1 / 25

Oil, Gas, and all that stuff

Oil, Gas, and all that stuff. Morgan P. Brown, Ph.D. Amerada Hess Corporation Houston, TX. About the speaker…. Born 1974, Salt Lake City, Utah Places lived: California(4), Louisiana, Texas(4), Colorado Graduated from 24 th grade in 2004 Married, two kids (3 rd ,4 th grade)

desiree-hahn
Download Presentation

Oil, Gas, and all that stuff

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Oil, Gas, and all that stuff Morgan P. Brown, Ph.D. Amerada Hess Corporation Houston, TX

  2. About the speaker… • Born 1974, Salt Lake City, Utah • Places lived: California(4), Louisiana, Texas(4), Colorado • Graduated from 24th grade in 2004 • Married, two kids (3rd,4th grade) • Geophysicist for Amerada Hess

  3. What’s a Geophysicist do? • Study volcanoes • Study earthquakes • Explore for oil and gas using reflection seismology?!?

  4. Reflection Seismology • Seismos = Greek for “earthquake” • Logo = Greek for “word” • Seismology = The word of earthquakes?! • Seismology = The study of how waves travel within the earth • But what exactly is a “wave”?

  5. Reflection Seismology Quiz #1: If you squeeze a rock equally from all sides, then let go, what happens? • Nothing • Rock squishes, but returns to normal size • Rock squishes, then oscillates between small and big

  6. Reflection Seismology • This oscillation produces a (compressional) P-wave! • Why does the oscillation die out? • What if you set off an explosion underwater? • Waves move circularly away from source • Also have (shear) S-waves

  7. Reflection Seismology • What about the reflections? • When properties of rocks change, waves are reflected • Record the reflections with microphones • Look for oil & gas traps on the seismic image

  8. What is oil? • Sometimes it’s really light, with a lot of dissolved natural gas • Sometimes it’s gooey, like asphalt • Usually it is somewhere in between: a black, stinky liquid Spindletop gusher, 1901

  9. How much oil do we use? • The world consumes 82 million barrels of oil per year. • That’s 3.4 billion barrels per year! • At that rate, you could fill Crater Lake Oregon in 4 years! 6 miles across 1148 feet deep

  10. How much oil do we use? • Or, you’d fill the 610 loop to a depth of 400 feet! 10 miles 400 feet

  11. What is natural gas? • Methane: CH4 • The lightest component of oil • The world consumes 100 trillion cubic feet per year! • Imagine a balloon 20 miles in diameter!

  12. How we get oil & gas Quiz #2: Where do oil & natural gas occur in nature? • Between the grains in rocks • In large underground pools • Close to hot magma in volcanoes

  13. How we get oil & gas Deepwater Gulf of Mexico salt top seal gas oil water sand Lots of pressure Lots of heat Shale—full of carbon-rich goo Oil rises upward—why? Oil forms in the shale

  14. Getting oil out of the ground Quiz #3: Which is better for oil extraction? = sand = oil doesn’t matter (a) (b) (c)

  15. Unconventional Resources • “Tight gas” – Barnett Shale, TX Shale looks like this. Bad for oil & gas extraction! Make cracks in the rock. Fill cracks with sand! Oil flows out!

  16. Unconventional Resources • “Tight gas” – Barnett Shale, TX shale

  17. Unconventional Resources • Coal Bed Methane • Methane (CH4) adsorbs onto coal But Carbon Dioxide (CO2) adsorbs even better than CH4!

  18. Unconventional Resources • Coal Bed Methane CO2 We can use a greenhouse gas (CO2) to produce electricity! The CO2 is sequestered underground! coal CH4

  19. Unconventional Resources • Coal Bed Methane US Coal Distribution

  20. Unconventional Resources • Methane Hydrates • Solid form of CH4 bonded to water (H2O) • About 20 molecules of CH4 per molecule H2O • Forms under high pressures and low tempteratures • Deep water, near the seabed

  21. Unconventional Resources • Methane Hydrates • Energy density of methane hydrate = 168 m3 free gas/1 m3 hydrate

  22. Unconventional Resources • Methane Hydrates • How much natural gas is present in hydrates? Could supply the world’s energy needs for hundreds of years!

  23. Alternative Energy • Alternatives that don’t require fossil fuels: • Wind power (NIMBY, bird killers) • Nuclear (NIMBY, disposal) • Water power (NIMBY, dams kill fish) • Biofuels (still emit greenhouse gas) • Solar (expensive, how to store?) • Geothermal (limited availability) • Tides (limited availability, like a dam) • Fuel cells (how to get hydrogen?)

  24. An Alternative Energy House solar power windmill fuel cell geothermal heating and cooling

  25. Thanks for your attention! Any questions?

More Related