expands, it

43 PETROLEUM INDUSTRY Gas-cap drive. forces the oil to move through the rock or sand.
Recovery is generally somewhat higher with this kind of drive. Third is the water drive, in which
there is a large amount of water below the oil. Pressure forces the water upward into the oil-
bearing rock or sand and moves the oil ahead of it. It generally recovers more oil than the other
two drives. If reservoir pressure is not high enough for the oil and water that low into the well to
be pushed all the way to the surface, then pumping is necessary. This is more expensive than
when natural drives are present, since power for the pumping must be supplied. In the early days
of the oil industry, new wells often came in as gushers. In these wells great underground pressure
forced the oil upward without any control, and it was necessary to wait until the pressure dropped
enough for the oil to flow at a normal rate before any of it could be recovered. Of course, a great
deal of oil was wasted when a well gushed in this way. Today, great care is taken to prevent
gushers. They are indeed quite rare, thanks to the use of modern technology. The petroleum
industry today is very concerned about acquiring the greatest possible amount of oil from each
deposit without unnecessary waste. X

PETROLEUM INDUSTRY Water drive. The steps for the recovery of the oil begin as soon as a new
well is spudded in. Geologists study the indications for the presence of the oil itself. Later,
petroleum engineers try to predict the kind of drive that will be present. With the aid of
computers, they can determine how a deposit will behave under the effects of the different
techniques that can be used to make the oil flow to the surface. At the head of most wells is a
device that is called a Christmas tree. This is really a system of valves that controls the amount of
oil which is allowed to flow to the surface. The Christmas tree directs the oil into the storage tanks,
where it is kept until it is shipped to its next destination. After a well has been brought in, the
derrick is usually pulled down, only to be put up at the spot where another well is to be drilled.
The valves of the Christmas tree and the pipes leading from it will probably be the only sign left
that there is a producing oil well in the neighborhood. This is quite different from many of the
older pictures of oil fields, with derricks crowded together, often only a few feet apart. In fact, in a
modern field the wells are usually spaced quite

45 PETROLEUM INDUSTRY far apart, since it is more profitable to recover the same amount of oil
with fewer wells. As more oil is removed from the field, the pressure of the original drive gradually
decreases. Sometimes the natural pressure drops to a point where no more oil can be recovered
from the deposit. Nowa- various methods in addition to pumping are used to keep these deposits
producing if there is an indication that more oil can be recovered One technique is to pump water
into the oil-bearing formation, pushing or displacing the oil ahead of it toward the production
wells. This system restores water drive. Another technique that will restore natural pressure to the
formation is to pump gas back into the oil- bearing layer. Wells occasionally become blocked by
pieces of asphalt, wax, or other solid material. In this case, the obstruction can be dissolved by
pumping an acid into the well. Another technique involves pumping water and sand into the well
under high pressure. All of these techniques have enormously increased the amount of oil that can
be recovered. In the early days of the industry, as much as 75 percent of the oil had to be left in
the ground. With more modern methods, the figure has been reduced to 50 percent or even less.
Many fields that had been abandoned have been brought back into produc- tion. When a field is
reworked in this way, it is called secondary recovery In addition to secondary recovery, the
increased technical ability of modern oilmen has led to the discovery of deposits at levels under-
neath existing fields. It is now possible to bring in producíng wells more than 20,000 feet below
the surface of the earth! The constantly rising demand for oil and the world's increasing
dependence on oil as an energy source have made efficient recovery more and more important.
The economie forces are the same as those that have led to deeper drilling and greater
exploration for under- water oil deposits. Oil is indeed black gold; every drop of it is precious in
today's world. More efficient recovery techniques have led to an increase in the proced reserves
of petroleum, although they continue to dwindle when expressed in terms of annual consumption.
Proved reserves refers to the amount of oil in the ground that will be recovered by known
technology, Ultimate resources refers to the amount of oil that has been discovered. The
estimates of proved reserves and ultimate
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY resources are usually given in barrels of oil. Together, they represent an
educated guess as to the amount of oil still present beneath the surface of the earth. Estimated
proved reserves of major oil-producing groups of barrels january 1975). Discussion 1. What does
the use of the term oil pools suggest? 2. What are deposits of petroleum more often like? What
term is used to refer to them? 3. Why must oil be forced to move if it is to be recovered from the
ground? 4. What are the forces called that cause oil to move? How many kinds of them are there?
5. What do the drives involve? 6. Descríbe dissolved-gas drive. Is recovery high with this drive?