Transcript File - Vagabond Geology

VAGABOND VENTURE OIL COMPANY
SEARCHES FOR FOSSIL FUELS
Winter Term 2012
Session 1
What are we after,
The
course
outline
how do we find them,
Butand
first,
Geology
in the
News
how
do we make
a profit?
Geology in the News
Chesapeake Energy Corp., one of the oil and gas producers most
responsible for the current glut of natural gas supply, said it will
reduce drilling activity this year as natural gas prices have reached a
10-year low. Cutting 46 drilling rigs to 23.
The current glut of natural gas partly stems from the U.S.
energy industry's success with new exploration techniques,
notably hydraulic fracturing of shale formations, or fracking.
The boom in new production, plus lackluster demand amid a
mild winter, helped drive natural gas prices Friday to $2.343 a
million British thermal unit, down 26% month over month and
down from nearly $14 in July 2008 as supply has far
outstripped demand
The course outline
Geology in the News
Geology in the News
The Course Outline
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Geology of Coal, Oil and Gas (Don)
History and processes of exploration (Sandi)
Engineering of exploration/production (Rocky)
‘Vagabond Venture Oil Company’ finds
4 prospects (together)
Week 5: ‘Vagabond Venture Oil Company’ drills 2 (together)
Week 6: ‘Vagabond Venture Oil Company’ finds &
produces two fields: one oil & one gas (together)
Vagabond Venture Oil Company offers
you a virtual investment opportunity
Several Ways of Investing in Oil & Gas Projects
1. Invest $’s in the Stock of a Major Oil Company
10 year return on investment = $3-5%
2. Invest
$’s in the stock of
a Small
Oil Companywill
What
Vagabonds
Oil
Company
10 year return on investment - $0 to 500%+
be offering you
3. Invest $’s in the drilling of a single well:
10 year return on investment - $0 to 100%X+
4. Invest $’s in the drilling of two or more wells:
10 year return on investment - $0 to 1,000%X+
Investing $’s as a Partner* in Vagabonds Oil & Gas
1. Invest a $ amount in an E & P project for a small % of profits
or
2. Pay a % of the cost of an E & P project for a larger % of profits
Invest in:
1. drilling a single well,
dry $ or completed $$
or
2. Two of more wells depending on
the results of initial drilling
Your investment return =
your % of actual project cost
applied to profits
What you can study in order to make
your investment decision
Partner*: you participate in decisions on major deviations from approved $ expenditures
What you can study in order to make
your investment decision
Proposed Location
Geological report and map
Land-lease report and map
Geophysical report and
cross sections
Drilling recommendations &
detailed cost flow chart
Introduction:
What Natural Resources Burn?
What are Natural Resources that Burn?
Vegetation: Grass, twigs, wood chunks
Compressed Vegetation: Peat, lignite, coal
Compressed animal remains: Oil and gas
How are these resources related?
Humans have sought for and fought
over these resources from the
beginning of historic time
Natural Resources that Burn
How are these resources related?
They all have an organic origin:
Peat from
briefly
either
plants
or from “animals”
For example: plants
Today‘s burnable Vegetation: grass, twigs, wood
chunks
Yesterday’s Vegetation: peat in inland glacial bogs
Long Ago’s Vegetation: lignite in tropical coastal
swamps
Very Long Ago’s Vegetation: coal from buried lignite
Peat hand dug from a glacial
bog in Scotland
Commercial peat operation, Ireland
Peat fired electrical generation, Finland
Peat bogs are found today scattered where
the recent continental glacier covered
much of the Northern Hemisphere
Most Recent Continental Glaciation
Last continental glacier:
North America: areas of peat bogs
Leaving peat; next lignite (low grade coal)
First, let’s look at lignite in Texas
Last continental glacier:
Eurasia: area of peat bogs
Human land
path
Lignite at or near the surface in Texas
Texas lignite: ancient, Gulf of Mexico coastal swamps
Lignite mining in Texas
Open Pit Lignite Mining, Texas
Huge drag-line crane removing rock covering the lignite layer
Dump trucks move lignite to nearby
furnaces to be burned to make electricity
How do we get layers of lignite in layers of
Continuous belt conveyer digs up
sandstone, shale,
and
lignite
layer limestones?
and loads lignite into
huge dump trucks
Cross Section Cartoon of Occurrence
of two layers of Lignite
Land surface
Lignite layer
How did all this happen?
Lignite layer
Let’s look at the present-day Texas coast
as a possible modern model
Bays, swamps, & marshes (organic rich mud) = future lignite
Accumulation of sediments in the Gulf of Mexico
An area world famous for Oil and Gas Fields
How do we get several layers of lignite of different ages
Today’s Bays, swamps, & marshes = future lignite
Long time ago location of bay muds & offshore sands & clays
Younger location of bay muds & offshore sands & clays
Today’s location of bay muds & offshore sands & clays
But before considering oil and gas,
let’s look briefly at COAL
Natural Resources that Burn
How are these resources related?
