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Eugene J. Hall English For Careers
The Language of
The Petroleum Industry
in English
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REGENTS/PRENTICE IIAII, Englewood Cliffs, New losey 07632
Illustsarions by Bnde Case
Cover photo
cowtesy of fte Mobil Corporafion
Cover design by Suzarme Bennett
-E
o 1976 bv Prentice-Hall Inc.
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A sinon .i schusrer Company
#
g"tt1"*oo6
gliffs,
New Jersey 0?632
All rights rcserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any fcm or by any me<u,
without permission
in writing ftorn the publisher.
I,rinted in the United Ststes of Amrice
109876s4321
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD v
T'MT ONE
The Petroleum Industry
UNIT TWO
Exploring for Petroleum
UMT THREE
Drilling for Oil 28
UNIT FOUR
Recovering the OiI
UNIT FIVE
Trarxporting Oil 53
IJNIT SIX
Reffning Oil 70
IJMT SEVEN
Carcers in the Petroleum Industry
t4
FOREWORD
This book is one of a series of texts called English
for
Careers
The series is intended to introduce
students of English to the lan-
guage of different professional
and vocational fields. The career
areas
ihafare covered are those in which English is widely used throughout
the world, such as air travel, computer technology,
international com-
merce, or, in the case of this particular book,
the petroleum industry'
Each book in the series serves several purposes. The first is to give
the student an introduction to the particular
vocational area in which
he or she is involved. The duties of different kinds of
jobs
are dis-
cussed, as well as the
problems that might be encountered at work' In
this book,
The Language of the Petroleun Industrg in English'
the
difierent phases of the oil indrxtry are presented, as well as a summary
of some of the specialized
jobs that are available in the industry.
This
book is not intended to be a detailed
training mamral, but rather a
broad introduction both to the opportunities and the problems
involved in difierent kinds of work in the petroleum industry.
From the point of view of teaching English as a foreign language,
these books are intended for a student at the high intermediate
or
advanced level. In other
words, tle student who uses these
books
should be acquainted
with most of the structural patterns of English.
His or her principal
goals as a leamer should be to master vocabulary,
to use the various structural pattems in a normal mixture, and to
improve his or her ability to communicate
in English.
These books address themselves
to all of these needs. Each unit
begins with a glossary of special terms in which words and expressiors
*"-d io th" vocation being discrssed are defined. This glossary
is fol-
lowed by a vocabulary study
which tests the student's comprehension
of the special terms and gives practice
in their use. In the reading,
these terms are used again within a contextual
frame of reference'
Fach reading is followed by questions for comprehersion
and dis-
tz'
cussion. They give the student the opportunity to use in a commu-
nicaUve situation both the vocabulary items and structural patterns
that have occrrred in the reading.
Each unit ends with an exercise or exercises, some of which pose
problems that might occur if the student were working in a particular
job.
In this book, for instance, he or she is asked to identify difierent
types of geological formations in which oil might be found. In doing
these exercises, he or she will also practice both the specialized
vocabulary
and other new words as well as the structural
patterns
that
are used with them.
A great deal of successful language learning comes from experi-
ences in which the learning is largely unconscious. In offering these
books, it is hoped that the student's interest in his or her chosen field
will increase his or her ability to communicate more efiectively in
English.
Eugene
J.
Hall
Washington, D.C.
UNIT ONE
THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Special Terms
Fossil: The traces or remairu of plant or animal life that existed in
previous geological ages. Petroleum, coal, and natural gas are
called
fossil fuels
becaue they were created from tiny plants
and animals that lived milliors of years ago.
''-
==-----
t/-:E'.t<
O:=--./'.
$@
x----
---..--/-.
2
parRoLEUM
INDUSTRY
Peholeurnr
A fuel found in mineral
deposits
under the ground.
pafr-
comes from the Greek word for rock
,
oleum trom |dtJ Greek word
for oil-therefore,
rock oil, or oil found in rock.
Crude Oil/Crude
Petroleum:
Oil or petroleum
as it comes from the
gound.
It is not commercially
usable in
this form.
Barrel: Forty-two
gallors,
when speaking
of petroleum.
This is the
rsual
unit of measure
that is used for oil.
To Seep: To leak slowly. Sometimes
oil seeps
through the ground to
leave
traces on the surface.
It is because
of se$age
that the first
lmown
oil deposits were found.
