Fundamental Of Petroleum Engineering

SERIES

Presented By
ISAAC OCHULOR
IADC APPROVED INSTRUCTOR

Institute of Drilling and Petroleum

Engineering

www.idpe.org
 MODULE 1
INTRODUCTION
 Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter students will be able to
• Understand what petroleum Engineering entails.
• Describe how Petroleum is formed and its compositions.
• Describe fractional distillation processes of crude oil.
• Narrate history oil and gas in Nigeria and NNPC Business
Units.
• Describe Production Sharing Contract in Nigeria
 COURSE CONTENTS
• What is Petroleum Engineering?
•
• What Does Petroleum Mean?
•
• Generation of Petroleum
•
• Chemical Composition of Petroleum
•
• Petroleum Products
•
• Fractional Distillation
•
• The First Oil Wells
•
• History of Oil in Nigeria
•
• Production Sharing Contract
 What is Petroleum Engineering?

• An engineering discipline concerned with

the activities related to the production of
hydrocarbons, which can be either crude
oil or natural gas.

• Considered as upstream sector of the oil

and gas industry, which are the activities
of finding and producing oil and gas.
 What is Petroleum Engineer?
• A petroleum engineer is involved in nearly all stages
of oil and gas field evaluation, development and
production. The goal of a petroleum engineer is to
maximise hydrocarbon recovery at a minimum cost
while maintaining a strong emphasis on reducing all
associated environmental problems.

• Petroleum engineers are divided into several groups:

• Petroleum geologists find hydrocarbons by analysing

subsurface structures with geological and
geophysical methods.
 What is Petroleum Engineer?
Reservoir engineers work to optimize production of oil and
t

gas via proper well placement, production levels, and

enhanced oil recovery techniques.

Drilling engineers manage the technical aspects of drilling

exploratory, production and injection wells. It also include
mud engineer who manage the quality of drilling fluid.

Production engineers, including subsurface engineers

manage the interface between the reservoir and the well,
including perforations, sand control, downhole flow control,
and downhole monitoring equipment; evaluate artificial lift
methods; and also select surface equipment that separates
the produced fluids (oil, gas, and water).
Where Does Petroleum Engineers
Work?
EMPLOYER:
• Government
• Oil Company.
• Service Company.
• Supporting Company.
• Academic
• Others

LOCATION:
• Office
• On land Oil Rig
• Offshore Oil Rig
• Offshore Production Platform
 What Does Petroleum Mean?

• Petroleum literally means ‘rock oil’. The word comes

from the Greek word ‘petra’ (meaning ‘rock’) and the
Latin word ‘oleum’ (meaning ‘oil’).

• The word petrol is a shortened version of ‘petroleum’.

• Petroleum products are all the substances made from

petroleum.
 Crude Oil
• The oil we find underground is called crude oil.

• Crude oil is made of a mixture of different chemicals called

hydrocarbons. These were produced when tiny plants and
animals decayed under layers of sand and mud.

• Crude oil doesn't always look the same – it depends where it

comes from.
•
• Sometimes it is almost colourless, or it can be thick and black.
But crude oil usually looks like thin, brown treacle.

• When it comes out of a well (especially an undersea well), the

crude oil is often mixed with gases, water and sand.
 Crude Oil - Wikipedia
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, toxic,
flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of
hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other organic
compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath
the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil
drilling. It is refined and separated, most easily by boiling
point, into a large number of consumer products, from
gasoline and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used
to make plastics and pharmaceuticals.
 What Made Oil?
• Tiny animals and plants that live in the
sea are called plankton.

• The plankton that lived in hundreds of

millions years ago made our crude oil.

• When they died they sank to the

bottom and slowly got buried by sand
and mud.

• Over millions of years, the dead

animals and plants got buried deeper
and deeper.

• The heat and pressure gradually turned

the mud into rock and the dead
animals and plants into oil and gas.
 Hydrocarbon
• Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons.

• They are often chains of carbon atoms

with hydrogen attached.

• The longer chains have higher boiling

points, so they can be separated by
distillation.

• The simplest groups are the alkanes

and alkenes. They all end with 'ane'
and 'ene' respectively.

