Pinedale anticline, WY

US oil fields from above

7 reasons why oil is rare

Oil & NG Extraction “Wildcat” test wells (90% duds, lose $ but write-off)

Drill bit, “mud”, casing, directional drilling, blow-back control, flushing (9:1 water:oil), “fracking” tight reservoir

Definition/appraisal wells (bottom/sides) once outlined the pay zone

3D seismic + simulations

1st extraction gets < 30% of oil in place (OIP) 2nd : Repressurize by injecting water/nitrogen gas.

Pushes oil to wells, recovery boosted to ~50% Tertiary recovery: inject detergents/steam/CO2

Finally remove NG cap, stranding 30-40% oil

Well types & drill bits

Draining Oil/NG Field

11’

3

Other examples

Nitrogen injection Collapse

N. American Oil (NG) frontiers

Deep Gulf of Mexico Shale Oil (horizontal drilling) & “tight gas”

Not a recent technical breakthrough, merely sustained high oil prices

Unsustainable mode of natural gas extraction $5 M for fracking after $4M drilling / well

Canadian Tar (“Oil”) Sands (in situ processing) Arctic Ocean Shelf (horizontal drilling) East Coast

Off-shore oil infrastructureOff-shore drilling platform sequenceExtremely expensive, so big rush to move to next well

Reservoirs highly pressurized so fade rapidly

Oil very hot but deep water cold, so de-pressurized NG forms methane hydrate ices

up to 1994

X

“Tight” Oil in shale (animation) Mobilized by “fracking”

Oil field pyramidsReserves # of fields

Super giant >5 billion bbl 54

Giant 0.5-5 billion 263

Large 50-500 million 481

Others <50 million 70,000+

Field size

Flow rate

Many are> 60 yrs old

Many produce< 10 bbls / day