Shell Oil
Non Conventional Oil Reservoirs
Chronos and Non-conventional oil reservoirs
Oil sands
As we know oil-eating bacteria biodegrades oil that has escaped to the surface. Oil sands are reservoirs of partially biodegraded oil still in the process of escaping and being biodegraded, but they contain so much migrating oil that, although most of it has escaped, vast amounts are still present—more than can be found in conventional oil reservoirs. The lighter fractions of the crude oil are destroyed first, resulting in reservoirs containing an extremely heavy form of crude oil, called crude bitumen in Canada, or extra-heavy crude oil in Venezuela. These two countries have the world's largest deposits of oil sands. Chronos has local offices, operations and legal entities to serve both locations.
Venezuelan Oil
Located in eastern Venezuela, north of the Orinoco River, the Orinoco oil belt vies with the Canadian tar sand for largest known accumulation of bitumen in the world. Venezuela prefers to call its tar sands "extra heavy oil", and although the distinction is somewhat academic, the extra heavy crude oil deposit of the Orinoco Belt represent nearly 90% of the known global reserves of extra heavy crude oil. Bitumen and extra-heavy oil are closely related types of petroleum, differing only in the degree by which they have been degraded from the original crude oil by bacteria and erosion.
The Venezuelan deposits are less degraded than the Canadian deposits and are at a higher temperature (over 50 degrees Celsius versus freezing for northern Canada), making them easier to extract by conventional techniques. Although it is easier to produce, it is still too heavy to transport by pipeline or process in normal refineries. Lacking access to first-world capital and technological prowess, Venezuela has not been able to design and build the kind of bitumen upgraders and heavy oil refineries that Canada has. In the early 1980’s the state oil company, PDVSA, developed a method of using the extra-heavy oil resources by emulsifying it with water (70% extra-heavy oil, 30% water) to allow it to flow in pipelines.
The resulting product, called Orimulsion, can be burned in boilers as a replacement for coal and heavy fuel oil with only minor modifications. Unfortunately, the fuel’s high sulphur content and emission of particulates make it difficult to meet increasingly strict international environmental regulations. Venezuela's tar sands crude production, which sometimes wasn't counted in its total, has increased from 125,000 bbl/d (19,900 m³/d) to 500,000 bbl/d (79,000 m³/d) between 2001 and 2006 (Venezuela's figures; IAEA says 300,000 bpd). We at Chronos feels there is enormous potential in Venezuelan extra heavy oil and this was one of the driving factors in our establishing a fully functional operation in Venezuela to service the recruitment and software needs of the oil industry - both in tar sands and more conventional offshore projects.
Oil shales
Chronos Consulting is also active in the oil shales area. Oil shales are source rocks that have not been exposed to heat or pressure long enough to convert their trapped hydrocarbons into crude oil. Technically speaking, oil shales are not really shales and do not really contain oil, but are usually relatively hard rocks called marls containing a waxy substance called kerogen. The kerogen trapped in the rock can be converted into crude oil using heat and pressure to simulate natural processes. The method has been known for centuries and was patented in 1694 under British Crown Patent No. 330 covering, "A way to extract and make great quantityes of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone."
Although oil shales are found in many countries, the United States has the world's largest deposits and our new operatives in the USA are able to help with any project that arises. Alternative methods Chronos has a long history in the alternative methods arena. During the oil price increases since 2003, alternative methods of producing oil gained importance. The most widely known alternatives involve extracting oil from sources such as oil shale or tar sands. These resources exist in large quantities; however, extracting the oil at low cost without excessively harming the environment remains a challenge.
It is also possible to chemically transform methane or coal into the various hydrocarbons found in oil. The best-known such method is the Fischer-Tropsch process. It was a concept pioneered during the 1920s in Germany to extract oil from coal and became central to Germany's war efforts when imports of petroleum were restricted due to war. It was known as Ersatz (English:"substitute") oil, and accounted for nearly half the total oil used in WWII by Germany. However, the process was used only as a last resort as naturally occurring oil was much cheaper. As crude oil prices increase, the cost of coal to oil conversion becomes comparatively cheaper.
The method involves converting high ash coal into synthetic oil in a multi-stage process. Currently, two companies have commercialised their Fischer-Tropsch technology. Shell Oil in Bintulu, Malaysia uses natural gas as a feedstock, and produces primarily low sulfur diesel fuels. Sasoil in South Africa uses coal as a feedstock, and produces a variety of synthetic petroleum products. The process is today used in South Africa to produce most of the country's diesel fuel from coal by the company Sasol. The process was used in South Africa to meet its energy needs during its isolation under Apartheid. This process produces low sulfur diesel fuel but also produces large amounts of greenhouse gases.
Chronos is happy to be involved in both these locations with its qualified oil and gas teams. An alternative method of converting coal into petroleum is the Karrick process, which was pioneered in the 1930s in the United States. It uses low temperatures in the absence of ambient air, to distill the short-chain hydrocarbons out of coal instead of petroleum. As we have already mentioned oil shale can also be used to produce oil, either through mining and processing, or in more modern methods, with in-situ thermal conversion.
Conventional crude can be extracted from unconventional reservoirs, such as the Bakken Formation. The formation is about two miles (3 km) underground but only a few meters thick, stretching across hundreds of thousands of square miles. It further has very poor extraction characteristics. Recovery at Elm Coulee has involved extensive use of horizontal drilling, solvents, and proppants. Again Chronos can help find crucial staff for this type of project.
More recently explored is thermal depolymerization (TDP), a process for the reduction of complex organic materials into light crude oil. Using pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon decompose into short-chain hydrocarbons. This mimics the natural geological processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. In theory, thermal depolymerization can convert any organic waste into petroleum substitutes. For more details on our projects in this area go to www.chrononosconsulting.com or www. coberongreen.com.
Dr Simon Harding
www.chronosconsulting.com
About the Author
Shell Oil
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How much of our oil comes from the oil wells owned by Chevron, Shell, Exxon, ect....???
These oil companies are not paying $135 a barrel. I think it cost them 98 cents to drill, refine and transport one gallon of gas. The other $3.50 per gallon is pure profit. Less 5 cents for re-election accounts.
2% of our oil and gas comes from major domestic producers. The government makes twice the profit the our oil companies make.
Between 1977 and 2004, the industry’s domestic profits totaled $643 billion, after adjusting for inflation.
Since 1977, governments collected more than $1.34 trillion, after adjusting for inflation, in gasoline tax revenues—more than twice the amount of domestic profits earned by major U.S. (Shell is not a US company) oil companies during the same period."
In 2004 the cost of drilling for crude oil per foot was $298.45, I'm sure it's higher now with inflation. The cost of dry wells was $327.91, not every well produces, it's hit and miss. The average depth of crude wells is 6006 feet. That is almost 2 million per well.The cost to explore for and develop oil fields in 2006 was $63.71/barrel for U.S. offshore.
Do you think Canada or OPEC gives them a big discount? You do know we import over 60% of the oil used here in the US, most comes from Canada.
My husband drives a nitrogen truck for an oil services company and there is alot more to it than you can imagine. These people work their tails off so we can have a decent life using the energy they produce.
Congress is not allowed to take money from oil companies, that has been a law since the break-up of Standard Oil. They have to divest themselves before taking office and yeas Bush and Cheney did divest of oil profits. Mr. and Mrs. Cheney gave 78% of their 2005 income to charity. The couple donated $6.9 million, including the proceeds from stock options and book royalties that Mrs. Cheney routinely gives away. Their giving went to three nonprofit causes in health, higher education and services for inner-city youth.