Oil and gas are often said to be the nerve of life in
our country. This is true when we consider the
economy of the United Arab Emirates. The oil and
gas sector provides around a third of the UAE's
Gross National.
This booklet illustrates the fundamental of oil and
gas production and transportation. In addition it
shows the basic process of gas and refinery plants.
Each topic is supported by an internet link for deep
details; these sites were selected carefully to give the
reader a variety of information.
Oil in the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, with total proven oil reserves of
98.2 billion barrels, ranks fourth and represents around 9.5
percent of the global crude oil reserves. As for natural gas, the
proven recoverable reserves are estimated currently at 5.8
billion cubic meters or 4 percent of the world total. This
means that the UAE possesses the third largest natural gas
reserves in the region and the fourth largest in the world. At
the current rate of utilization, and excluding any new
discoveries, these reserves will last for over 150 years.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.uae.gov.ae/Government/oil_gas.htm#Introduction
Oil in the United Arab Emirates
The oil and gas sector provides around a third of the
UAE's Gross National Product. Abu Dhabi is by far
the biggest oil producer in the UAE, controlling more
than 85 percent of the UAE’s total oil output capacity
and over 90 percent of its crude reserves.
The UAE exports 62% of its crude oil to Japan making
it the UAE’s largest customer. Gas exports are almost
entirely to Japan, the world's largest buyer of liquefied
gas, with the UAE supplying almost one-eighth of
Japan's entire requirements.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.uae.gov.ae/Government/oil_gas.htm#Introduction
Petroleum
Petroleum is the most important substance after food;
it provides not only raw material but also fuel for
energy, industry, heating and transportation.
The word Petroleum derived from the Latin Petra and
Oleum, which means “rock oil”. From a chemical
point petroleum is a complex mixture of a chemical
compounds that are a combination of Hydrogen (H)
and Carbon (C) atoms and called hydrocarbons,
usually with small amounts of impurities such as
nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-drilling1.htm
Petroleum
Petroleum comes from the remains of plants and
animals life, which lived 10 to 5000 million years ago.
As the plants and animals died, they were covered by
sand and mud. The pressure changed the sand mud to
rock, and the remains of plants and animals to oil or
gas.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-drilling1.htm
Location for Petroleum
Petroleum comes from the remains of plants and
animals, which sank to the bottom of seas. And
due to the earth changes over millions of years
oil and gas immigrated from the source rooks
and trapped in places where porous rock is
covered by non-porous rock, which prevents the
oil and gas from flowing out.
Oil
Types of traps
Anticline trap
It is formed when the layer of rock rose
to form a dome, the dome must be
covered by non-porous rock to trap
the oil and the water pressure will push
the oil upward into the dome.
Fault Trap
It is a crack in the earth formed by the
earth pressure, this result in a layer of
porous rock next to non-porous rock.
The oil which moved to the nonporous rock will be stopped by water
behind it.
Salt Dome Trap
A mushroom-shaped made of salt,
commonly having an overlying cap rock.
Here we see salt that has moved up
through the earth, punching through and
bending rock along the way. Oil can come
to rest right up against the salt, which
makes salt an effective trap rock.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/systems/traps/structural/structural.html
How oil is found?
Geologists start looking for porous sedimentary
rocks with non-porous rocks around. Then a
special drill is used to take a rock sample; witch is
examined for clues in finding oil. After that the
Geophysicists uses three different devices to help
in finding oil. These devises are the gravimeter
the magnetometer and seismograph.
Gravimeter
Magnetometer
Seismograph
Gravimeter
Is used to measure the pull of the earth
gravity; this device could measure the
different gravity between the porous and
non-porous rocks.
Magnetometer
Is used to measure the strength of earth
magnetic field, this device also tells the
kinds of rock lying underground.
Gravimeter
Magnetometer
Seismograph
Is used to measure the vibrations in the
earth. Geologists use this device to
measure the vibrations generated by
vibrations truck. As the vibrations travel
through the different layers of rock, the
seismograph will show the types of structure
and the density of the rock, this device could
also show the shapes of rocks lying
underground.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Learning%20Center/Exploration.htm
Seismograph
Drilling
Drilling for oil is the next step after
the geologists have found the
location for petroleum. Cable tool
drilling was used to drill the first
oil well in 1859 in the USA. Most
modern wells are drilled by using
the rotary drill, because it is
allowing to drill much greater
wells.
Nowadays the high technology has
led to horizontal drilling, which
saves a lot of time and money.
The purpose of horizontal drilling
is to reduce the number of rigs
and to produce from different
zones from one well.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Learning%20Center/Production.htm
Well Head
After a well has been drilled and
prepared for production a wellhead “a
special type of equipment used to
control the flow” is fixed on the well.
The wellhead consists of the pieces of
equipment mounted at the opening of
the well to regulate and monitor the
extraction of hydrocarbons from the
underground formation.
It also prevents leaking of oil or natural gas out of the well, and
prevents blowouts due to high pressure formations. Formations that
are under high pressure typically require wellheads that can withstand
a great deal of upward pressure from the escaping gases and liquids.
Subsurface Safety Valve
A subsurface safety valve is installed in the tubing string near the
surface. The valve remains open as long as fluid flow is normal.
When the valve senses something amiss with the surface
equipment of the well, it closes, preventing the flow of fluids.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Learning%20Center/Production.htm
Recovering the oil
The whole amount of crude oil can not be recovered from the
reservoir; only around 50% from the total amount can be
recovered. To recover the oil three important derives must be
available in the oil reservoir. These derives are the dissolved gas,
gas cap and the water derive.
