Posted on 10/21/2007 6:54:22 PM PDT by blam
New Theory Predicts Location Of Oil And Gas Reserves
Science Daily (Oct. 21, 2007) — Researchers in Stavanger, Norway, have developed a theory which can be important for future oil and gas exploration.
The Golden Zone is the name of a an underground zone where temperatures range between 60 and 120 C. The name refers to a new discovery that 90 per cent of the world's oil and gas reserves are to be found just there.
The theory has been tested and verified against a global database containing 120 000 oil fields under production, This gives geologists a tool that makes it simpler and cheaper to find new offshore oil and gas reserves.
The theory of the Golden Zone has come as a surprise to the petroleum industry. The theory has been developed over a period of ten years by the former senior researcher, now dean, Per Arne Bjørkum at the Faculty of Technology and Science at the University of Stavanger, and the researchers Paul Nadeau and Olav Walderhaug at Statoil.
This tool makes the work easier because the companies can now concentrate their resources on exploration at this temperature range. Outside this interval of 60 to 120 C, particularly above 120 C, the chances of finding oil and gas are much slimmer.
Earlier it was assumed that the formation of oil and gas was related to temperature. The new discovery is that temperature decides where most of the lighter oil and gas is trapped in the reservoirs.
The increase of temperature downward into the reservoirs varies from place to place. Therefore the zone is to be found at different depths. On the Norwegian continental shelf it is located at depths ranging from two to four kilometers, while in other reservoirs it may be found somewhere between one to two km. These are the so-called warm reservoirs. In cold reservoirs the zone is located at about four to eight kilometers down.
The fact that oil and gas coexist within the same temperature zone is a new discovery and a surprise. Gas is formed at higher temperatures than oil. Consequently it has been a standard rule that there should be more gas than oil the deeper one drilled into the reservoir. The reason why this is not the case is covered by the new theory which predicts that both oil and gas escape through fissures formed at 120 C. But nobody had checked it, Bjørkum says.
Obviously it had to be like that according to the new theory, he says.
The hope of finding much more oil the deeper we drilled into the basement of the sedimentary basins, is about to fade. Not everybody likes to hear this because they want to keep up hope. The main theory about the location of oil and gas in reservoirs was developed at the beginning of research more than ten years ago. In our opinion the theory was both complicated and inconsistent. The Golden Zone has been discovered because we now think differently, Bjørkum says.
He adds that there is also a good deal of oil in sediments of temperatures lower than 60 C, but the oil there is heavier and of poorer quality. It is referred to as heavy oil because bacteria eat the lighter and liquid oil components.
Even if the price of oil is now so high that we can produce more heavy oil, there are great environmental problems linked to it. It is difficult to refine, and for the time being there is no treatment capacity. It takes more than ten years to build new refineries.
However, there is enough coal in the world to last for several hundred years of energy consumption. If we can find an efficient and environmentally friendly way of producing oil and gas from coal it could be our way out, Bjørkum adds.
Bjørkum thinks that the greatest challenge just now is to produce enough oil and gas for the next ten years.
Right now the companies do not find enough oil and gas to replace what they produce. During the last 25 years exploration has not managed to match the quantity produced. When exploring it is important to be as realistic as possible. That is why we are depleting our resources and makes it mandatory to extract as much as possible from our finds. In this way we may contribute to postponing the crisis many see coming, and that is also the starting point for research at UiS. The new knowledge concerning the whereabouts of oil and gas makes us more efficient in our exploration than earlier.
Bjørkum thinks that the world may easily find itself in a situation of fighting wars over the access to oil and gas.
The likelihood of war increases if serious shortage comes earlier than the world expects. In that perspective sound knowledge about where oil and gas are located may also contribute to preserving world peace.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Stavanger.
I’ve always wondered how different things would be if the bulk of the world’s oil wasn’t under the Middle East. My mom provided a good answer—the sand rats would still be sand rats, instead of filthy rich sand rats.
Info.
Oil might break $100 very soon, then $150.
Where’s the data backing up this ‘claim’??????
We know where the oil is, our government will not let us get it.
It’s filed under Peak OIL.
We could be drilling our own if the democrats - and some republicans - weren’t communists.
There is plenty of oil.
The main problem are the NIMBies - the “not in my backyard” types - who obstruct any attempts at drilling. That showed up tonight after the Republican debate was over, when “Campaign Carl” Cameron interveiwed the Governor of Florida. The Gov said that Floridians don’t want drilling offshore of Florida’s coasts. Well, neither do the Californians, nor folks living on Alaska’s north slope. But that’s where our oil reserves are located.
It’s there. We just have to get it, that’s all.
Earlier it was assumed that the formation of oil and gas was related to temperature. The new discovery is that temperature decides where most of the lighter oil and gas is trapped in the reservoirs.
Key-rap! The influence of temperature on oil maturation has long been understood. And so has the importance of the source rock, the cap rocks, and the porosity and permeability of the reservoir rocks.
It doesn't matter if your rocks are hot between 60 to 120 C if your reservoir rocks are impermeable and the porosity is very low. These Norwegians need to study in Texas so they might know what they're talking about.
Amazing no one noticed the correlation between temperature and oil before this.
Press Releases can be notorously bad.
If you really wan to understand a scientific claim, you have to rea the scientific paper. Virtually none of which are posted on FR, or read by people taking potshots at scientists.
