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Questions tagged [petroleum]

For questions about the origin, history & methods of production of petroleum; e.g. application and development of petroleum based products & other usages, or evolution of petroleum technology in the past, present & future from the ancient Chinese method to today.

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What would eventually happen to untrapped petroleum?

The Stack Exchange question wondering how much of the petroleum ever formed made it into reservoir rocks got me pondering what becomes of the organic material that isn't trapped in reservoir rock. I ...
JeopardyTempest's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
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Is or was there oil on Sakhalin?

There are certainly oilfields under the sea floor off the coast of Sakhalin, that are being actively exploited. This map shows their locations: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-Sakhalin-...
rwallace's user avatar
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What are the prerequisites for petroleum geology?

I'm in my late thirties and decided to get back to studying. I want to learn petroleum geology but it's been 10 years since I last opened any book, so I basically forgot tons of stuff that I learnt. I ...
Monkey Brain's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
444 views

What methods do geologists employ to detemine the age of a petroleum deposit?

Petroleum is not considered a rock, but it is formed by a process, so it has an age. What methods do geologists employ to determine the age of a petroleum deposit?
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5 votes
1 answer
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How much of the petroleum ever formed has made it into reservoir rocks?

I am aware that it's a bit general a question, and petroleum geology (or petrology ;-)) has never been a field of interest to me. A superficial search using related keywords brings up only economic ...
user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the most important source of natural gas? Coal, oil or other?

By heat and pressure, both coal and oil can produce gas. But what is the most important substance for gas? Is there a relation to the amounts of marine organism (sea life) which died and the amount of ...
Marijn 's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
148 views

How much oil was consumed worldwide since it was started to use massively in the mid 19th century?

According to this article from 2015 How much oil is left on Earth 1.5 trillion barrels of crude oil reserves were left in the world by end 2015 But how much oil was already consumed worldwide since ...
Pablo's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
128 views

Does Earth have any stable bodies of liquid, that are not liquid water?

Overland oil spills are fairly common, so Earth arguably has some transient hydrocarbon lakes. One incident in 2013 dumped nearly 1 million gallons of oil over North Dakota, covering 13 acres of land. ...
StarlightDown's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
234 views

Will kerosene reserves deplete long before oil?

Assuming that the oil reserves would end at a certain date, would it be expected that the kerosene be no longer used as fuel on a previous date due to the quality fall of barrels? If so, would that ...
user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
3k views

How can I test my house water supply for hydrocarbon presence?

I live in a city where the water supply quality seem pretty good on daily/average basis. However, it is also well known that there is a huge problem with deteriorating water pipes. My problem is that ...
not2qubit's user avatar
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0 answers
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Caspian Sea oil deposits

Azerbaijan appears to have vast development in its oil sector. Images on google earth show oil platforms connected by road ways far out into the Caspian Sea of the coast of Baku. Why is the majority ...
Jeffrey Boettger's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
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Estimating fracture pressure (looking for literature to support)

I am trying to estimate fracture pressure of a reservoir when applying injection. I keep reading fracture pressure=reservoir pressure+2000psi or fracture pressure gradient is 0.7psi/ft, but I can't ...
CDplayer's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
583 views

Are there probably decent oil fields located in the middle of the ocean?

I did a google image search for a world map of offshore oil. Surprisingly I found virtually nothing. I had to search country by country for such maps. I noticed most if not all were located very near ...
DrZ214's user avatar
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7 votes
4 answers
594 views

In the oil field, when a vertical cylinder coring sample is taken, how is the core severed at the bottom and removed from the formation?

I would like to know how the core is cut off at the bottom of the drill. I also would like to know how the core is brought up to the surface without slipping out and falling back down.
Mike K's user avatar
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0 answers
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Possible reasons for field GOR being below Solution GOR(Rs)

It has been noticed in the field multiple times that the field produced GOR is well below the Solution GOR (obtained from PVT properties). Based on Industry observed production data globally, I would ...
Aby Sax's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
159 views

How to compare the oil production in barrel vs production in tons

I hope this is the right SE site...I was unsure if to post here or on Physics, but I see there are quite many questions about oil here. So, my question is the following: I would like to compare the ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
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1 answer
565 views

What is a "show" in petroleum geology?

