The Exploration And Production Arrangement For Hydrocarbons Essay

April 20, 2010 was the beginning of the end for British Petroleum. BP was started in 1901 by William Knox D’Arcy. Their mission is to operate oil and natural gas exploration, while marketing and distributing all over the globe. The primary issues the company faces are rebuilding their business after the tragic oil spill, their low oil prices and internal leadership promotions. Following the 2010 oil spill, all of BP’s top executives were fired, and the company has continued to promote internally, as recent as February of 2016. The company has been trying to rebrand itself and fix its disastrous public image that resulted from the poorly handled oil spill. Due to these internal promotions, no new ideas have been introduced into the company and their efforts in recreating themselves have since stalled, leading to unmotivated employees and decreased profits. Although British Petroleum has solid production sites in Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and various areas of the U.S, the brand’s name remains so tainted from past violations. The declining price of oil, along with that environmental factors that affect the company, both nationally and globally, have exacerbated this stall and caused the company a major issue in recovering their public image, reputation, brand name, stock prices, and overall prosperity. These factors have certainly not been beneficial to the company in recovering from the sixty-one billion dollars BP has had to pay as result of

This report presents information regarding the industry, the primary operator of oil and gas field properties. The industry fuels its key buyers, the Natural Gas Distribution (22121) and the Petroleum Refining (32411) industries, with crude oil and natural gas. The industry continuously battles a shortage of available oil. In addition, many major oil fields have been in use for decades, slowly waning. Currently, the industry grosses among the most profitable in the US despite these and similar obstacles. The benefits of investing here

September 5, 1927 marked a turning point in the history of oil exploration. Before then, to assess the composition of subsurface rocks to find oil pay-zones, scientists had to rely on core samples brought up from boreholes. These were highly unreliable and drilling companies frequently missed oil zones. Conrad Schlumberger had the idea of running an electrical probe into the drilled borehole to measure resistivity through the formation. This first log taken in the Alsace region of France was a simple hand-plotted graph, but it effectively aided engineers to “view” what was inside the

| Legal impacts on oil and natural energy extraction and production are determined at a local level and thus the main issues which arise typically relate to cross-border transactions and the legal issues of transportation (SMI, 2010). International legal issues in the industry are constrained to safety considerations such as decommissioning given the highly hazardous nature of the raw materials and production process. This in part explains the high infrastructure investment costs as Petrobras must ensure the safety of any new exploration and extraction venture.

There is some evidence that oil exists under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This has led to a huge debate as to whether or not companies should be allowed to drill for this oil. A law was passed by congress in 1980 that states “production of oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is prohibited and no leasing or other development leading to production of oil and gas from the [Refuge] shall be undertaken until authorized by an act of Congress.” If these oil companies do succeed in abolishing this law, then a land that has stood virtually untouched would be destroyed for what the United States Geological Survey has estimated is only 6 months worth of oil.

In 1973, the United States government restricted the export of domestically produced crude oil. At the time, this was largely regarded as a sound decision. Not only was domestic production in a decline, but the global political climate was fundamentally inhospitable. However, in recent years, the oil and gas industry has exploded into a huge upswing, due in no small part to the evolving technologies surrounding hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Between 2009 and 2013, crude oil production in the United States increased by roughly 2.1 million barrels per day and, according to ICF estimates, is projected to increase another 3.2 million barrels per day through 2020 (ICF International 2014). This has led to a high profile discussion regarding the removal of the export ban which peaked in October of this year when President Barack Obama stood firm against repealing the ban, even threatening to veto the bill completely, despite the House of Representatives voting to pass it. With domestic oil and gas production at an all-time high, continuing with the ban makes little economic sense, and this report will further explain the belief behind why the ban should be repealed and why it would make a positive impact on independent exploration and production companies.

Located in Southern Iraq, 20 miles from the Kuwaiti border, is the Rumaila oil field (Fig. 1). It is one the biggest oil fields in the world and the biggest in Iraq. Discovered in 1953 by the Basrah Petroleum Company (BPC) at 2.4 km below the surface, an associate company of the Iraq Petroleum Company, this super-giant oil field’s first estimated volume was thought to be 30 billion barrels in oil reserves (Bb) (Vassiliou 2009); it is now estimated to be 17 Bb (Hydrocarbons Technology n.d.). Since 1961, it has been under control of the Iraqi Government and has been heavily developed (Shwadran 1977). The field makes up around 40% of Iraq’s oil production with around 200 land wells operating. On November 3rd, 2009, British Petroleum (BP) along with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) bid on the field and signed a joint contract acquiring a share of acreage and production with Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Company (SOL), the company that had run the oil field since its inception with the state. In the contract BP received 38% of production share, its partner CNPC gaining 37%, and 25% for the Iraqi government’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) (BP 2014). BP and CNPC aimed to increase production from 1.1 million barrels a day to 2.85 by 2016. By October 2012, the field was producing around 1.33 million barrels of oil per day (UK Trade and Investment 2014).

