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- What is a crude oil?
- What types of crude oil do you know?
- What is the main difference between “sour crude oil” and
“sweet crude oil”?
- What is a reservoir?
- In what cases is the rock characterized as permeable?
- What are the main two types of reservoir shapes or traps?
- What is a fault?
- What is an anticline?
- Who are wildcatters?
- What science is called seismology?
- What is the synonym for the word-combination
“geophysicists”?
- Name three main types of wells, classified by the industry.
- When is a development well usually drilled?
- What is the main purpose for drilling a development well?
INTRODUCTION
Oil and gas are naturally occurring in hydrocarbons. Two
elements, hydrogen and carbon, make up a hydrocarbon. Hydrogen and
carbon have a strong attraction for each other. Therefore, they form
many compounds. The oil industry processes and refines natural and
crude hydrocarbons recovered from the earth to obtain hydrocarbon
products. Products include natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG,
or hydrogas), gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel, to name only a few.
Crude oil and natural gas occur in tiny openings in buried
layers of rock. Occasionally, as at Oil Creek, nothing prevents the
crude hydrocarbons from oozing to the surface in the form of a seep,
or spring. More often, rock layers trap hydrocarbons thousands of feet
(metres) below the surface. Operating companies and drilling
contractors must therefore drill wells to bring them to the surface.
NATURAL GAS
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