Optimization Of Oil Field Operations And Other Relative Dimensions

[Oil production has jumped from 5.0 million barrels per day in 2008 to 7.4 million last year and is expected to average 8.5 million this year and 9.3 million next year, according to the EIA, the analytical arm of the Department of Energy.” (Koch par. 2)]

‘Peak oil’ refers to the prime of any field’s production, after which goes into terminal decline. Most major US oil fields are beyond peak oil. The largest US oil field, Prudhoe Bay, has been depleting since 1979 (Prudhoe, 2012). The US Energy Information Administration indicates much production, particularly in the Alaskan North Slope, depends on world oil prices (Energy, 2012). Geophysicists and politicians debate over specifications regarding overall US peak oil, arguing the year in which US peak oil occurred.

The featured article “The End of Oil,” the author, Alex Kuhlman argues that oil production is decreasing due to the costs of production are rising because cheap and easily accessible oil is hard to find despite increased consumption.(Kuhlman, 2007). Kuhlman (2007) provides evidence both from oil demand and supply aspects to illustrate the imbalance which causes the end of oil.

It has been argued that Conventional oil production has reached its peak and is now on a terminal, global decline however, it must be noted that oil is not finishing anytime soon but certain forms of it are being experimented in terms of chemicals, geography, geological and economically. Others allege the era of oil is coming to an end. But certainly not

Through the use of advanced technologies, geologists have the capability to predict potential locations for oil. This is done by the examination of the structure of rock layers, which is then followed by a test-drill in the Earth’s surface. Not every location that gets examined contain commercially viable oil reserves as some locations will have no oil or gas, some will have tiny amounts, and others will have the oil present but it will still be trapped within the porous rock layers such as oil shale. The earth’s crust plates are constantly on the move, and the oil reserves migrate with them. The reason a lot of the oil drilling occurs at sea is particulurarly because the majority of the crust of the planet, under which the oil is located,

Depleting reserves, high oil prices and spectacular offshore discoveries concentrated a global attention to deep water (National Geographic, p.3). Joel and Bourne (2010) claim “the Gulf of Mexico now accounts for 30 percent of U.S. production, with half of that coming from deep water (1,000 to 4,999 feet)”. The U.S. government roughly calculated that the deep Gulf might contain 45 billion barrels of oil (NG, p.44). Hence, this fact gave new reasons for oil companies to drill oil wells in that region. The Minerals Management Service (MMS), the national agency that administrated offshore drilling, used to claim that the possibilities of blowout were less than one percent, and that if one did happen, it would not release much oil (National

Unlike Brent, North American crude production is up amid a "shale oil revolution." To capture this fact, we use two variables published by the EIA. The first, CANADA, is the weekly amount of Canadian crude imported into the Petroleum Administration for Defense's Midwestern District ("PADD 2") where Cushing is located. The second, RIGS, is a monthly count of rotary rigs operating onand off-shore in the 50 United States. Both series increase steadily over most of our sample period, accelerating sharply from 2009 (RIGS) or 2011 (CANADA). Both variables should be inversely related to the spread: ceteris paribus, more North American supply should push down WTI's price—especially if the oil faces difficulties reaching international markets.

Canada holds the distinction of having World 's 3rd largest proven Oil reserves. The province of Alberta alone contains 98% of all these reserves, discovered in Canada (1). This is why Alberta holds the key position in Canadian economy as Canada is the fourth largest exporter of the oil and it makes up almost one-quarter of Canada 's exports as well as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Almost 99% of Alberta oil reserves are contained in oil sands and the remaining 1% are present as conventional crude oil. According to an estimation, Oil sands contain up to 168 billion barrels of oil and conventional crude oil makes up to 1.5 billion barrels (1). But, with the passage of time, there has been a shift in the global economy with the

