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Fundamentals of Exploration and Production

Article · January 2000

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Richard A. Dawe
University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
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 1
Fundamentals of Exploration and
Production
Richard A. Dawe
1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter is intended to provide an overview
of the present-day methodologies employed by
explorationists, reservoir and petroleum engineers
in the disciplines of petroleum exploration and
production. It also attempts to set the scene for later
chapters, which detail the employed technologies
in the concepts of exploration and production.
It further provides a basic understanding of the
standard terminology commonly used in industry
for hydrocarbons’ nomenclature and classification.
Petroleum is the general term given to fluid
hydrocarbons, both the gases and liquid crude oil.
Further discussion and extension of the meaning
of petroleum appears in the following chapters.
Liquid petroleum is generally termed ‘crude oil’
or ‘crude’. In appearance, natural crude oil varies
from almost colourless to yellow –brown or black,
respectively of low density and viscosity to high
for black oils. Commercial quantities of petroleum
occur almost exclusively within sedimentary rocks
(sandstones, limestones and, rarely, claystones).
Oil- and gasfields are underground rock reservoirs
that contain an accumulation of producible hydro-
carbons. The rock formation must be porous to
Edited by Richard A. Dawe. Published on behalf of the Institute of Petroleum. Modern Petroleum Technology  2000 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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allow it to contain hydrocarbons and permeable to
allow the hydrocarbons to flow. To plan develop-
ment of an oil- or gasfield, information is needed
about:
ž the shape, size and connectivity of the accumu-
lation
ž the porosity and permeability (producibility) of
the rock
ž the fraction of the pore space filled with hydro-
carbons
ž the nature of the hydrocarbons
ž the cost of wells, facilities, pipelines, installa-
tions and so on
ž safety, health and environmental matters.
2 EXPLORATION METHODS
Any exploration activity is carried out with the
consent and under the control of the host govern-
ment. Often there is competition (direct or indirect)
with other companies that are also seeking to meet
their future needs. The final decision to drill by
a company takes into consideration not only the
essential geological merit but also the government