Energy on this world and elsewhere Instructor: Gordon D. Cates Office: Physics 106a, Phone: (434) 924-4792 email: cates@virginia.edu Course web site available at www.phys.virginia.edu, click on classes and find Physics 1110. or at http://people.virginia.edu/~gdc4k/phys111/fall17/home.html Lecture #10 September 21, 2017
Fossil Fuels
Distinguishing Reserves from Resources McKelvey diagram
Replenishing proved reserves
Replenishing proved reserves
Oil Reserves and time remaining From a source that is now a bit dated, but it shows how tricky it is compute the time remaining.
Natural Gas Reserves and time remaining
Oil
Crude Oil From the glossary of the December 2015 Monthly Energy Review published by the US Department of Energy
Petroleum From the glossary of the December 2015 Monthly Energy Review published by the US Department of Energy
Conventional Crude Oil The oil itself has a viscosity that is not too thick. It is recovered from well-defined reservoirs such as the one schematically shown above. Various enhanced-recovery techniques ARE included when one talks about conventional oil. Historically, conventional oil has represented the vast majority of oil production although that is starting to change somewhat.
Conventional and unconventional Sources of crude oil Conventional crude - on shore Tight oil, or shale oil So-called heavy crude Conventional crude - off shore Tar sands, or oil sands, contain a substance known as bitumen. Oil shale (not yet commercially significant). Contains kerogen. Requires further refinement in order to become synthetic crude:
Conventional Crude Oil Oil derrick for drilling from 1922 in Oklahoma Modern pump jack for pumping in Texas.
First oil well in the U.S.? Drilled in 1859, in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Depth of 69.5 feet. Credited with sparking an oil boom in the U.S.
An example of evolving understanding of oil resources: Kern River Oil Field Vastly more oil was produced than was anticipated 119 years old, and still producing Some of what follows is from an article by Leonardo Maugeri in the October 2009 issue of Scientific American
The Kern River Oil Field
Coaxing more oil out of the ground
The evolution of the Kern River Oil Field 1899 - Estimates were that 70 million barrels could be recovered, about 10% of what was believed to be held by the entire oil field. 1942-278 million barrels already recovered, estimates of remaining recoverable oil of 54 million. 1995 - additional 736 million barrels recovered (1.01 billion total), estimates were that 970 million remained. 2007 - total of 2 billion barrels recovered, estimates of remaining recoverable oil are 627 million barrels. Original estimate off by factor of 37. The 1995 estimate was off by factor of 1.54, or 54%.
Kern River Oil Field
Much land is unexplored
Conventional and unconventional Sources of crude oil Conventional crude - on shore Tight oil, or shale oil So-called heavy crude Conventional crude - off shore Tar sands, or oil sands, contain a substance known as bitumen. Oil shale (not yet commercially significant). Contains kerogen. Requires further refinement in order to become synthetic crude:
The tar sands or oil sands in Canada
Oil from Canadian tar sands Most of the world s oil (more than 5 trillion barrels) is in the form of tar sands, although it is not all recoverable. (From an ANL web site.) Roughly 1/3 of the tar sands are in Canada, and another 1/3 in Venezuela. The DOE has now classified about 173 billion barrels of oil associated with the Canadian tar sands as proven reserves. Estimates are that the reserves will probably climb to around 300 billion barrels with current technology. Saudia Arabia has roughly 266.8 billion barrels of proven reserves, and it will almost certainly go down, while Canada s reserves will almost certainly go up.
The Canadian tar sands cover a vast region