Around the world there is major controversy on the continuing support of the oil industry and fossil fuels. The production and consumption of oil affects the American citizen’s everyday life in some form or another. Many Americans have a strong view regarding the consumption and production of fossil fuels. Recently, especially on social media this particular controversial issue has been brought to the forefront due to the protests in regards to the Dakota Access Pipeline. In past major headlining news, in 2010 the Deepwater Horizon furthered the discussion of using nonrenewable resources. The youth of America is taught throughout their education how special the earth is, and the crucial role one plays in preserving the land and wildlife for the generations to come. As a society who lies heavily on the production of oil, the country needs to weigh the pros and cons of continuing their involvement in this industry, as well as considering the amount of influential pull the United States has with other powerful nations.

In the industry of producing oil for the world’s energy sources, safety should always remain the top priority in the creation of oil rigs and producing oil. There are multiple steps in building these massive devices and each of the steps have to be handled with the greatest of care. These steps are assembling and maintenance. Assembling is the part where the workers put together the structure of the rig and ensure that it is set up correctly. “Maintenance is where the drilling equipment failure is monitored and operational so that they do not fail when producing oil” [1]. Well control is where employees monitor the drilling fluid pressure and blowout preventions. It can be difficult for workers to complete their tasks if a hazard or danger occurs.

There have been many successful companies that are currently in the oil business and the reason why they have been successful is because of the risks that the company makes to make more money in their industry. This risk in the petroleum world could range from a new piece of equipment, purchased land or expand their production. Pioneer Petroleum is a company that is growing and they are making a conscience decision to determine the rate of return.

There are several ethical issues that can arise from the environmental degradation that occurs as a result of oil drilling and exploration. Certain mechanism need to be devised by the decision makers and businessmen to mutually work for economic benefits without compromising on the environmental conservation and protection.

There is need for exploring new frontiers and production of hydrocarbon from the Niger Delta basin for use in the energy sector. Sequel to this, it is pertinent to have adequate knowledge about the geology the basin to discover and exploit new conventional sources. The geology of the Niger Delta basin is summarized into three depositional belts; Akata, Agbada and the Benin formation. The source rock for oil in the basin is from the Akata formation whilst Agbada formation is the main reservoir. Numerous oil fields have been drilled and developed, including Bonga field located in the deep waters of the basin, 120km offshore Gulf of Guinea. The basin also is proven to be one the richest in the world since oil was first discovered sixty years ago.

In 1858 in Titusville, Pennsylvania the first oil well was drilled (Congressional Digest 2010). The thirty-eight years following that first onshore oil well would be dedicated to searching for oil resources and by 1896 those who searched accomplished what they set out to do (Congressional Digest 2010). They drilled in an offshore well just off of Summerland, California (Congressional Digest 2010). Oil had become an invaluable source of energy in America in 1910 and the people of America had begun to invent better ways of getting oil (Congressional Digest 2010). The business expanded into the Gulf of Mexico in 1938 (Congressional Digest 2010). In the 1940s, after the war, demand for oil rose and regulations on the prices of oil became nonexistent (Congressional Digest 2010). The petroleum industry continued to spread through open waters. By the 1950s “oil became the second-largest revenue generator for the country” (Congressional Digest 2010). Advancements in technology resumed to progress and grow throughout the years allowing for easier “exploration and production of petroleum in deeper water” (Congressional Digest 2010). In 1969 crude oil was poured out into the Dos Cuadras Field due to a rupture on Union Oil’s Platform A (Congressional Digest 2010). This oil spill caused Congress to not only pass several laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act but also begin studying oil spills. This was not the first

With the continued depletion of conventional oil and gas resources, the oil industry is now more than ever faced with exploration of unconventional and challenging oil and gas reserves. Such reserves call for novel drilling techniques and also require drilling fluids that can fulfil such drilling requirements. In most cases it’s OBM that can provide hole stability and it is also the best choice for drilling highly sensitive wells. But as these OBMs are being used, operators must strike a balance between their desired high performance standards and environmental concerns of their regulators and local communities. These stringent environmental concerns have led to research and development of many water based drilling muds but these muds still don’t offer the desired drilling performances like OBMs. We shall now look at the advantages and disadvantages of both OBMs and WBMs

Furthermore the Nigerian government has very little share in these activities and it is more strenuous for the government to regulate offshore activities of the companies. Companies abroad are highly supportive of these advancements in the exploration and alternative ways of exploring resources because it eases the tension less than operating on Nigerian soil. Moreover,deepwater extraction refineries are less disturbed by the local militia attacks and seizures due to civil conflicts.