the kozy king
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7/6/2008 7:31:36 PM
Things you might not know about the crude oil industry. First hand info.
Here are some facts which I have picked up in my travels as a welder.
NOTE: These are true for the crude oil industry (drilling, pumping, processing crude for transport). I know nothing about refineries and the marketing of refined products. They are pertinent to the current oil boom in Southeastern Saskatchewan; I'd don't know about anywhere else.
1) the oil is permeated through rock, not lying there in a pool like an underground lake.
2) the depth of the current oil field being exploited is measured in inches.
3) Three 33-foot lengths of directional pipe are used to crank the hole 90 degrees to allow horizontal drilling. Each 33-foot length is worth about $20,000 dollars. They can drill for miles.
Mud is used to lubricate the drilling process an art and a science in itself.
4) the pump jacks are lifting a mixture of oil, natural gas and salt water from the ground
5) there can be about 10 times as much water than oil at some low production wells and less at better wells. A well can produce a few thousand dollars each month or a few million each month
6) our wells started out sweet (no natural gas) but became sour (natural gas present) as pumping went on
7) heat is used to separate the natural gas, oil and water. The gas (on top) is sent to a compressing station to be liquified for transport. The oil (floating on the water) is sent into the pipeline or to a tank where it is picked up by truck to be hauled to the pipeline. The water is returned to the ground at the same level from which it was pumped.
8) early wells recovered about 15% of the oil and current technology can extract 30%. Therefore 70% of the oil is not even being touched so far, it's still in the ground after sixty years.
9) only 30% of the current field has been exploited (with a 15 to 30% efficiency rate). Most of the oil is still in the ground sixty years later.
10) the oil field below the one being currently exploited (only inches deep) is several feet deep and larger.
11) each well is drilled at a cost of one to three million dollars.
12) the lowliest post-school grunts make more money than you
13) the "pushes" (foremen) make as much as a doctor. Supervisors make enough to plow millions back into the industry or other investments.
14) a recent 3 to 4 billion dollar investment by a single company was expected to yield 50,000 barrels a day for 100 years. Now that it's finished estimates are 50,000 barrels a day for 150 years.
15) we will not run out of oil. Ever.
16) oil is everywhere. China and India will find their own and the current boom we are enjoying will stall. Prices (now grossly inflated by rampant speculation) will fall.
17) As a journeyman welder I will still have a job maintaining the existing oil patch. But the high school kids who are working the rigs and who are blowing all their money on big trucks, wakeboard boats, ATV;'s and snowmobiles, and electronics (not to mention booze, dope, and cigarettes) will become pariahs.
18) Saskatchewan will continue to thrive on agriculture (as wealthy Chinese and Hindus consume more food), and continue to thrive on energy (uranium, coal, wind, sun, grain by-products).
OK Some of these are not facts, probably just more of Terry's bullshit, but this should give you something down-to-earth to discuss.
Thanks if you made it through the whole thing, I was bored so it gave me something to do.
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Duane Flock
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7/6/2008 8:38:49 PM
My neighbor works for Shell Oil at a refinery. I work at DOW chemical and the refining process is very simular.
Basically:
The crude is brought in and "cooked" at different levels. Then additives are put into
the mixture as the products are extracted at different levels. The lighter products are extracted at the upper levels of the "column".
First is kerosene, white gas, and regular gasolene. It gets thicker as it goes down. Next would be Deisel fuel, then light grade oils and motor oils, then lubercants and greases.
Natural gas has it's own process, but oddly enough natural gas is where we get 90% of all of our plastic products we use everyday.
I wasn't bored really............. just thought this shit would be interesting.
Byyeeeeeee!
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