• The first bit of their name depends on meth = 1 carbon, eth = 2,

the number of carbon atoms. prop = 3, but = 4, pent = 5,
hex = 6= 6.
 Generation of Petroleum
• Petroleum generation takes place in source rocks, which may be
defined as organic rich, fine grained sediments deposited under
low energy, reducing conditions.

• Most commonly, petroleum source rocks containing a minimum

of 0.3% to 0.5% by weight of organic matter.
•
• Preservation of the organic matter is the key to the development
of potential source rocks.
•
• The environment of source rock deposition is therefore
characterised by a relatively deep, unagitated (low energy) body
of water with an oxygen starved bottom but abundant life at the
surface.
 Generation of Petroleum Contd.
• The non-hydrocarbon organic matter (kerogen) is the major
source of oil and gas deposits.

• The generation of hydrocarbons from the source material

• depends primarily on the temperature to which the organic

material is subjected. Hydrocarbon generation appears to be
negligible at temperatures less than 150oF (65oC) in the
subsurface and reaches a maximum within the range of 225o to
350oF (107o and 176oC), the “hydrocarbon window”. Increasing
temperatures convert the heavy hydrocarbons into lighter ones
and ultimately to gas. However, at temperatures above 500oF
(260oC), the organic material is carbonized and destroyed as a
source material. Consequently, if source beds become too deeply
buried no hydrocarbons will be produced. (Wikipedia)
Conversion of Kerogen to Oil & Gas
• Anaerobic bacteria convert lipids (fat, oil and waxes)
into a waxy substance called kerogen.

• During burial of sediments, the increase in

temperature results in a progressive change in the
composition of kerogen.

• Three successive stages are distinguished and

referred as diagenesis, catagenesis and metagenesis.

• The main trend is a continuous increase in the carbon

content of kerogen.
 Diagenesis

• Diagenesis of kerogen is characterised by an important

decrease of oxygen and a corresponding increase of
carbon content with increasing depth.

• CO2, H2O and some heavy N, S, O compounds are

released.

• Source rocks are considered as immature at this stage.

 Catagenesis
• A significant decrease in hydrogen content and in the H/C
ratio takes place due to the generation and release of
hydrocarbons.

• This is the main zone of oil generation and the beginning

of the cracking phase which produces wet gas with a
rapidly increasing proportion of methane.
 Metagenesis
• Begins at temperature exceeding 175oC.

• During this stage, a rearrangement of the aromatic sheets

occurs.

• The stacks of aromatic layers, previously distributed at

random in kerogen, now gather to form larger clusters.

• At this stage, only dry gas is generated.

• The color of kerogen changes as it matures

Colour Maturity Level Dominant HC
Yellow Immature Biogenic methane
Orange Mature Oil
Brown Mature Wet gas
Black Metamorphosed Dry gas
General scheme of kerogen evolution
 Chemical Composition of Petroleum
Substances present in petroleum fall into four major
groups:
• Paraffins
• Naphthenes
• Aromatics
• Non-hydrocarbon

• The relative proportions of these compounds determine

the physical properties (density, viscosity, pour point,
etc) of petroleum
 Paraffins
• These are also known as
aliphatic hydrocarbons.

• They include the alkanes,

which are saturated and have
the general formula CnH2n+2
(methane, ethane, etc) and
the alkenes, which are
undersaturated and have the
general formula
CnH2n or CnH2n-n.

• The carbon atoms are joined

together to form chains.
 Naphthenes

• These are referred to also

as cycloparaffins and are
characterised by their
carbon atoms joined in such
a way as to form a ring.

• The heavier MW fraction of

petroleum often contains
quite complex naphtene
molecules with two or more
ring joined
 Aromatics
The basic building block
of these hydrocarbons is
the benzene ring.

The aromatics structure

occurs especially in the
high molecular weight
fraction of petroleum.
 Non-hydrocarbon

• Compounds in this group

contain nitrogen, sulphur
and oxygen (NSO’s).

• Free nitrogen gas may be

generated during the
formation of petroleum.

• Sulphur organic compounds

are often foul smelling. The
best known is H2S.