Dissolved gas
Is often dissolved in the oil, as the gas expand into the reservoir it
is producing a pressure, which pushes the oil through the rock to
the surface.
Gas cap
Is a large amount of gas above the oil and it is pushing the oil
from the top through the rock until it reached the surface.
Water derive
Is the most effective of the three derives, oil above water is forced
out by the pressure of the water under it.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Learning%20Center/Production.htm
Improved Recovery Methods
There comes a point in the life-cycle of any oil reserve when
primary recovery can no longer be undertaken due to natural
gas depletion. Extra compression is required to force the oil
to the surface in a process known as secondary recovery.
Water Gas injection and electric submersible pumps are
such form of secondary recovery.
Water injection
Water is injected to maintain formation pressure, which
allows the oil to flow more. water is pumped into the oil
reservoir through injection wells to force oil towards
production wells.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.rolls-royce.com/energy/overview/oilgas/appsintro.jsp
Improved Recovery Methods
Gas injection
Gas is injected to maintain formation pressure, which
allows the oil to flow more. Denser oil from the depths
of the reservoir is displaced towards the bores of the
producing wells.
Artificial left
When the pressure in the oil reservoir is insufficient to
left the oil to the surface, various methods are used to
left the oil like electrical subsurface pumps.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.rolls-royce.com/energy/overview/oilgas/appsintro.jsp
Surface handling of well fluids
Fluids from a well stream consists of hydrocarbons liquids and
gases mixture with water and water vapor, solids such as sand
and shale sediments. Also it contains carbon dioxide and
hydrogen sulfide. Several steps are necessary to separate oil
and gas and made them ready to transport. The well stream is
passed first through horizontal separators to separate the oil
from the gas and to remove the water and solids.
First stage separator: separation is achieved by buffering the
crude oil into the 1st stage separator to reduce its pressure
and speed. This causes the water and the gas to separate
from the oil due to the different specific gravity.
Heat exchanger: is used to heat the crude oil prior entering
the 2nd stage separator to enhance the separation of the H2S
and the water.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.adventuresinenergy.org/interactive/main.swf
Surface handling of well fluids
Second stage separator: its function is similar to the first
stage separator, except the pressure is maintained lower
than the 1st separator and some time it is bigger in size to
give the fluids more residence time to settle down.
H2S stripper: it is used to strip the H2S gas from the crude
oil injecting lean gas at the bottom of the stripper while the
oils input at the top so the lean gas is taking H2S with it
from the top of the stripper. The oil is pumped to the
storage tank in order to pump it to the terminal. The
separated water is injected back to the ground, whereas the
gas is taken by Gas Company.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.adventuresinenergy.org/interactive/main.swf
Natural Gas
Raw natural gas comes from three types of wells: oil wells,
gas wells, and condensate wells. Natural gas that comes from
oil wells is typically termed 'associated gas'. This gas can exist
separate from oil in the formation (free gas), or dissolved in
the crude oil (dissolved gas). Natural gas from gas and
condensate wells, in which there is little or no crude oil, is
termed 'nonassociated gas'. Whatever the source of the
natural gas, once separated from crude oil (if present) it
commonly exists in mixtures with other hydrocarbons;
principally ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes. In
addition, raw natural gas contains water vapor, hydrogen
sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide, helium, nitrogen, and other
compounds.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/well_completion.asp
Natural Gas
Natural gas processing consists of separating all of the various
hydrocarbons like ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes, to
produce what is known as dry natural gas. During the
processing the gas is cooled from -45C to -80C. If natural gas
(methane& ethane) needs to be liquefied, its temperature is
dropped to – 162C.
In fact, associated hydrocarbons, known as 'natural gas
liquids' (NGLs) can be very valuable by-products of natural
gas processing.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/well_completion.asp
Refinery
Refinery is a plant where the components of crude oil are
separated and converted into useful products. The various
components of crude oil have different sizes, weights and
boiling temperatures. So, the first step is to separate these
components. Because they have different boiling
temperatures, they can be separated easily by a process
called fractional distillation. The steps of fractional
distillation are shown in the next page.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-refining4.htm
Refinery
You heat the mixture of two or more substances (liquids) with
different boiling
points to a high temperature about 600C. The mixture boils,
forming vapor (gases); most substances go into the vapor
phase. The vapor enters the bottom of a long fractionating
column and vapor rises in the column and as the vapor rises
through the column, it cools.
When a substance in the vapor reaches a height where the
temperature of the column is equal to that substance's boiling
point, it will condense to form a
liquid. (The substance with the lowest boiling point will
condense at the highest point in the column; substances with
higher boiling points will condense lower in the column).
For more information, please visit this link:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-refining4.htm
Storage and transportation of crude oil
Crude oil is stored in tanks prior
export, then crude it must be
moved from the production sites
to refineries and consumers.
These movements are made using
a number of different modes of
transportation, like pipelines and
tankers.
Export crude oil price & specifications
Exported crude oil price depends
on the oil the API gravity, which is
function in the oil Viscosity.
Exported Crude oil has to be free
of water, salt and Gases like H2S.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Learning%20Center/Oil_Transportation.htm
Storage and transportation of Liquefied Natural
Gas (LNG)
In order to transport natural gas in areas not served by
pipelines, the gas is liquefied to reduce its volume. When the
gas is liquefied, it shrinks to l/600 of its gaseous volume.
Tankers equipped with pressurized, refrigerated, and insulated
tanks are used to transport natural gas liquids and liquefied
natural gas (LNG). At the delivery point the LNG is regasified
and charged into a gas pipeline system.
For more information, please visit this link:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Learning%20Center/Oil_Transportation.htm