TIMELINES OF PETROLEUM

• 1815 Oil is produced in the United States as an undesirable byproduct from brine wells in Pennsylvania.
• 1848 The first modern oil well is drilled in Asia, on the Aspheron Peninsula northeast of Baku
• 1849 Canadian Abraham Gesner develops a process to distill kerosine (coal oil) from cannel coal and bituminous shale; he will become known as the “father of the petroleum industry.
• 1853 Kerosine is extracted from petroleum.
• 1854 The first oil wells in Europe are drilled 30 to 50 metres deep at Bobrka, Poland.
• 1854 The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, the first oil company in the United States, is formed.
• 1858 The first oil well in North America is drilled in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada.
• 1859Petroleum became a major industry following the oil discovery at Oil Creek Pennsylvania .
• 1862 Early problems disposing of the gasoline fraction lead to the contamination of kerosine resulting in subsequent fires, and this leads to the development and standardization of flash-point methods.
• 1865 Titusville is slow to react to the building of pipelines. However, a six-inch gravity pipeline (no pumps) is completed this year by the Pennsylvania Tubing and Transportation Company. This line delivers 7,000 barrels of oil per day to its terminus at the mouth of the Pithole Creek and is expedited by a gradient of 52 feet [10 meters per kilometer] per mile. 
• 1898 ASTM International, originally known as the American Section of the International Association for Testing Materials.
• 1904 First plant for extracting natural gasoline (Casinghead gasoline) from natural gas by the compression method built by Andrew Fasenmeyer near Drake Well at Titusville, PA.
• 1908 October 1 - First Model T Ford built First commercial natural gasoline plant built at Sistersville, W.VA.
• 1919 Gasoline replaced kerosene as product leader of the American petroleum industry
• 1919 The American Petroleum Institute is established.
• 1947 The first off-shore oil well is drilled.
• 1960 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is formed by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

Carbon dioxide injection 

Present position on land

Carbon injection for improved recovery has been applied since the early 1970s in many oil fields on land, mainly in Texas, USA, and Canada.

Output from large natural carbon sources is piped to the relevant oil fields for injection. Some industrial sources in the region also contribute carbon deliveries.

Injected carbon injection has an efficient sweeping effect in the reservoir, caused by:

• gas-oil miscibility
• compositional effect (swelling and vaporisation)
• reduced oil viscosity
• high density of carbon dioxide compared with oil
• high viscosity of carbon dioxide compared with hydrocarbon gas.

 

Present position offshore

So far no application based on carbon injection for offshore IOR has been initiated.

Reservoir evaluation and screening studies for offshore carbon injection have been carried out on several Norwegian fields, and Statoil has performed in-depth reservoir studies for Gullfaks, Volve and Sigyn.

Current studies on the Heidrun field relate to a carbon value chain for the Halten-Nordland area of the Norwegian Sea.

A lack of readily available carbon sources and the high costs of carbon capture and transport have so far meant that carbon injection into fields on the Norwegian continental shelf would be uneconomic at low to medium oil prices.

However, this picture may change in future if cheaper carbon dioxide becomes available for injection – through governmental incentives or reduced costs –  and a rise in long-term oil prices.

Challenges

Special challenges are posed for the offshore use of carbon dioxide by materials corrosion, facilities and excessive well spacing.

The use of carbon dioxide in water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection seems to be the most promising option as a tertiary recovery method for fields where the current production strategy is water flooding.

Big uncertainties also exist in estimates, while large variations in predictions for IOR from different fields reflect individual reservoir properties and field conditions.

The simulation of a carbon dioxide WAG process faces similar challenges to a hydrocarbon WAG.

Significant experience acquired by Statoil with hydrocarbon WAG on a large number of its fields, such as Gullfaks, Snorre, Statfjord and Veslefrikk in the North Sea, will provide valuable understanding of the possible application of carbon dioxide WAG.

Statoil has considerable experience of carbon separation from natural gas. It is also a leader for offshore carbon storage in sub-surface aquifers through its projects on Sleipner East in the North Sea and Snøhvit off northern Norway.

Low-salinity water (LSW) flooding 

LSW flooding involves injecting brine with a lower salt content or ionic strength. The latter is typically in the range of 500–3,000 parts per million of total dissolved solids (TDS), and no more than 5,000 ppm (parts per million).

This can be compared with salinities for seawater or formation water, which are about 30,000 ppm or higher.

The introduction of LSW in an equilibrium system of high salinity appears to cause a shift to a new system equilibrium, which tends to favour improved oil recovery (IOR).

Although the mechanisms have not yet been verified, the solution and surface chemistry as well as rock/fluid interactions play important roles.

Reservoir minerals are sensitive to small changes in solution properties, which can have important implications for the IOR processes.

Statoil is evaluating the IOR potential of this method through in-house activities and external cooperation.

The main practical challenge for offshore application is the availability of large volumes of low-saline water and the sustainability of these supplies.

Project progress demands on securing a better grip on the weights and dimensions of the desalination facilities – for instance, by evaluating the impact of using existing platforms versus new ones.