How does oil come from a well? How oil and gas is produced - educational video

Offshore oil production, along with the development of shale and hard-to-recover hydrocarbon reserves, will eventually supplant the development of traditional onshore “black gold” deposits due to the depletion of the latter. At the same time, obtaining raw materials in offshore areas is carried out mainly using expensive and labor-intensive methods, while the most complex technical complexes are involved - oil platforms

Specificity of offshore oil production

The declining reserves of traditional onshore oil fields have forced the industry's leading companies to devote their energies to the development of rich offshore blocks. Pronedra wrote earlier that the impetus for the development of this production segment was given in the seventies, after the OPEC countries imposed an oil embargo.

According to agreed estimates of experts, the estimated geological oil reserves located in the sedimentary layers of the seas and oceans reach 70% of the total world volume and can amount to hundreds of billions of tons. About 60% of this volume falls on shelf areas.

To date, half of the four hundred oil and gas basins of the world cover not only the continents on land, but also extend on the shelf. Now about 350 fields are being developed in different zones of the World Ocean. All of them are located within the shelf areas, and production is carried out, as a rule, at a depth of up to 200 meters.

At the current stage of technology development, oil production in offshore areas is associated with high costs and technical difficulties, as well as with a number of external adverse factors. High seismicity, icebergs, ice fields, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes, permafrost, strong currents and great depths often serve as obstacles to effective work at sea.

The rapid development of offshore oil production is also hampered by the high cost of equipment and field development works. The amount of operating costs increases as the depth of production, rock hardness and thickness increase, as well as the remoteness of the field from the coast and the complexity of the bottom topography between the extraction zone and the coast where the pipelines are laid. Serious costs are also associated with the implementation of measures to prevent oil leaks.

The cost of a drilling platform alone, designed to operate at depths up to 45 meters, is $2 million. Equipment that is designed for a depth of up to 320 meters can cost as much as $30 million. at $113 million

Shipment of produced oil to a tanker

The operation of a mobile drilling platform at a depth of fifteen meters is estimated at $16 thousand per day, 40 meters - $21 thousand, a self-propelled platform when used at depths of 30–180 meters - $1.5–7 million. only in cases where large reserves oil.

It should also be taken into account that the cost of oil production in different regions will be different. The work associated with the discovery of a field in the Persian Gulf is estimated at $4 million, in the seas of Indonesia - $5 million, and in the North Sea prices rise to $11 million. for permission to develop land.

Types and arrangement of oil platforms

When extracting oil from the fields of the World Ocean, operating companies, as a rule, use special offshore platforms. The latter are engineering complexes with the help of which both drilling and direct extraction of hydrocarbon raw materials from under the seabed is carried out. The first offshore oil platform was launched in the US state of Louisiana in 1938. The world's first directly offshore platform called "Oil Rocks" was put into operation in 1949 in the Azerbaijani Caspian.

Main types of platforms:

• stationary;
• freely fixed;
• semi-submersible (exploration, drilling and production);
• jack-up drilling rigs;
• with extended supports;
• floating oil storages.

Floating drilling rig with retractable legs "Arctic"

Different types of platforms can be found both in pure and in combined forms. The choice of one or another type of platform is associated with specific tasks and conditions for the development of deposits. Usage different types platforms in the process of applying the main technologies of offshore production, we will consider below.

Structurally, the oil platform consists of four elements - the hull, the anchor system, the deck and the drilling rig. The hull is a triangular or quadrangular pontoon mounted on six columns. The structure is kept afloat due to the fact that the pontoon is filled with air. The deck accommodates drill pipes, cranes and Helipad. The tower directly lowers the drill to the seabed and raises it as needed.

1 - drilling rig; 2 - helipad; 3 - anchor system; 4 - body; 5 - deck

The complex is held in place by an anchor system, which includes nine winches along the sides of the platform and steel cables. The weight of each anchor reaches 13 tons. Modern platforms are stabilized at a given point not only with the help of anchors and piles, but also with advanced technologies, including positioning systems. The platform can be moored in the same place for several years, regardless of the weather conditions at sea.

