Oil & Gas Production in Nontechnical Language

Foreword xi Preface xiii List of Figures xvii How Did We Get Here? The History of Production 1(20) Oily Beginnings 1(3) A Case for Casing 4(2) More Fireworks 6(2) Underground Mysteries 8(1) Water, Water, Everywhere 9(2) Breathings of the Earth 11(1) Crisis and Reservoir Engineering 12(4) Horizontal Drilling 16(1) The Great Offshore 17(4) The Container: The Reservoir 21(34) Origin 22(6) Down to Earth 23(2) Pangaea and the shifting plates 25(3) Transformation 28(3) Characterization 31(14) Rock of (various) ages 32(1) Going with the flow 33(1) Lithification 34(3) Spaces 37(2) Connecting the spaces 39(2) Distortion 41(4) Discovery 45(10) Finding the trap 46(2) Enter seismic 48(7) What's in the Container? The Prize 55(14) Determinants 55(2) Pressure 55(1) Temperature 56(1) Time 57(1) The Contents 57(1) Saltwater 57(1) Hydrocarbons: oil and gas 58(1) The Chemistry 58(3) Composition 61(3) Properties 64(1) Impurities 65(1) Fingerprints 66(1) The Origin of Hydrocarbons 66(3) Biogenic 66(1) Abiogenic 67(2) Yours, Mine, or Theirs? Ownership 69(12) Ownership 70(1) Royalties 70(3) Damages 73(1) Non-U.S. Rights 73(1) Bidding Process 74(1) Pooling 75(2) Nonparticipation 75(1) Nonconsent 76(1) Rewards 76(1) Unitization 77(2) Perpetuation and Termination 79(2) Getting There: Drilling 81(32) The Spring Pole 82(1) Cable Tool Drilling 82(2) Cable Tool Operations 84(2) Rotary Drilling 86(1) Rig Components 87(9) The derrick 89(1) The hoisting system 90(1) At the rig floor 91(1) Drill bits 92(4) Drilling Mud 96(5) The purpose of mud 96(2) The circulating system 98(3) Blowout Preventers 101(3) Other Features 104(1) Drilling Offshore 105(3) Platforms for drilling 105(1) At the seafloor 106(1) Compensators 107(1) Fixed platforms 107(1) Top Drives and Automation 108(1) The Course 109(2) Location, Location, Location 111(2) What Have We Found? Logging, Testing, and Completing 113(36) Logging 114(14) Mud logs 114(4) Open-hole logs 118(7) Induction logs 125(1) Saturation 125(1) Coring 126(2) Coring alternatives 128(1) Correlation Logs 128(3) Spontaneous potential 128(2) Gamma ray 130(1) Real Time 131(1) Directional and Horizontal Wells 131(1) Original Hydrocarbons in Place 132(2) Open-Hole Testing 134(5) Drillstem testing 134(4) Wireline drillstem tests 138(1) Completions 139(8) Solid or slotted 139(1) Cementing 140(1) Trees 141(1) Perforating 142(3) Gravel Packing 145(1) Stimulation 146(1) Cased-Hole Logging and Measuring Devices 147(2) Behavior: Hydrocarbon Activity in the Reservoir 149(14) Phases 149(1) Phase Diagrams 150(2) Reservoir Fluid Categories 152(1) Using Phase Diagrams 153(5) Black oil 153(1) Volatile oil 154(1) Retrograde gas 155(1) Wet gas 156(1) Dry gas 157(1) Gas Wells Versus Oil Wells 158(1) Shrinkage 158(1) Solution Gas-Oil Ratio 159(1) Relative Permeability 159(4) Here It Comes: Production 163(24) The Motivating Force 163(3) Drive Mechanisms 166(1) Producing Phases 167(1) Primary Production 168(8) Natural flow 168(1) Artificial lift 168(8) Secondary Recovery 176(1) Pressure Maintenance and Waterflooding 177(4) Injectivity 180(1) Makeup water 180(1) Sweep efficiency 181(1) Tertiary Recovery 181(6) Fire floods 182(1) Steam floods 183(2) Enhanced versus tertiary 185(1) CO2 injection 185(2) Making It Marketable: Field Processing 187(20) Some of the Parts 187(4) Gas Treating 191(3) Acid gas 191(1) Water 192(2) Oil Treating 194(5) Heater treater 196(1) Free-water knockout vessel 196(2) Electrostatic heater treater 198(1) Demulsifying agents 198(1) Water Disposal 199(1) Testing 200(1) Measurement and Metering 201(3) Gas metering 201(1) Oil metering 202(2) Storage 204(3) Fixing Things: Remedial Operations and Workovers 207(16) Decision Making 208(1) Workover Rigs 209(2) Coiled Tubing 211(1) Subsea Completions 212(1) Well Problems 212(4) Mechanical failures 212(1) Water production 213(1) Coning 213(1) Plugging 214(2) Well Stimulation 216(4) Acidizing 216(1) Fracturing 216(4) Changing Production Intervals 220(1) Abandonment 221(2) Who's Involved? The Players 223(12) The Companies 223(2) Size 223(2) Composition 225(1) The People 225(7) Geologists 226(1) Engineers 227(1) Engineering titles 228(1) Geophysicist 229(1) Operations staff 229(3) The Suppliers 232(3) What Should We Do? Strategy 235(8) Identity 236(1) A Strategy Model 237(3) Assessing Competencies 240(2) Strategy Implementation 242(1) Index 243