PETROLEUM EXPLORATION

(EGE 4222)
Noorzamzarina binti Sulaiman
 Petroleum Exploration

✓to provide the information required to exploit the best

opportunities presented in the choice of areas, and to
manage research operations on the acquired blocks.
✓An oil company may work for several years on a prospective
area before an exploration well is spudded and during this
period the geological history of the area is studied and the
likelihood of hydrocarbons being present quantified.
 Exploration Geology: High-cost
• High cost, high risk
• A process of elimination
• Exploration in the past
• Surface geology
• Early geophysics
• Seismic exploration
• Other geologic tools

shahidashafiee@umk.edu.my
Stages of a typical exploration program
 Exploration for hydrocarbons
• The first stage in the exploration-production cycle is to look for
deposits of hydrocarbons, which will then be produced if the
technico-econimics permits
• Exploration is limited by two factors
– Political : certain geographical zones are only partially open to
exploration by the states which control them
– Technical : there are zones where the geological or geophysical
exploration methods are not yet sufficient (ultra-deep offshore)
 Hydrocarbon reserves
• The concept of hcs reserves, absolutely
fundamental to the oil industry
• The reserves are the total resources available
to meet present and future needs
• Estimation – at the 21st century ~3000 billion
barrels (Gbbl)
– 1000 Gbbl – reserves already used
– 1300 Gbbl proven reserves remaining (about
49 year’s production at the present rate)
– Between 300 and 900 Gbbl reserves
remaining to be discovered (conventional and
unconventional oil ~ tar sand)
– 300 Gbbl via enhanced recovery techniques

The only figures known are the quantities already used. Figures announced for
reserves are essentially speculative. In practices, we do not know a great deal about
hcs still in the earth’s crust
Resources vs Reserves
Resources have been defined as including all
quantities of petroleum which are estimated
to be initially-in-place; however, some users
consider only the estimated recoverable
portion to constitute a resource.

Reserves constitute a subset of resources,

being those quantities that are discovered
(i.e. in known accumulations), recoverable,
commercial and remaining.
 Geographical
distribution of reserves
and production