70 Petroleum Exam Questions and Answers

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AONG manager March 8, 2018

Definitions asked in Petroleum Exams and Interviews:

1. Porosity: is the percentage of volume of pores to total volume of the rock.
2. Effective porosity: it is the inter-connected pore voids contribute to the flow of fluids
or contribute to permeability in the reservoir.
3. Primary porosity: porosity preserved from deposition through lithification.
4. Secondary porosity: occur by alteration due to processes like dolomitization,
dissolution, and fracturing.
5. Permeability: is the ability of rock to transmit fluids.
6. Absolute permeability: the ability of rock to transmit fluids when 69
7. Relative permeability: ratio of effective permeability of a particular fluid at a particular
saturation, to the absolute permeability of that fluid at total saturation.
8. Sedimentary rocks: are rocks formed by sedimentation at the earth’s surface or
within bodies of water.
9. Sedimentation: is the process in which * accumulation of minerals &/or organic
materials take place, or * precipitation of minerals take place.
10. Sediment: is the particle that accumulates to form the sedimentary rock.

Sediment was formed by weathering and erosion at source area, then being
transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, mass movement and glaciers
before being deposited.

11. Formation: is the basic unit of nomenclature in stratigraphy,

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 Is a set of rocks that are common in distinctive features of lithology and are
horizontally continuous and is large enough to be mapped.
Can be divided into members and grouped together into groups.

12. Sequence: a group of relatively conformable strata, that are represent a cycle of
deposition, and are bounded by unconformities or correlative conformities.
13. Unconformity: a buried surface of erosion or non-deposition.

Angular unconformity: A surface that separates younger strata from eroded, dipping,
older strata and represents a gap in the geologic record.
Non conformity: sedimentary strata overlaying igneous or metamorphic rocks (in an
erosion _non-intrusive _contact).
Dis conformity: an irregular surface of erosion between two parallel strata.
Para conformity: a planar surface between two parallel strata that represents a
period of non-deposition but no erosion.

14. Structure: It is a geologic feature produced by deformation of the earth’s crust, Such
as fold or fault.
15. Fault: It is a fracture or breaking in the rook in which the rock mass on one side of the
fracture moves relative to the rock mass in the other side
16. Normal fault: it is a type of fault in which the hanging wall moves down relative to the
foot wall.
17. Reverse fault: it is a type of fault in which the hanging wall moves up relative to the
foot wall.
18. Thrust: it a type of reverse fault in which the angle is less than 15 degree.
19. Growth fault: Is a fault occur in sedimentary rocks, contemporaneously and
continuously with deposition, usually the hanging wall thicker than the foot wall.
20. Clysmic fault: It is a rift like what in the eastern part of the Gulf of Suez*/8
21. Fold: fold occurs when one or more of originally flat surfaces, such as sedimentary
strata, are bent or curved as a result of plastic deformation.
22. Structure contour map: A type of subsurface maps, its contour lines represents the
elevation of particular reservoir, geologic layer, or geologic marker, generally beneath
the surface.
23. Mud circulation: It is a process of pumping the mud down to the bit and back up it to
the surface in a drilling or work over operation.

In mud circulation process the mud starts at the mud tanks, being pumped to the
stand pipe through the pump, then to the rotary hose, swivel. To Kelly or top drive, the
bit and takes its way to the surface again through annulus to the mud tanks.

24. Mud log unite: A system that contains sophisticated computers and sensors used to
operate a quick and comprehensive interpretation and evaluation of fluids, gases,
and cuttings on well site.
25. Lag time: It is the time between a chip being cut by the bit, and the time it reaches to
the surface where it examined by the geologist or the mud logger.
26. Attice oil: It is oil above the bore hole in horizontal well.
27. Migration:

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 Primary migration: the movement of the oil from the source rock to the reservoiru
rock.
Secondary: from the reservoir to the trap
Tertiary: from a trap to another, or along the reservoir.

