PETROWIKI

In my short experience in this Petroleum field, I realized that sometimes it is not easy get information about it from the Internet, and as reasonable, the good information is in books, specific libraries, publications, and probably the best, in the companies (as confidential).

I discovered recently PETROWIKI, a tool developed from the seven volume Petroleum Engineering Handbook (PEH) published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). PetroWiki preserves the PEH content in unaltered form (page names that start with PEH:), while allowing SPE's membership to update and expand content from the published version. Pages that do not have PEH: at the beginning may have started with content from the PEH, but have been modified over time by contributors to the wiki.


As its name says it is working in a similar way as wikipedia, however it has very specific information, mainly in engineering terms, but with good geologic remarks applied to the industry. For instance, you can search about LWD, reservoir geology, or underbalanced drilling.

I have decided to include a link in the blog of PetroWiki, I think it is very useful, even for people who is already into the Oil and Gas industry.

The Game of the oil and gas (basic concepts)

In the video below we can watch a good didactic introduction and descriptions of oil and gas properties in the nature, such density, somehow the two main kind of rocks implicate in the processes and the differences between porosity and permeability.
Besides the video presents the more typical subsurface traps, however it is the basic explanation of the multiple possibilities that can occur.

Finally the video finishes with a very clever and motivating game, to apply at the school or university, finding the way to get success researching for an oil well.

THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS: SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

 It is clear that the source (mother) rock and reservoirs or traps are formed by sedimentary rocks. The first due to the moment of the deposition and burying (the organisms are buried between sediments, commonly shale), the second due to the space which is in between the solid particles of the rock (porosity) that allow to migrate the oil to the top of this rocks.

Sandstone: EEUU

 Limestone: Antequera, Spain

 The natural sedimentation is made in horizontal way (just responding to gravitational law), in these two pictures is seen how after the sediments are converted in rocks, they have not suffered any tectonical movement, and keep its horizontal dip. However it is very usual that the rocks lose its horizontal structure as a result of tectonical strengths.

What is it?

It could be explained pages about, but to do it it is already Wikipedia, so basically:
It is a fossil fuel formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock (which were sediments at first) and undergo intense heat and pressure.

When tiny organisms die, they sink to the bottom of the sea and are mixed with mud and silt. Over time, hundreds of feet of mud containing the organisms accumulate. Bacteria removes most of the oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, leaving mainly hydrogen and carbon. Lack of oxygen keeps the animals and plants from decaying completely. The partially decomposed organisms create a slimy mass, which is then covered with layers of sediments. Over millions of years, many layers of sediment pile on top of the once-living organisms. The weight of the sediment compresses the mud into a fraction of its original thickness. When the depth of burial reaches about 10,000 feet, heat, time and pressure turn the organisms into different types of petroleum.

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