PETROLEUM EXPLORATION

(EGE 4222)
Noorzamzarina binti Sulaiman
Where to drill?

 Seeps (field evidence)

 Hydrocarbons observed (“oil shows” and
“staining”) during any drilling (e.g. rock
staining)
 Presence of structures (traps) from
geophysical seismic survey – normally used this
method
 Evidence of hydrocarbons on seismic (e.g. Gas
chimney)
What seeps tell us? It’s a clue!!

Petroleum seep at Carpinteria State

Sizable Natural oil seep in Iraq Beach, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County
 That a source rock must exist at depth
 That the source rock has generated hydrocarbons
 That migration has occurred
 That there is a migration pathway to the surface (faults or carrier beds)
 The nature of the source rock (from geochemistry)
Other natural oil seeps

Oil still seeps in the Gulf Coast

Oil seeps in Gulf of Mexico

Oil staining in cores

Oil saturated cores, Arab reservoir

Oil staining in a core from DNO International's
Bastora-1 discovery well, Kurdistan, Iraq
WILDCAT

 A wildcat well is one that is drilled in a new

area where no other wells exist and
generally with barely sufficient information.
 It is drilled in an effort to locate
undiscovered accumulation of hydrocarbons.
 Many wildcat wells are drilled on a hunch,
intuition, or a small amount of geology.
 Many times they are based on photography
and experience in a particular area. Wildcat
wells are generally drilled at a smaller
diameter than normal because this saves
money (the average onshore well at present
costs about 10 MM dollars to drill).
Types of well
 Exploration wells
 Well drilled to gain knowledge about a new area of exploration
 Wildcat well – speculative high risk wells drilled to prove whether
hydrocarbons are present or not
 Appraisal wells – wells drilled to assess the economic viability of
discoveries found by wildcat wells (Geographic extent, height of oil
column, reserves, production rate). Focus is almost entirely on the
reservoir. Often in conjunction with high resolution seismic for 3D.
 Step-out wells – wells drilled outside known limits of an oil field to assess
possible extention
 Development wells
 Production wells- wells drilled to enable the most efficient extraction
of oil from a mapped discovery
 Injection wells
 Observation wells