Oil: A Beginner’s Guide (Oneworld Beginner’s Guides)

217 Pages·2008·2.83 MB·English

by  Vaclav Smil

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Oil
A Beginner’s Guide
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Oil
A Beginner’s Guide
Vaclav Smil
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A Oneworld Book
Published by Oneworld Publications 2008
Copyright © Vaclav Smil 2008
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-85168-571-4
Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India
Cover design by Two Associates
Printed and bound by XXX
Oneworld Publications
185 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7AR
England
www.oneworld-publications.com
NL08
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Contents
Figures vi
Preface ix
World of oil xi
1 Oil’s benefits and burdens 1
2 What oil is and how it was formed 49
3 How oil is found and where it 82
has been discovered
4 How oil is produced, transported 121
and processed
5 How long will oil last? 159
Appendix A Units, abbreviations and 189
their definitions and conversions
Appendix B Additional reading and 190
websites
Index 192
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Figures
Figure 1 Creators of the automobile age (clockwise):
Nicolaus Otto, Karl Benz, Gottlieb
Daimler and Rudolf Diesel
Figure 2 Worldwide car ownership, 1900–2005
Figure 3 Exponential increase in total passenger-
kilometers flown annually by scheduled
airlines, 1920–2005
Figure 4 Crude oil prices, 1859–2007
Figure 5 Year-to-year changes of oil prices, shown
here for twenty-five years between
1981–2007, reveal virtually random shifts
that are impossible to forecast
Figure 6 Oil-rich Middle Eastern under-performers
Figure 7 Structures of the most common liquid
alkanes, cycloalkanes and arenes
Figure 8 Geological timescale
Figure 9 The intricate carbonate armor of a
coccolithophorid (Emiliania huxleyi ) and a
foraminiferan protist (Ammonia parkinsoniana)
Figure 10 Four common kinds of oil traps
Figure 11 East-west cross-section of strata at al-GhawaAr,
the world’s largest oilfield, and the field’s extent
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Figures vii
Figure 12 Simplified diagram of a marine seismic survey
Figure 13 Qing dynasty drawing of the ancient Chinese
technique of percussion drilling using a
bamboo derrick
Figure 14 Modern rotary drilling rig (courtesy of BP)
Figure 15 Drawing of the first conical drilling bit in
Howard Hughes’s 1908 patent application (left),
and the first three-cone bit devised in 1933 by
Floyd L. Scott and Lewis E. Garfield of the
Hughes Tool Company
Figure 16 Directional and horizontal drilling
Figure 17 A forest of wooden oil derricks in Baku
in 1886
Figure 18 Map of the world with the size of countries
and continents proportional to their share
of oil reserves in 2005
Figure 19 Crude oil’s global R/P ratio, 1945–2007
Figure 20 A ‘Christmas tree’ well-head assembly
(courtesy of BP)
Figure 21 Ursa oil production platform in the
Gulf of Mexico
Figure 22 Global oil production, 1859–2007
Figure 23 Iwatesan, a 300,000 dwt double-hulled
VLCC built by Mitsui Engineering &
Shipbuilding in 2003
Figure 24 Flow of products in a modern refinery
(simplified)
Figure 25 Global shares of primary energies, 1900–2006
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viii Figures
Figure 26 Hubbert’s forecast of US peak oil production
and the subsequent extraction decline – and
the actual 1970–2006 course
Figure 27 Possible oil production curves during the
twenty-first century
Figure 28 Recovering oil from sands: CSS and SAGD
techniques
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Preface
Like the other books in this series (including my previous book
on energy), this is not a guide for the beginner in the strictest
sense. In this particular case a certain amount of basic scientific
understanding (above all reasonable numeracy) is essential. The
minimum entry-level for this book could be specified as an equiv-
alent of the North American high school education; a year or two
of university studies (no matter in what subject) would make for
an easier read – but, as always, it is not formal qualifications but
individual interest, inquisitiveness and willingness to learn that
matter most. From that point of view readers who could profit
from this book range from true beginners to people who know a
great deal about a specific segment of the vast oil-centered enter-
prise but who would like to learn more about other aspects of this
inherently interdisciplinary subject of scientific inquiry.
The book teems with numbers (I am sure too many for some
tastes) but I make no apologies for this: real understanding of
oil’s origins, geology, exploration, extraction, transportation,
processing, use and linkages to society and the environment can
come only by appreciating the magnitudes of specific time spans,
depths, volumes, durations, rates, cumulative totals, concentra-
tions, prices, subsidies and costs that define and govern this vast
global endeavor. As for the multitude of technical terms, I have
tried to explain them (however briefly) whenever they are first
used. All units and their abbreviations are listed in appendix A,
and appendix B offers a dozen books for additional reading and
a small selection of highly informative websites.