The drill, which is controlled by underwater robots, is assembled in sections. The length of one section, consisting of steel pipes, is 28 meters. Drills are produced with a fairly wide range of capabilities. For example, the drill of the EVA-4000 platform can include up to three hundred sections, which makes it possible to go deeper by 9.5 kilometers.

Oil platform drilling rig

The construction of drilling platforms is carried out by delivering to the production area and flooding the base of the structure. Already on the received "foundation" the rest of the components are built on. The first oil platforms were created by welding from profiles and pipes lattice towers in the form of a truncated pyramid, which were firmly nailed to the seabed with piles. Drilling equipment was installed on such structures.

Construction of the Troll oil platform

The need to develop deposits in the northern latitudes, where ice-resistant platforms are required, led engineers to come up with a project to build coffered foundations, which actually were artificial islands. The caisson is filled with ballast, usually sand. With its weight, the foundation is pressed against the bottom of the sea.

Stationary platform "Prirazlomnaya" with a caisson base

The gradual increase in the size of the platforms led to the need to revise their design, so the developers from Kerr-McGee (USA) created a project of a floating object with the shape of a navigation milestone. The design is a cylinder, in the lower part of which a ballast is placed. The bottom of the cylinder is attached to the bottom anchors. This decision made it possible to build relatively reliable platforms of truly cyclopean dimensions, designed for work at super-great depths.

Floating semi-submersible drilling rig "Polyarnaya Zvezda"

However, it should be noted that there is no big difference between offshore and onshore drilling rigs directly in the procedures for extracting and shipping oil. For example, the main components of a fixed type offshore platform are identical to those of an onshore oil rig.

Offshore drilling rigs are characterized primarily by autonomy of operation. To achieve this quality, the plants are equipped with powerful electric generators and water desalination plants. Replenishment of stocks of platforms is carried out with the help of service vessels. In addition, maritime transport is also used to move structures to work points, in rescue and firefighting activities. Naturally, the transportation of the received raw materials is carried out using pipelines, tankers or floating storage facilities.

Offshore technology

On the present stage development of the industry at short distances from the place of production to the coast, inclined wells are drilled. At the same time, an advanced development is sometimes used - remote-type control of the processes of drilling a horizontal well, which ensures high control accuracy and allows you to give commands to drilling equipment at a distance of several kilometers.

Depths at the sea boundary of the shelf are usually about two hundred meters, but sometimes reach up to half a kilometer. Depending on the depths and distance from the coast, different technologies are used for drilling and extracting oil. Fortified foundations, a kind of artificial islands, are being built in shallow areas. They serve as the basis for the installation of drilling equipment. In a number of cases, the operator companies encircle the work site with dams, after which water is pumped out of the resulting pit.

If the distance to the coast is hundreds of kilometers, then in this case a decision is made to build an oil platform. Stationary platforms, the simplest in design, can only be used at depths of several tens of meters; shallow water makes it possible to fix the structure with concrete blocks or piles.

Stationary platform LSP-1

At depths of about 80 meters, floating platforms with supports are used. Companies in deeper areas (up to 200 meters), where fixing the platform is problematic, use semi-submersible drilling rigs. The holding of such complexes in place is carried out using a positioning system consisting of underwater propulsion systems and anchors. If we are talking about super-great depths, then in this case drilling ships are involved.

Drilling ship Maersk Valiant

Wells are equipped with both single and cluster methods. AT recent times mobile bases for drilling began to be used. Direct drilling in the sea is carried out using risers - columns of large diameter pipes that sink to the bottom. After completion of drilling, a multi-ton preventer (blowout preventer) and wellhead fittings are installed at the bottom, which makes it possible to avoid oil leakage from a new well. The equipment for monitoring the state of the well is also launched. After the start of production, oil is pumped to the surface through flexible pipelines.

