UNIT FOUR

RECOVERING THE OIL

Special Terms

or: Sand or porous rock saturated with oil. This is

Oil Reservoir: Sand or porous rock

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 of a particular well.

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.

Vocabulary Practice

1. What is a more appropriate name for most petroleum deposits than

oil pool?

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 water drive?

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?

foto

A Christmas tree-the pipes and valves that mark the location of most

they have been brought in.

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: O

reseroits. The deposits are, in other words, more often like piles of

sand or porous rock that have been saturated with oil. Oil does not

really How rapidly through sand or rock, of course; it must be forced

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.

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

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

flow 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.

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

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-

days, 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 welis.

This system restores water drive. Another technique that will restore

natural pressure to the formation is to pump gas back into the oil-

beariog 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 ficld 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 producing 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 economic 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

proved 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

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.

MIDDLE EAST

403.8

COMMUNIST

COUNTRIES

WESTERN

HEMISPHERE

AFRICA

EUROPE

26.0

ASIA-PACIFIC

Estimated proved reserves of major oil-producing groups in billions 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. Describe dissolved-gas drive. Is recovery high with this drive?

7. Describe gas-cap drive. Which leads to higher recovery,

dissolved-gas drive or gas-cap drive?

8. Describe water drive.

9. What must be done if reservoir pressure is not high enough?

10. Why is pumping more expensive than a natural drive?!

11. What often happened to new wells in the early days of the

industry?

12. What forced the oil upward in a gusher?

13. When could oil be recovered from a gusher?

14. Was any waste involved with gushers?

15. Why are gushers uncommon nowadays?

18. What is the petroleum industry very concerned about today?

17. When do the steps for recovery of oil from a new well begin?

18. What do geologists and petroleum engineers study and try to

predict?

19. What is the system of valves at the heads of most wells called?

What does it do?

20. Where does the Christmas tree direct the oil?

21. What usually happens to the derrick after a well has been brought

in?

22. What sign is left that there is an oil well in the neighborhood?

23. In a modern oil field, why are the wells usually spaced quite far
apart?

24. What happens as more oil is taken out of a field? How low can the

pressure drop?

25. Is it possible to recover any more oil when

Ccover any more oil when the pressure is low?

26. What is one technique to get more oil from

hnique to get more oil from a field?

27. What natural drive is restored when water is pumped into an oil

bearing formation?

28. What is another technique that can be used to recover more oil?

29. When an oil well becomes blocked, what is one technique for

reopening the well?

30. What is a second technique for opening up a blocked well?!

31. How does the amount of oil that can be recovered today differ

from the amount that could be recovered in the early days of the

industry?

32. What expression is used for reworking an oil field for additional

recovery?

What else has the increased technical ability of modern ailmen

led to? How deep can producing wells be drilled today?

34. Why has the technology of efficient recovery become more

important?

35. What else have these economic forces led top!

36. Why is oil indeed black gold?

What are the estimates called that refer to the oil remaining in

the ground that will be recovered by known technology?

38. How do proved reserves differ from ultimate resources

39. How are both of them measured?

40. What do both proved reserves and ultimate resources together

represent?

Review

A. Fill in the spaces in the following sentences with the appropriate

word or phrase

1. A natural

is a force that can cause oil to move

ahead of it by exerting pressure.

is a better description of a petroleum

2. Oil

deposit than oil pool.

the deposit of

3. In a gas-cap drive, the gas is

oil.

4. In a water drive, the water is

oil.

the deposit of

5. A

drive does not lead to the recovery of as

much oil as a gas-cap drive.

6. When reservoir pressure is not very high,

be used to bring the oil to the surface.

must

7. The system of valves to control the flow of oil at the head of a

well is known as a

8. A.

which forces oil to the surface without any

control, is very wasteful.

9. The reworking of oil fields that were at one time considered to be

used up is known as

10. The amount of oil remaining in the ground that will be recovered

by known technology is called

11.

refers to the amount of oil that has been

discovered

12. Producing wells can nowadays be brought in at depths of

or even more.

13. Both proved reserves and ultimate resources are usually given in

terms of

- of oil.

14. The value of oil has made techniques of efficient

more and more important in the oil industry today,

B. Look at the diagrams below. Then tell what kind of drive is

present, if any, or whether there is an obstruction present. If there

is no natural drive, tell what might be done to bring the oil to the

ground.