Oil well driilling

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by arauca, Jan 7, 2013.

  1. arauca Banned Banned

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    The Russian are drilling for oil about 40000 feet deep

    The decomposition of vegetation oil is produced in what dept ?

    Does oil produced from vegetation have a higher sulfur content ?
     
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  3. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    All oil comes from vegetation. (Plankton primarily.) You need both pressure and temperature to create oil, so it needs to find a depth that both gives you temperatures (50-150C) and pressures that will break down long chain hydrocarbons to shorter ones. Also, keep in mind that source rock is not the same as the reservoir; it has to migrate to the reservoir formation to become concentrated enough to yield good amounts of oil.
     
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  5. arauca Banned Banned

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    For information http://www.energyandcapital.com/resources/the-depth-of-oil-wells
     
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  7. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Some oil comes from vegetation, but most comes from zooplankton.

    What is your source for this statement?
    The Russians have drilled to 40,000 feet, but not for oil.
     
  8. youreyes amorphous ocean Valued Senior Member

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    is that the Sakhalin-2 project?
     
  9. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Still waiting for a response auraca. You started the thread. I presumed you might have an interest in it.
     
  10. arauca Banned Banned

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    Untapped Reserves

    Geologists and energy analysts believe that most of the world's easily accessible oil has been discovered. Shallow, rich oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Alaska are on the decline. The deep reserves -- 30,000 to 40,000 feet below sea level -- represent the next frontier in petroleum production. Scientists working for the United States government have estimated that 40 billion barrels of oil may exist deep underneath the Gulf of Mexico.


    Read more: Drilling for Oil at 40,000 Feet Deep | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_11404253_drilling-oil-40000-feet-deep.html#ixzz2NKlIsXHq


    http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/AdamCassino.shtml
    http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/4...c-oil-and-gas-a-theory-that-refuses-to-vanish
     
  11. arauca Banned Banned

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    https://www.google.com/search?q=Sak...ticecon.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F12%2F;1584;820

    Exxon Neftegas Ltd (ENL) has completed drilling the world’s deepest well in the Chayvo oil field on the Sakhalin shelf in the Russian Far East.

    *The shaft of well Z-44 is 12,376 meter deep, which is the equivalent to 15 times the height of the world tallest skyscraper the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

    “We are proud of this achievement, which furthers the successful implementation of this remarkable project,” ENL chief James Taylor is quoted as saying. Six of the world’s ten deepest wells, including Z-44, have been drilled in Russia for the Sakhalin-1 project using ExxonMobil drilling technology – the so-called “fast drill”, he added.

    Chayvo is one of the three Sakhalin-1 fields and is located off the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia. The Sakhalin-1 project is being developed by an international consortium led by ENL, which holds a 30% stake, the Japanese SODECO (30%), India's ONGC Videsh Ltd (20%) and subsidiaries of Russian oil major Rosneft – RN Astra (8.5%) and Sakhalinmorneftegaz Shelf (11.5%).

    The total project is estimated to cost $10–12 billion. The fields of Chayvo, Odoptu, and Arkutun-Dagi are estimated to yield 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 17.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
     
  12. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    Oil, gas and coal are called fossil fuels but is it possible these materials formed before life? If you look at the various theories for the formation of life on earth, the first thing that is needed are the precursor molecules starting with simple gases that may have been on the earth billions of years ago; In the Miller Experiment:

    Another lab;
    These experiments were performed to show if it was possible generate the precursors for life. If we accept these results, such pathways would have gone on for hundreds of millions of years, before any life was to appear; pre-fossil fuels.
     
  13. youreyes amorphous ocean Valued Senior Member

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    anyways the new deep oil drilling by Russians is offshore Texas, thanks to BP deal with Rosneft)
     
  14. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Thank you for your response to my questions. As I suspected this is a grossly misleading statement. These are very shallow wells - their true vertical depth is only a few thousand feet.

    The wording of the reports is very misleading and you have been misled. The measured depth of these wells is as quoted, but these are extended reach wells - wells that are horizontal or near horizontal for much of their distance. The measure depth is quite a differnt beast from the true vertical depth. MD versus TVD.
     
  15. arauca Banned Banned

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    Can you present your reference if you have any, instead hand waving .
     
  16. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    You provided it yourself in your link. At first it seemed apparently useless, since it connected only to a series images Google took to be related to Sakhalin oil drilling. But, retaining the key words, and switching to Web , produced, as the first choice, this link from wikipedia. There we read the following. (I have emphasised the key abbreviation and phrase.)

    On 27 August 2012, Exxon Neftegas Ltd beat its previous record by completing Z-44 Chayvo well. This ERD well reached a measured total depth of 12,376 meters (40,604 ft), making it the longest well in the world.

    ERD is Extended Reach Drilling, drilling in which the step-out (horizontal displacement from surface well location to target) is greater than three times the true vertical depth.

    As I was directly involved in the drilling of the then record breaking ERD wells at Wytch Farm, in the UK, I have no inclination to hand wave on the subject. The inclinations are all within the wells - hence the differences between MD and TVD. You have been misled by sloppy or ill-informed journalism.
     
  17. arauca Banned Banned

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    I don't know who is sloppy and who is misleading , but according to what I can understand from wiki . .
    "The Odoptu OP-11 Well reached a measured total depth of 12,345 meters (40,502 ft) and a horizontal displacement of 11,475 meters (37,648 ft). Exxon Neftegas completed the well in 60 days.[8]"
    Please take notice the sentence said total depth and horizontal displacement . You tell me what does it means in your English ?
     
  18. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Total depth is generally a casual way to refer to measured depth. i.e. the depth along the borehole from the survey tie in point at surface, which is typically the rig floor (referred to as RKB, rotary kelly bushing). Depths may also be referenced to the land surface (onshore) and mean sea level, or seabed (offshore). Once a well is being drilled the drilling department will go with RKB. Geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers, will convert those back to their appropriate reference level.

    So, I hope you are now clear that the total depth referenced in wikipedia is the total measured depth. It is not the true vertical depth of the well. That is evident from the fact that this is an ERD well. Given the horizontal displacement and the MD difference of barely 3000' this places the true vertical depth of the well at around 2,000' depending upon what build rates were achieved. Without any survey information along the wellbore that has to be a bit of a guess.

    Please note my English is the English of the oilpatch and like any specialist area it has its own terminology that can readily mislead the outsider, as we see so clearly here.
     
  19. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    A point which is supported by this press release:
    Source

    Here's a schematic representation of the well, provided by ExxonMobil:

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!


    Source
     
  20. arauca Banned Banned

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  21. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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  22. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    As an addendum to the above, according to Exxonmobil, they're only drilling around 1200 feet below the sea of Ohkotsk(sp?)
     
  23. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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