Application different systems offshore production: 1 - inclined wells; 2 - stationary platforms; 3 - floating platforms with supports; 4 - semi-submersible platforms; 5 - drilling ships

The complexity and high technology of offshore development processes are obvious, even without going into technical details. Is it advisable to develop this production segment, given the considerable associated difficulties? The answer is unequivocal - yes. Despite the obstacles in the development of offshore blocks and the high costs in comparison with work on land, nevertheless, oil produced in the waters of the World Ocean is in demand in the conditions of an ongoing excess of demand over supply.

Recall that Russia and Asian countries are planning to actively increase the capacity involved in offshore production. Such a position can be safely considered practical - as the reserves of "black gold" on land are depleted, work at sea will become one of the main ways to obtain oil raw materials. Even taking into account technological problems, the cost and labor intensity of offshore production, the oil extracted in this way has not only become competitive, but has long and firmly occupied its niche in the industry market.

Oil has been known to man since ancient times. People have long paid attention to the black liquid oozing from the ground. There is evidence that as early as 6,500 years ago, people living in what is now Iraq added oil to building and cementing materials when building houses in order to protect their homes from moisture penetration. The ancient Egyptians collected oil from the surface of the water and used it in construction and for lighting. Oil was also used to seal boats and as component mummifying agent.

Not everywhere oil was collected only from the surface. In China, more than 2000 years ago, small wells were drilled using metal-tipped bamboo trunks. Initially, the wells were intended for the extraction of salt water, from which salt was extracted. But when drilling to a greater depth, oil and gas were produced from wells.

Although, as we can see, oil has been known since ancient times, it has found rather limited use. Modern history oil begins in 1853, when the Polish chemist Ignatius Lukasiewicz invented a safe and easy-to-use kerosene lamp. According to some sources, he also discovered a way to extract kerosene from oil on an industrial scale and founded an oil refinery in the vicinity of the Polish city of Ulaszowice in 1856.

Back in 1846, Canadian chemist Abraham Gesner figured out how to get kerosene from coal. But oil made it possible to obtain cheaper kerosene and in much larger quantities. The growing demand for kerosene, used for lighting, created a demand for the source material. This was the beginning of the oil industry.

According to some sources, the world's first oil well was drilled in 1847 near the city of Baku on the Caspian Sea. Shortly thereafter, so many oil wells were drilled in Baku, then part of the Russian Empire, that it began to be called the Black City.

However, the birth of the Russian oil industry considered to be 1864. In the autumn of 1864, in the Kuban region, a transition was made from the manual method of drilling oil wells to a mechanical percussion rod using a steam engine as a drilling machine drive. The transition to this method of drilling oil wells confirmed its high efficiency on February 3, 1866, when the drilling of well 1 at the Kudakinsky field was completed and a fountain of oil gushed out of it. It was the first fountain of oil in Russia and the Caucasus.

According to most sources, August 27, 1859 is considered to be the date of the beginning of industrial world oil production. This is the day when the first oil well in the United States, drilled by "Colonel" Edwin Drake, received an influx of oil with a fixed flow rate. This 21.2-meter-deep well was drilled by Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania, where water wells often show oil.

(copy-paste)

The essence of LGBT is that it is a bookmark by the powerful of this world. When it is necessary to reduce the population or keep it at a level, then LGBT people are in fashion, and all their rights are violated. And when you need to increase the population, then they somehow calm down ... Nobody squeals for their gay rights. It's just that Russia was more chaste than Europe and longer, as evidenced by the shock of the Germans when they raped our girls during the Second World War. Russia is needed both as a territory for mining, and as just a large part of the land with all the consequences. We could never be conquered by force. Now there are other methods. Infowar. And she is very sophisticated. Wow, even list how much evil can be done by inspiring people to lie. From proper nutrition to the overthrow of power and TD, etc.