I knew a man named Clarence Brown that could find the depth of oil reserves any where in the world while sitting in a coffee shop in Glendale Calif.
Yeah, heavy oil, like all the oil in the US. Now, we’re not supposed to use it because it’s more difficult to refine. What will the next excuse be?
If you really wan[sic] to understand a scientific claim, you have to rea[sic] the scientific[sic] paper. Virtually none of which are posted on FR, or read by people taking potshots at scientists.
Obviously you are as learned in petroleum exploration as you are in spelling and grammer.
My Dad knew this fifty years ago. He drilled hundreds of wells betweem 1920 and 1940, in fields from LA to NM.
Kudos to your father, he must have been one of the old great wildcatters. He probably did most of his drilling with the old cable tool rigs.
“I’ve always wondered how different things would be if the bulk of the world’s oil wasn’t under the Middle East.”
The bulk of the world’s oil, up to now, seems to be found in the Middle East because that is where the most intensive oil exploration has taken place.
Back in the early seventies I spoke with American geologists in Saudi Arabia who informed me that there were vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico at great depths. However, if we do not drill for it the oil will remain there forever and will just be an unused national treasure.
Even China has indicated a keen interest for oil exploration in the Cuban basin. With modern horizontal drilling technology the Chinese could explore oil fields that lie within our national borders.
Our environmentalists are against us developing our oilfields but rather give it to a foreign nation for free. Ain’t it a kick in the ass?
Yep, a real kick in the ass. And the enviros are all up in arms about the possiblity of drilling in Alaska. That’s interesting though, I didn’t know there was any oil in the Gulf. We ought to drill there too, it can help decrease our dependence on foreign oil.
Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1933 by Americans on an expidtion; they were looking for water. Then in 1938, Aramco, the first Arabian-American oil company, was formed. And if there was oil in Saudi Arabia, the other ME nations figured they’d start searching within their own borders to try and find stuff. And then the cash started coming in.
If only we had searched within our borders too, and taken advantage of the Gulf/Alaska oil back in the day before greenies and envirowackos started popping up.
Some,Not a wildcatter, though. He started in the Burkburnet field in 1919, so it wasn’t long before Hughes tool ws providing rotary. Drilled most of his wells in the East Texas field from 1931 to 1940, until his company bought a little production.
I know how to check this! Drill down in the rock a check the temperature. if it is the right temperature, then its a perfect place to drill for oil.
I don't really see this as a "new" theory but rather a broader, research view of the existing data. I'm sure something similar has been done internally in the exploration departments at the Majors...
I’m assuming you forgot the /sarcasm tag on this comment...
bmflr
The stuff in the ME is relatively easy to get to and to produce whereas in the GOM, you’re basically trying to “squeeze” out the remaining or bypassed oil on the shelf. In more recent years the big exploration budgets have been spent in the deepwater of the GOM - you don’t just punch a bunch of $50 million dollar holes in the ground unless you have a bunch of science and theories to make a reasonable technical and scientific case to management...
As for China - they’re not constrained by economics and shareholders like the western oil companies are... They’re trying to secure reserves for the future regardless of the economics. (Sudan, for example)
Combine this with the theory, that seems to be proving true, that petroleum is created by bacteria in the earth not fossils and it’s apparent that there is enough petroleum to last for centuries. The idea that man will develop alternative fuel sources and just abandon petroleum and let it sit in the ground is foolish. That won’t happen.
Wy does this seem to you to be proving true? Because you see it repeated as theory a lot on the Internet? No commercially produced oil field has ever been discovered using this method. All producing oil fields contain biotic markers from plant/animal remains. All producing oil fields have been sourced to sedimentary rock.
Abiotic oil theory has only been successful in fleecing investors, not producing oil.
If you are really interested in the topic, may I suggest for your reading:
No Free Lunch, Part 1:
A Critique of Thomas Gold’s Claims for Abiotic Oil
by Jean Laherrere
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102104_no_free_pt1.shtml
No Free Lunch, Part 2:
If abiotic oil exists, where is it?
by Dale Allen Pfeiffer
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011205_no_free_pt2.shtml
Massive oil field found under Gulf
Reserves south of New Orleans could rival North Slope, boosting U.S. supplies by 50%
The Wall Street Journal reports today the find could boost the nation's current reserves of 29.3 billion barrels by as much as 50 percent.Chevron discovered the field by drilling the deepest to date in the Gulf of Mexico, down 28,175 feet in waters nearly 7,000 feet deep, some seven miles below the surface of the Earth.
Combine that with other recent huge finds and the obvious conclusion that there is a lot of oil yet to be found and my point holds strong. Petroleum will be the fuel of choice for a long long time.
Centuries is a bit of an overstatement, even combining oil sands and oil shale, but I also believe oil production is not peaking in the near future.
My issue was with believe oil comes from non-sedimentary sources.
You da man! Go buy an oven temperature gauge, start digging, and report back later to us! ;D ,
For many years the Russian petroleum geologists believed that oil came from igneous rocks. Of course, this was during a time that Lysenko was ruling genetics in the former Soviet Union.
Correction: For many years the a few politically connected Russian petroleum geologists believed that oil came from igneous rocks. Many did not. Those that did not continued to discover oil.
Correction is noted. In the old Soviet Union the politically connencted could have a major influence on all the science publications, but that didn’t mean that everybody else was stupid.
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