28. Archie Equation:

Sw = [ (a / ϒ m)*(Rw / Rt) ](1/n)

Sw: water saturation

ϒ: porosity
Rw: formation water resistivity
Rt: observed bulk resistivity
a: a constant (often taken to be 1)
m: cementation factor (varies around 2)
n: saturation exponent (generally 2)

29. miscellaneous reservoirs

It is reservoir formed from fragment igneous rocks that found mainly in GOS province
in SUCO Company in Zeit Bay Field. ( fractured basement topped by basement wash )

30. Time rock units: A stratigraphic unit based on geologic age or time of origin. Also
known as chronolith; chronolithologic unit; chronostratic unit; chronostratigraphic
unit; time-rock unit.
31. Syrian arc structures in Egypt: A series of WSW-ENE trending extensional basins were
inverted, creating isolated uplifted and folded areas known as ‘Syrian arc’ structures
32. Mud cake: A caked layer of clay adhering to the walls of the borehole, formed where
the water in the drilling mud filtered into a porous formation during rotary drilling.
33. Kerogen: material neither petroleum nor coal but an intermediate bitumen material
with some of the properties of both.
34. Bitumen: Petroleum in semi-solid or solid forms.
35. moh’s scale: The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one
natural sample of matter to scratch another mineral.
36. Muting: Removing arrivals that are not primary reflections or make them zero.
37. Transit time: the time required for a sound pulse to travel a fixed distance between a
transmitter and receiver.
38. Stacking: Stacking velocity is used to correct the arrival times of events in the traces
prior to summing.
39. Common mid-point: It is the point at the surface half way between the source and
receiver, shared by numerous source receiver pairs.
40. Pull up: A phenomenon of relative seismic velocity strata whereby, a shallow feature
or layer (such as salt domes, salt layer) of high seismic velocity is surrounded by rock
with lower seismic velocity caused what appears to be a structural high beneath it.
41. Ghost multiple: A short path multiple or spurious reflection that occurs when seismic
energy initially reverberates up-ward from a shallow subsurface and then is reflected
downward, such as between source and receivers and see surface.
42. Trap
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 The place where oil or gas is barred from further movement.

43. Crest culmination

It is the highest point in the trap

44. Spill point

It is the lowest point in the trap at which H.C. may be contained, it lies at a horizontal
contour on a horizontal plane

45. Closure

The vertical distance from the crest to the spill point.

46. Bottom water

It is the zone immediately beneath the petroleum

47. Edge zone

It is the zone of the reservoir laterally adjacent to the trap.

48. The pay

It is the productive reservoir within the trap

49. Gross pay

It is the vertical distance from the top of the reservoir to the oil water contact.

50. Net pay

It is the cumulative vertical thickness of the reservoir from which H.C. may be
produced.

51. Fossil: a relic, remnant, or representation of an organism that existed in a past

geological age, or of the activity of such an organism, occurring in the form of
mineralized bones, shells, etc, as casts, impressions, and moulds, and as frozen
perfectly preserved organisms.

52. Trace fossils, also called ichnofossils are geological records of biological activity.
Trace fossils may be impressions made on the substrate by an organism: for
example, burrows borings footprints and feeding marks, and root cavities.
53. Indexfossils: They Are fossils that used in defining and identifying time periods or
faunal stages. They must be commonly found, widely distributed, and limited in time
span.
54. Argillaceous deposits: Containing, made of, or resembling clay; clayey.
55. Argillaceous sandstone: sandstone containing much clay.
56. diagenesis : The physical, chemical or biological alteration of sediments into
sedimentary rock at relatively low temperatures and pressures that can result in
changes to the rock’s original mineralogy and texture.
57. Erosion: The process of denudation of rocks, including physical, chemical and
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 biological breakdown and transportation.
58. Interval velocity:
59. Reflection coefficient:
60. Snell’s low: (sin0 1/ sin0 2 ) = ( v1/ v2 )
61. Normal move out (NMO):
62. Seismic Survey
63. Seismic waves
64. Body waves:
65. P-Waves = Primary waves, the particle motion in the direction of wave propagation,
it’s faster than S-waves and propagate through fluids.
66. S-Waves = Secondary waves, the particle motion is perpendicular to the direction of
wave propagation; it’s slower than P-waves and faster than Surface waves and can’t
propagate through fluids.
67. Surface waves
68. Seismic noises:
69. Seismic trace
70. Seismogram

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