• Oxygen compounds include

alcohols, ethers and organic
acids.
 Fractional Distillation
• Fractional distillation splits
the crude oil into simpler
mixtures called fractions. The
different fractions are taken
out of the still at different
levels.

• This happens in a distillation

tower (which we shorten to
still).

• The crude oil is heated in a

furnace to about 370°C and
is pumped into the bottom of
a distillation tower. Most of
the hydrocarbons are
gaseous, though the very
thick ones are still a liquid
even at this temperature.
 Fractional Distillation Contd.
• The tower is like a giant
heat exchanger - it
removes heat from the
gases as they rise up it.
The temperature falls to
20°C by the time the
vapours reach the top.

• The vapours condense as

they rise up the tower. The
heavier ones (with higher
boiling points) condense
first. The thinner, runny
ones get further up the
tower before they
condense. And the gases
pass out of the top.
Where do Product come out of a Still?
• A distillation tower splits crude oil into separate fractions.

• Each fraction is a mix of hydrocarbons. Each fraction has

its own range of boiling points and comes off at a
different level in the tower.

• In reality, a single tower could not cover the full range of

temperatures needed to split up the heavier fractions.
 Distillation Process Table
The table shows the names and uses of the fractions that
come from the distillation process. It also shows the ranges
of hydrocarbons in each fraction.
Fraction Carbons BP °C Uses
• Fuel in refinery
Gases 1 to 4 < 40
• Bottled and sold as LPG
• Blended into petrols
Napthas 5 to 10 25 – 175
• Feedstock for making chemicals
Kerosene 10 to 16 150 – 260 • Aviation fuel
Light gas oils 14 to 50 235 – 360 • Diesel fuel production
Heavy gas oils 20 to 70 330 – 380 • Feedstock for catalytic cracker
• Grease for lubrication
Lubricants > 60 340 – 575 • Fuel additives
• Feedstock for catalytic cracker
Fuel oil > 70 > 490 • Fuel oil (power stations and ships)
Bitumen > 80 >580 • Road and roof surfaces
 The First Oil Well

• The modern oil industry dates

back about 150 years.

• The world’s first oil well was

drilled in Titusville,
Pennsylvania in 1859. It struck
oil at 21 metres below ground
and produced 3,000 litres of
oil a day.

• Known as the Drake Well,

after "Colonel" Edwin Drake,
the man responsible for the
well, it began an international
search for petroleum, and in
many ways eventually
changed the way we live.
How Long Will The World’s Oil Last?
• Oil took millions of years to form and the oil supplies in the ground
won't last for ever.

• The oil fields already discovered hold over 1 trillion barrels of oil
(1,000,000,000,000).

• Although we are using oil quite quickly, the reserves go up every

year. This is because more oil is discovered and new ways are found
of extracting oil that couldn't be got out before.

• Even so, our oil won't last for ever. At the moment, the world uses
about 26,000,000,000 barrels every year. At this rate, there should
be enough oil for at least another 40 years.

• It is likely that more oil will be discovered in that time.

• Oil companies are always searching for new oil fields and there are
still lots more deep sea areas to explore
 World oil reserve by Region

Source: Wikipedia
World Proven Oil Reserves
Major World Oil Producer
World Oil Consumers by Region
Top World Oil Exporters
Nigeria Oil Production and
Consumption
 Production Sharing Contract
Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) or Production
sharing agreements (PSAs) are a common type of
contract signed between a government and a resource
extraction company (or group of companies) concerning
how much of the resource (usually oil) extracted from the
country each will receive.

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas

Production sharing agreements
In PSAs the country's government awards the execution of
exploration and production activities to an oil company. The
oil company bears the mineral and financial risk of the
initiative and explores, develops and ultimately produces
the field as required. When successful, the company is
permitted to use the money from produced oil to recover
capital and operational expenditures, known as "cost oil".
The remaining money is known as "profit oil", and is split
between the government and the company, typically in
Nigeria at a rate of about 60% for the government and
40% for the company. In some PSAs, changes in
international oil prices or production rate can affect the
company's share of production.

Source: wikipedia.org/