Why oil production can't be increased
From the DC underground:
North Sea oil production peaked in 1999 at 2.9 million barrels per day and has now fallen by almost 60 per cent to around 1.2 million. This happened, as in all mature oil producing regions, because of two simple facts of life.
First, oil is produced from deeply buried, highly pressurized reservoirs. This is great news to start with; the pressure forces the oil up the pipe of its own accord. But as the oil is produced the pressure is relieved, so the oil inevitably comes out more and more slowly as time goes on.
Also as a field ages, the production pipeline, which at first is deep in the oil regime, gets closer and closer to oil-water meniscus with more and more produced water coming up with the oil. First production is almost all oil, then the water cuts increase. In the aged Texas oil fields for every barrel of oil extracted 20 barrels of salty, radioactive water are produced. Water cuts are a good measure of the health of an oil field.
Second, in any given region, oil companies usually find and exploit the biggest oil fields first. So, as time goes on they are forced to scrabble around for ever smaller deposits. It is principally this combination of geological factors, rather than economics, which caused North Sea production to peak and decline.
North Sea oil production peaked in 1999 at 2.9 million barrels per day and has now fallen by almost 60 per cent to around 1.2 million. This happened, as in all mature oil producing regions, because of two simple facts of life.
First, oil is produced from deeply buried, highly pressurized reservoirs. This is great news to start with; the pressure forces the oil up the pipe of its own accord. But as the oil is produced the pressure is relieved, so the oil inevitably comes out more and more slowly as time goes on.
Also as a field ages, the production pipeline, which at first is deep in the oil regime, gets closer and closer to oil-water meniscus with more and more produced water coming up with the oil. First production is almost all oil, then the water cuts increase. In the aged Texas oil fields for every barrel of oil extracted 20 barrels of salty, radioactive water are produced. Water cuts are a good measure of the health of an oil field.
Second, in any given region, oil companies usually find and exploit the biggest oil fields first. So, as time goes on they are forced to scrabble around for ever smaller deposits. It is principally this combination of geological factors, rather than economics, which caused North Sea production to peak and decline.
posted by Anonymous | 1:43 PM
2 Comments:
It's kind of like buying some of your groceries at Costco, then shopping around for other things on your list, because they're cheaper elsewhere. You ruin the risk of them being out out of that specific item. Just like we're running out of oil deposits. What next? We're almost at the peak. Have you seen what oilheat users have gone through? Crazy. I think the best option for them right now, is to switch to bioheat. Green is the biggest thing right now, so why not go green with oil. Current oilheat users can use a B5 blend and reduce emissions, eliminate greenhouse gases, and most important of all help conserve 400 MILLION gallons of oil. Working for NORA, I have been able to research many heating alternatives, but bioheat always tends to stick out as a huge help to existing users. Here's a link with more info: http://oilheatamerica.com/index.mv?screen=bioheat
Great point by Agatha. We will keep pursuing this.
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