Petroleum Exploration

Subtitle
Petroleum Exploration
• The search for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface for an oil and
natural gas.
The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major
sectors: upstream, midstream and downstream.
• Upstream - commonly known as
the exploration and production
(E&P) sector.
• searching for potential underground
or underwater crude oil and natural
gas fields, drilling exploratory wells,
and subsequently drilling and
operating the wells that recover and
bring the crude oil and/or raw
natural gas to the surface.
• Midstream - involves the
transportation (by pipeline, rail,
barge, oil tanker or truck), storage,
and wholesale marketing of crude
or refined petroleum products .
• Downstream - refers to the refining
of crude oil and the processing of
natural gas, as well as the marketing
and distribution of products derived
from crude oil and natural gas.
Oil Exploration Strategy
• Find the traps. Most common traps are structures
• So exploration often target the structures in hopes of finding oil
Factors required to make an oil deposit
Source rock – rich in organic matter
Burial heating – maturation
Reservoir rock – porous and
permeable
Trap – structural trap
– stratigraphic trap