The shale gas revolution calls into question the peak oil hypothesis, which predicts that the price of finite resource will increase dramatically in the future once oil production reaches a peak. The peak oil hypothesis assumes that on the supply side once fifty percent of total world reserves of petrochemicals are extracted production will peak and then go into rapid and permanent decline. Rising oil prices may stimulate drilling in marginal areas but because ninety percent of the worlds reserves have already been discovered this will do little to increase the ultimately recoverable reserves (URR) of oil. This pessimistic prediction for future oil production is combined with a very optimistic prediction for the future of energy consumption. The geologists are also skeptical of the potential of unconventional gas and oil reserves to replace conventional oil. The economic argument for peak oil has its origins in Jevons’ ‘Coal Question’ (1865) and Hotelling’s ‘The

The purpose of this summary is to analyse the factors behind the view of the public and experts on “peak oil”. Peak oil occurs when the growth of crude oil production reaches a maximum and then drops slowly. The production curve was said to be "bell-shaped". These were indicated by Mr King Hubbert.

A lot Scientists and oil field experts have been collecting facts and scientific evidences to try to predict the period at which peak oil will occur. Two of the scientists working toward this discovery are Colin J. Campbell and Jean H laherre. Those two scientists wrote an article about the aftermath s of the 1970 's oil embargo sppured reachees over the decline of oil, which resulted in erroneous conclusions due to various factors (78). In order to truly cast light on the issue of oil decline, Campbell and Laherrère merged a variety of techniques which comprise the examination of “the decline of aging fields” and “the diminishing returns on exploration in larger regions”, the extrapolation of the size

Oil has is the lifeblood of our economy and has a long history as a source of heat and light, and more recently it is the main source of fuel that is used in transportation, and thus it maintains its presence as the lifeblood of our economy. The sheer quantity of oil now being transported by sea has increased in volume by huge factors, and the size of the rigs tankers used to extract and transport the oil has seen steady increases, which gives the possibility of larger environmental disasters due to spillage by accident or due to operations. Due to increasing population and booming economies, and despite the increasing demand of green energy, the world still sees a need for increasing demand in oil supplies. Only very recently has it begun to slow down in some parts of the world that have traditionally been major consumers of oil. The US National Research Council (2003) has released some stats on how much oil consumption has increased since 1970:

The current economics study found that oil business, with its history of blasts and busts, is in another downturn. Income are down for organizations that have made record benefits as of late, driving them to decommission more than a large portion of their apparatuses and strongly cut interests in investigation and creation. More than 100,000 oil specialists have lost their employments, and assembling of penetrating and creation gear has fallen forcefully. The reason is the diving cost of a barrel of oil, which has been sliced generally down the middle subsequent to June 2014, coming to levels last seen amid the profundities of the 2009 retreat. Costs recuperated a bit in the spring however have fallen again as of late. Officials think it will be years before oil comes back to $90 or $100 a barrel,

Oil is an important component in many industries and the majority of global energy needs are generated by oil. Hence, it is unsurprising that the annual global consumption of oil is around 30 billion barrels and it accounts for around one-third of all energy consumed . According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA),Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are the top 2 countries with the most proven crude oil reserves and over 90% of their export revenues come from oil . In addition, since 1980, OPEC’s share of oil revenue in total exports has been consistently over 60%, with the net export revenue at US$730 billion . Hence any disturbance in the oil sector will cause a drastic impact on these economies. This can be illustrated in research where it has provided evidence for a negative relationship between resource abundance and growth. For instance, since the 1970s, Nigeria has been exporting around $10billion worth of oil annually but during same period the proportion of its population living on less than $1 per day has doubled from 36% to 70% (Sala-I-Martin and Subramanian, 2003). Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that there can also be a positive relationship. Countries rich in oil, such as Malaysia and Norway have managed to achieve sustained economic growth.

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. The concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, and the combined production rate of a field of related oil wells. The aggregate production rate from an oil field over time usually grows exponentially until the rate peaks and then declines—sometimes rapidly—until the field is depleted. This concept is derived from the Hubbert curve, and has been shown to be applicable to the sum of a