Petroleum Geology

 Petroleum geology is the study of origin, occurrence, movement,

accumulation, and exploration of hydrocarbon fuels.
OR
 Petroleum geology is the study of Petroleum System in order to
explore the hydrocarbons

Petroleum System
 A petroleum system encompasses a pod of active source rock and
all genetically related oil and gas accumulations. It includes all the
geologic elements and processes that are essential if an oil and gas
accumulation is to exist.
 The essential elements of a petroleum system include the
following:
• Source rock
• Reservoir rock
• Seal rock/Trap

 The essential processes includes the following:

• Generation
• Migration
• Accumulation

 These essential elements and processes must be correctly placed in

time and space so that organic matter included in a source rock
can be converted into a petroleum accumulation.
 Petroleum Geology as Field

 Petroleum Geology is an integrated course and vast field, which

includes: geochemistry, structural geology, sedimentology,
mineralogy, fluid mechanics, mapping, volumetric calculations, risk
and uncertainty analysis, and a vast array of industrial technologies.
 Basic Vocabulary

1. Petroleum (Rock Oil): naturally occurring complex of

Hydrocarbons widely distributed in the sedimentary rocks

2. Crude Oil: the liquid member of Petroleum

3. Natural gas: the gaseous member of petroleum

4. Asphalt, bitumen or Tar: the solid member of petroleum

5. Reservior: the rock containing petroleum

6. Trap: feature of rock that restrain petroleum from moving out

7. Pool: a single discrete accumulation of oil or gas in a single

reservior with a single trap
8. Field: several pools may lie vertically, side by side or overlap
laterally within a single area, areally continuous.

9. Sedimentary basin: a three dimention geological entity containing

a number of oil or gas fields.

10. Province (may be synonym of basin): several basin sharing clear

similarities but separated by barren or non basinal tracts.

11. District: a geographic concentration of fields within a province or

a basin.

12. Prospect: a small area within a basin, province or district which

may contain oil and gas but no yet has been proved to do so.

13. Play: a larger area within which drilling of prospect has been
established success and pointed the way for further drilling.
14. Conventional oil and gas: the oil and gas within a well discovered
and exploited by drilling boreholes, if other than conventional
would be unconventional.

15. Well: a hole which yield any fluid.

16. Exploratory or wildcat well: a well drilled in search of a new

accumulation of oil and gas.

17. Discovery: if exploratory well is successful then it is discovery.

18. Gushers: earlier well spur oil high into air by a strong flow when
drilled.

19. Completed well: if a discovery well shows promise of being

commercial it compeleted as a producting well.
20. Dry hole: if a well yeilds no recoverable oil or gas.

21. Logging: the processes of recording data of a well.

22. Exploration: the search for new sources of petroleum.

23. Reserves: the sources discovered by successful exploration

becomes reserves, which are portion of total resources that have
been shown to accessible and recoverable under current economic
and technologic condition.

24. Development: the process of recovering the reserves, by drilling

wells within a field and operating them successfully.

25. Operators: organization and individuals seeking or producing oil or

gas.
 Basic Statistics
Measurement Units
Quantities of oil are expressed in barrels:

 1 barrel = 42 US gallons=159 liters app

=34.9723158 UK (Imperial gallons)
 1 Gallon(gal) = 3.7854118 US liter(L)/4.54609 UK (L)
 1 cubic meter = 1,000 L= 6.37 barrels
 1 metric ton = 6.8 to 7.6 barrels (dep. on sp. gravity, in UK,
USSR and others by weight)

Gas is expressed in millions of cubic feet:

 1 MMcf ≈ 3.104 m3

Energy-wise, gas can be expressed in oil equivalents:

 1 boe ≈ 6000 to 6500 cf
 Some Numbers
 Number of oil and gas wells drilled to date: ~ 7 million

 Percentage of wells in the USA: ~50%

 Producing wells worldwide: ~ 1 million

 Average production of oil wells in USA: 20 bbls/day

 Average production of oil wells in Middle East: 7,000 bbls/day

 Total number of producing fields: ~40,000

 Total number of petroleum geologists: ~ 100,000

 Total number of drill rigs worldwide: ~ 5,000

 More Numbers

 30.0 Gbo Annual World Oil Consumption 2008

 4-8 Gbo Annual Oil Discovery Rates in 1990s-2000s

 1050 Gbo Total World Oil Consumption 1860-2008

 850 Gbo Conventional World Oil Reserves (1998)

 1372 Gbo Conventional World Oil Reserves (BP, 2007)
 2311 Gbo Conventional World Oil Reserves (USGS, 2000)

 1900 Gbo World Reserves of Heavy Oil, Tar Sands,

and Oil Shales
Oil Companies 2007
Oil Companies BP (2007)
 Historical Development
Prior to 1900
 No “petroleum geology”; all oil discovered through
seepages

 (Appalachian, California, Baku, Ploesti, Peru, Egypt,

Borneo...)

 “Anticlinal theory” known but not used in practice

 Many fields located in so-called “geomorphic traps”

(where the reservoir rock is truncated by a recent erosion
surface)

 Drake well in 1859 first to discover oil (Pennsylvania)

1901-1924
 “Anticlinal theory” put in practice with Spindeltop well in
Texas

 Important discoveries in Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela), Masjid-

y-Suleiman (Iran), Trinidad, Borneo, Mexico, Oklahoma, San
Joaquin Valley, California (all USA)

 Petroleum geology is “American”; foundation of AAPG

 Bolivar Coastal field: First in homoclinal trap, first offshore,

first large field with heavy oil, launches

 SOC becomes first major oil company

 Automobiles! Gas stoves!

1925 - 1945
 Important discoveries in La Paz (Venezuela), Kirkuk (Iraq;

 carbonate reservoir!), numerous fields in Middle East (most

also carbonates)

 Oil is organic, not inorganic; micropaleontology and organic

geochemistry developed as important tools

 Technological breakthroughs: Rotary drilling, torsion

balance, gravimeter, reflection seismology, electrical well
logs, perforations; wells to 3000 meters depth (before: to
1000 m)

 World Petroleum Congress founded

1945 - 1960
 Drilling boom, discovery of major oil fields in Middle East,
USA, Western Canada, Russian platform

 Drilling depths reach 6000 meters; gas became important

 Important insights into hydrocarbon migration and

accumulation (e.g. by King Hubbert; Levorsen)

 Sedimentology becomes important to understand reservoirs

 “Log-normal distribution” of oil fields

1960 - 1980
 Offshore drilling technology developed

 Discovery of North Sea, Libya, Nigeria, Siberia, eastern

Mexico oil provinces

 “Subtle traps” (e.g. North Dome in Qatar)

 Vast improvement of seismic acquisition and processing;

becomes vital exploration tool. Further technological
improvements in drilling, construction, and logging
Since 1980
 Passive margins plays discovered (Gulf of Mexico, West
Africa, Brazil). Deep to ultra-deep drilling technology
developed

 Huge carbonate fields in intra-cratonic setting discovered

(Peri-Caspian oil province)

 3-D and 4-D seismics provide volumetric and dynamic

picture of reservoirs; leads to seismic stratigraphy

 Integration of petroleum disciplines; computerized

workflows

 Half of the “easy oil” is produced

 Why Petroleum Matters
 We depend on energy: In the industrial world every person
uses the energy corresponding to about 200 human powers 24
hours per day
 Fossil energy constitutes ―85% of our energy consumption
 Fossil fuels have a high caloric value per volume

 Fossil fuels are finite

 The burning of fossil fuels has undesirable climatic
consequences

 But: Energy companies are important for the economy