Reply

Oil is called "black gold" because it is a hydrocarbon, without which the development of modern industrial production. Oil and gas is the basis of the fuel and energy complex, which produces fuel, lubricants, oil components are used in building materials, cosmetics, food products, detergents. These raw materials are sold for currency and bring prosperity to countries and peoples that have huge reserves of it.

How are oil deposits found?

Mining begins with exploration of deposits. Geologists determine the possible occurrence of oil horizons in the subsoil first by outward signs- relief geography, oil slicks coming to the surface, the presence of traces of oil in groundwater. Experts know in which sedimentary basins it is possible to assume the presence of oil reservoirs; professionals are armed with various methods exploration and prospecting studies, including surface study of rock outcrops and geophysical visualization of sections.

The presumable area of ​​occurrence of the deposit is determined by a combination of features. But even if they are all present, this does not mean that detailed exploration will reveal an oil pool with large reserves necessary to start commercial production. It often happens that exploratory drilling does not confirm the commercial value of the deposit. These risks are always present in oil exploration, but without them it is impossible to determine the structures (traps) in which oil accumulates in the amount necessary for development.

In short, two main processes take place inside:
separation of gas from liquid- Ingress of gas into the pump may impair its operation. For this, gas separators are used (or a gas separator-dispersant, or simply a disperser, or a double gas separator, or even a double gas separator-disperser). In addition, for normal operation The pump needs to filter out the sand and solid impurities that are contained in the liquid.
rise of liquid to the surface- the pump consists of many impellers or impellers, which, while rotating, impart acceleration to the liquid.

As I already wrote, electric centrifugal submersible pumps can be used in deep and inclined oil wells(and even in horizontal ones), in heavily watered wells, in wells with iodine-bromide waters, with high salinity of formation waters, for lifting hydrochloric and acid solutions. In addition, electric centrifugal pumps have been developed and are being produced for the simultaneous-separate operation of several horizons in one well. Sometimes electric centrifugal pumps are also used to pump saline formation water into an oil reservoir in order to maintain reservoir pressure.

The assembled ESP looks like this:

After the liquid is raised to the surface, it must be prepared for transfer to the pipeline. The products coming from oil and gas wells are not, respectively, pure oil and gas. Formation water, associated (petroleum) gas, solid particles of mechanical impurities (rocks, hardened cement) come from wells along with oil.
Produced water is a highly mineralized medium with a salt content of up to 300 g/l. The formation water content in oil can reach 80%. Mineral water causes increased corrosive destruction of pipes, tanks; solid particles coming from the flow of oil from the well cause wear on pipelines and equipment. Associated (petroleum) gas is used as raw material and fuel. It is technically and economically expedient to subject oil to special treatment before it is fed into the main oil pipeline in order to desalt it, dehydrate it, degas it, and remove solid particles.

First, oil enters automated group metering units (AGZU). From each well, through an individual pipeline, oil is supplied to the AGZU along with gas and formation water. The AGZU takes into account the exact amount of oil coming from each well, as well as primary separation for the partial separation of formation water, oil gas and mechanical impurities with the direction of the separated gas through the gas pipeline to the GPP (gas processing plant).

All data on production - daily flow rate, pressure, etc. are recorded by operators in the cult house. Then these data are analyzed and taken into account when choosing a production mode.
By the way, readers, does anyone know why the cult house is called that?

Further, the oil partially separated from water and impurities is sent to the complex oil treatment unit (UKPN) for final purification and delivery to the main pipeline. However, in our case, the oil first passes to the booster pumping station(DNS).

As a rule, BPS are used in remote fields. The need to use booster pumping stations is due to the fact that often in such fields the energy of the oil and gas reservoir is not enough to transport the oil and gas mixture to the UKPN.
Booster pumping stations also perform the functions of separating oil from gas, cleaning gas from dropping liquid and subsequent separate transportation of hydrocarbons. In this case, oil is pumped by a centrifugal pump, and gas is pumped under separation pressure. DNS differ in types depending on the ability to pass through various liquids. A full-cycle booster pumping station consists of a buffer tank, an oil leakage collection and pumping unit, a pumping unit itself, and a group of candles for emergency gas discharge.