They all have an organic origin:
Coal from
briefly
either
plants
or from “animals”
For example: plants
Today‘s burnable Vegetation: grass, twigs, wood
Yesterday’s Vegetation: peat in inland glacial bogs
Long Ago’s Vegetation: lignite in tropical coastal
swamps
Very Long Ago’s Vegetation: coal from buried lignite
Coal Resources: USA
Lignite
Soft Coal
Hard Coal
Why so much soft coal in the central USA?
Coal Resources: Central & Eastern USA
Let’s look at the geology of North America
at the time when soft coal was being formed
Land: ancient North America
290 million years ago
Vast area ofToday’s
tropicalsoft
swamps
coal areas
& marshes
A quick look at geologic time
570,000,000 years
Geologic Time: Last 570 Million Years
Time of lignite formation
in Texas
Time of coal formation &
building of the
Appalachians Mountains
Where does oil & gas fit with these
natural resources derived from plants?
Natural Resources that Burn
How are these resources related?
Where might large volumes of plant
Generally
and animal
remainsspeaking;
be buried quickly?
Oil look
& gas
are made
minute, marine
Let’s
again
at thefrom
paleo-geologic
map
animal
remains:
of North America 290 million years ago
Coal is made from tropical swamp plant remains.
How are coals related to oil & gas?
In both coal and oil & gas: remains
must be prevented from decaying:
usually by PROMPT BURIAL by younger
sediments!!
Land: ancient North America
290 million years ago
Area of thick sediment accumulation
along rising mountains
In the Appalachian Trough both
Does this paleo-geologic
map
account
plant and marine
animals
were
quickly
buried
rise to the
for the oil and gas
fields
ofgiving
eastern
USA?
coal, oil, and gas fields of PA & WV
Focus on eastern USA
Central
Texas
Gray=dry holes!
The Gulf of Mexico geosyncline
Focusing now on a recent
geological model for oil & gas:
1. generation
2. migration and
3. entrapment
Geology and Oil & Gas Fields: GOM
Gulf of Mexico geosyncline
Focus on this area
What is a Geosyncline?
Answer: A thick (1000’s of feet)
accumulation of rock debris in the
ocean at the continental margin
Debris brought to the ocean by rivers
and spread along the coast by
ocean currents
Geosyncline Example:
Ocean
river debris
geosyncline
A modern example of a geosyncline:
The Gulf of Mexico
Example of a Geosyncline:
Gulf of Mexico
1. Integration of the debris of several rivers
Affect on the North American Continent by
the creation of the GOM geosyncline
Example of a Geosyncline:
Gulf of Mexico
Affect on the North American Continent by
the creation of the GOM geosyncline
Gulf of Mexico Geosyncline
2. Accumulation of thick layers of debris
Subsurface Cross Sections
Gulf of Mexico Geosyncline
Gulf of
Mexico
Sandstone
Reservoir
Rocks
Gulf of Mexico
Geosyncline
65,000 feet thick
rising
Sinking
Mature
Source
Rocks
Shale:
potential
oil & gas
source
Rocks
What is a source rock?
2. Accumulation of thick layers of debris
What are source & reservoir rocks?
What is an oil & gas source rock?
Any rock, usually a shale, that yields
oil & gas naturally when squeezed
and heated (buried) .
Let’s look for source & reservoir rocks in
a typical well in the Gulf of Mexico
What is a reservoir rock?
Any rock, usually a sandstone or limestone,
that will yield oil & gas (or water) when
penetrated by drilling
Geology and Oil & Gas Fields: GOM
Gulf of Mexico geosyncline
Geology and Oil & Gas Fields: GOM
Gulf of Mexico geosyncline
Let’s look for source and reservoir rocks in a typical
well drilled in the Gulf of Mexico geosyncline
Typical layers of shale (gray) & sandstone (yellow)
in a geosyncline: e.g. Gulf of Mexico
Well drill hole
Let’s look at this
portion of the well log
Reading a Wire Line Electrical Log
Depth track: depth below
derrick floor
Sandstone
(reservoir)
Shale
non-reservoir
Water
Oil &/or Gas
Reservoir Rocks
Potential Source
Rocks
Can you read this electrical log?
Reading the electric log of the well
How does oil & gas get from
the source rock into the reservoir rock?
Oil & Gas escapes
at the surface
Unless there is a trap (fence)
in the reservoir rock layer
Reservoir rock
Top of mature (generating) source rock
Typical oil and gas traps
A simple fault trap
Rock Layers can be Broken (faulted)
Fault
Where’s the Oil trapped?
The Course Outline
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Geology of Coal, Oil and Gas (Don)
History and processes of exploration (Sandi)
Engineering of exploration/production (Rocky)
‘Vagabond Venture Oil Company’ finds
4 prospects (together)
Week 5: ‘Vagabond Venture Oil Company’ drills 2 (together)
Week 6: ‘Vagabond Venture Oil Company’ finds &
produces two fields: one oil & one gas (together)