Is a show when naturally ocurring oil seeps out of a fracture on the surface? Or is it when engineers fracture rocks in order to extract oil?
Alvaro Morales's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
4k views

What would happen if magma flows into a very large oil deposit?

If there were an earthquake that somehow cause a crack in the earth and allowed a significant amount of magma to flow into a very large oil deposit. With that high amount of explosive energy that ...
frazras's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Oil production profile of oil fields with water coning [closed]

What is the typical production profile of oil fields with water coning?
user7471's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

Petroleum and coal formation

I was wondering why are coal and petroleum being both fossil fuels are found at different places i.e. coal at land and petroleum at sea.
geeky me's user avatar
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3 answers
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What is the age of the earth's oil?

Oil in the ground is found under the oceans and seas. It is made of dead fish. But from what period are those fish? I heard they are about 119 million years old. But fish exist much longer than that. ...
Marijn 's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
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What are the natural causes for methane formation?

Natural gas is mostly made of methane ($\ce{CH4}$). Methane can be produced as a result of microbes eating organic matter. But can it also be naturally formed without any assistance from organic ...
Marijn 's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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Glossary of oil and gas industry geophysical terms

Reviewing market regulatory standards I came across the problem of finding a source that I could cite of concise, worldwide accepted industry geophysical terms. So far I know Schlumberger Oilfield ...
imbr's user avatar
  • 159
-5 votes
1 answer
696 views

Is it possible that the recent droughts are signs of epic crust failure? [closed]

The full question is: Is it possible that the recent, successive, long droughts from Australia to the West Coast of both American continents are signs of epic crust failure? The question is aimed ...
Teki Haken's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

The youngest and oldest source rock for hydrocarbons in economic quantities

Most famous and productive source rocks for hydrocarbons are Paleozoic or Mesozoic, but there are also examples from the Neogene. Time is needed for the rock to reach the right depth and temperature ...
user2821's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
440 views

Hydrocarbon potential in Ganges Brahmaputra delta

According to Curray (1991): Total sediment thickness beneath the [Ganges–Brahmaputra delta] southeast of the hingezone exceeds 16 km... Considering a normal geothermal gradient and data for oil ...
shrey's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
324 views

Incised valleys and hydrocarbon potential

The Wikipedia page on sequence stratigraphy states: Sandstone bodies associated with incised valleys are good hydrocarbon reservoirs. Can anyone elaborate on this statement and the reason behind ...
shrey's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
9k views

Why is there so much oil in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada, but almost none in Europe?

Why do some countries have a lot of oil reserves, while some others don't?
user50746's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
624 views

Is it feasible to use depleted oil wells for geothermal production?

There is an oil field outside my hometown. I wonder if it is feasible to use the same oil wells for geothermal production after oil production rate drops below profitable point.
George Chen's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
401 views

How does one create petroleum/crude oil for future generations?

I am a geological novice so maybe this is a wrong question. But the idea is to create a thought experiment. How does one "create" petroleum or crude oil for future generations? Is it enough to bury a ...
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
233 views

Why would there be no hydrocarbons in the Sveconorwegian belt?

I've had an inconclusive chat about the Sveconorwegian belt of the Fennoscandian shield, the western parts in particular, and reasons as to why there would not be any deposits of hydrocarbons there. ...
Roy's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
516 views

How can the 'abiogenic oil' hypothesis be disproven?

We do know that complex hydrocarbons (e.g., tholins) exist in the outer Solar System. Some geologists maintain that at least some oil on Earth is of non-biological origin. The mainstream, though, ...
Deer Hunter's user avatar
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54 votes
3 answers
10k views

How much oil is created each year?

We all know that oil is an essentially nonrenewable resource over human time scales. However, I am currently working on an activity for high schoolers that teaches them to predict how long humans can ...
Kupyn's user avatar
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22 votes
1 answer
328 views

Estimating the permeability tensor of an oil field by remote sensing

I work a lot with numerical methods to solve multiphase flow in porous media for oil applications. In our field, we often use Darcy's law which states that the flux is negatively proportional to the ...
Paul's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
2k views

What causes "hydrocarbons" to take the form of petroleum versus natural gas?

"Hydrocarbons" are found in geological formations consisting of strata or layers of rocks. Specifically, they are formed from decomposed organic material (that contains carbon), that bonds with ...
Tom Au's user avatar
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