In the oil fields, after passing through group metering units, oil is taken into buffer tanks and, after separation, enters the buffer tank in order to ensure a uniform flow of oil to the transfer pump.

UKPN is a small plant where oil undergoes final preparation:

• Degassing(final separation of gas from oil)
• Dehydration(destruction of the water-oil emulsion formed during the lifting of products from the well and its transport to the UKPN)
• Desalting(removal of salts by adding fresh water and re-dehydrating)
• stabilization(removal of light fractions in order to reduce oil losses during its further transportation)

For more effective preparation, chemical, thermochemical methods, as well as electrical dehydration and desalination are often used.
Prepared (commercial) oil is sent to the commodity park, which includes tanks of various capacities: from 1,000 m³ to 50,000 m³. Further, the oil is fed through the main pumping station to the main oil pipeline and sent for processing. But we'll talk about that in the next post :)

In previous releases:
How to drill your well? The Basics of Oil and Gas Drilling in One Post -

Oil is the black gold of the nation. It is thanks to oil that mankind has fuel for the operation of machines, aircraft and ships. Not only gasoline is produced from oil, but also diesel fuel, kerosene, gas mixtures (butane and propane). Oil is also used in the production building materials and various tires. Petroleum is also used to make lubricants and oils. " black gold» used in the manufacture of detergents. This is far from full list oil, it is truly a very popular raw material today. In order to get all these necessary and necessary substances, you need to know where and how oil is produced.

Finding oil

Before obtaining oil, a complex and lengthy process takes place at the location of deposits of this liquid. Companies that are engaged in oil production use special equipment, use the services of geologists. But no matter how many calculations are made with the help of the most accurate technology and great minds, it is simply impossible to know for sure where the oil is located. In order to find oil, soil studies are carried out, which are not always crowned with success. Before they find oil, they make a lot of "empty" wells. To find a commercially suitable well, you can drill up to 200 wells located right next to the black matter deposits. Such a lottery is not always justified. The services of workers and all drilling equipment cost a lot, you can lose a lot of money before you find a "gold mine". The main thing to discover is the place where the so-called "traps" are concentrated. These are places where oil (gas) accumulates due to a certain structure of the bowels of the earth. It can be said that this is a kind of recess under the ground, where oil flows. If such a place is discovered, the extraction of the desired substances is being established there.

Oil extraction methods

• The method is mechanized. When a source is discovered, special systems are required to extract oil from the bowels of the earth. A well is drilled with a drill. Before installing the equipment, they measure the distance directly to the very deposits of oil. Then, pipes are laid to the depth, where the deposits are concentrated, through which the oil should rise to the top. A pump is placed in this system of pipes. It is connected to a transformer, which supplies energy for work. This transformer is located on the surface of the earth. A long cable is drawn from it, which is connected to the pump. The entire process must be carefully monitored. Therefore, near the entire power supply system to the pump, there are always people who control the process. The system, which is placed in the well through pipes, consists of the pump itself, special pipes and an engine. This pump is used to lift oil from the well. This is how oil is pumped with the help of technology.
• The second way is fountain. This method is applied without any special additional mechanisms. Oil moves to the surface with the help of reservoir natural energy under the influence of some equipment, and in some cases without it at all. The fact is that oil lies under enormous pressure of earthen rocks. And if you break her way, she will certainly begin to beat with a fountain. The pressure of oil is so great that it can form a fountain even at the slightest touch of the drill on the upper layer covering it. A well is drilled, special reinforcement is installed at the base of the surface. Thanks to this technique, the oil fountain can be regulated (increased, reduced, stopped). And a special column is lowered into the well itself at a distance from the location of the deposits. It consists of pipes and pumps. Oil under its pressure makes its way out, where it is collected in containers. When the oil pressure drops (this depends on the decrease in its amount in the ground), the reinforcement is removed. In its place, mechanisms are installed that will continue to collect "black gold".