Distillation:
A process
of heating
a mixture
to separate
lighter sub_
stances
from heavier ones. The lighter
o.reJ ure cha"nged into
vapor
or steam by the heating
process. This is the basis for refin-
ing oil into
commercial products.
Intemal
Combustion
Engine:
The kind of engine used in automobiles.
Power
comes from tle explosion
of a mixture
of fuel and air. The
fuel most
often used is gasoline,
a petroleum
product.
An intemal
combustion
engine.
PE|ROLEUM INDUSTRY
3
Gasoline, Kerosene, Asphaltr Commercial products made from petro-
leum. Gasoline is the ligbtest, asphalt the heaviest. Kerosene was
often used as a source of heat and light in the nineteenth eentury.
Asphalt is used primarily to pave streets,
By-product: A secondary product obtained in the process of making
something else. In the early days of the oil industry, gasoline was
a by-product in the distillation of petroleum to make kerosene.
Petrochemicals: Chemicals derived from petroleum. They are used in
the creation of qfnthetic (man-made) rubber, plastics, and otler
substances.
Vocabulary Practice
7.
Why can petrolzum be called rock oiP
What is a
fossdl.?
Why are petroleum, coal, and natural gas called
fossil fuels?
WIst is cruile oil? How usefi;l is it in this form?
What does t barrel of oil mean?
How were oil deposits first found?
What is ilistilhtbn? What does it have to do vrith the oil
indrxtry?
What are gasoline, kerosene, rnd asplult? What is each one used
for? Which is lightest? Which is heaviest?
Why do we tlrink of rc intpmal cunbustion en$nz when we
think of
gasoline?
What is a bgprod,ttct? Give an ocample from the petroleum
industry. Can you also give an example from some otler industry?
What ate p*ochanicalr? What are ttrey used to make?
10.
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
The ffrst modem
oil well at Titusville,
pennsylvania,
1g59.
The Petroleum
Industry
Petroleum,
coal, and natural gas are the most widely
used sources
of enerry in the modem world.
They are of primary
importance
in the
indrstrialized
countries, where vast
atnoroi,
of
"rrergi
,r" consumed
to operate all the difierent kinds
of machines
that w;k for mankind
today. These
three energ;r sources are referred
to as
fossil fuels.
Fossils
are the traces or remains
of plant
or animal life that
existed in previorx
ages, not just
thousands,
but millions and even
hundreds-
of milliorx
of years ago. Enormous numbers
of living
crea_
tures and plants died. They were
covered by sand
or mud, *hich i.,
time was itself covered by the waters of the seas.
pressure
changed the
sand and mud into rock that trapped
the fossils, which
by thin had
changed into oil, coal, or gas. Petroleum
is composed largely
of the
remairs of thesetiny marine animals
and plants that lived so long ago.
Oil in one form or another has been used by mankind for manv
centuries
to- provide light and heat. Until
only a relatively
rhort ti-'"
ago, most
of this oil came from animal or vegetable
sources.
Olive oil,
PETROLEU\'I I\DI S'I RY
5
for example, was used in lamps and for cooking
in the ancient
civ-
ilizatiors bordering
the Mediterranean.
Indeed,
it was one
of the
major articles of trade and commerce
in antiquity; and even now,
olive oil is still used all over the world for cooking and other purposes'
Many other kinds of oils have also been commercially
imPortant,
including oil from sesame seeds or cottonseed
and oil from whales'
Petroleum difiers
from other oils because it comes
from a mineral
sotuce rather than an animal or vegetable
souce. In fact, the prefix
petr- in lhe word pet:roleum
is derived ftom the Greek
word for rock'
When petroleum
first went on the market, it was called rock oil lo
distinguish it from all the other
kinds of oil. Since then, modern
tech-
nology has become
such an enormous consumer
of energy that petro-
leum'is probably the most valuable single product in the world lt is
indeed often called
"black
gold."
.*
Up until the industrial
revolution that began in the eighteeqth
and nineteenth centuries,
human beings did
not use energy on any-
where near the same scale that we do nowadays.
Enerry was ued
almost entirely for heat and light and for the preparation of food' The
principal fuels that were burned to provide enerSr'
were wood, some
iypes of animal
wastes, and vegetable and animal oils' Many areas
where civilization
flourished, such as China and the Mediterranean,
were very nearly deforested
despite the relatively low energy
Preindustrial power-on the left, a. millstone; on the right, a woman grinding
maize bY hand
7"
I
6
pnTRoLEUM
INDUSTnY
requirements
tlat existed until only two or three hundred years ago.
The
machines
of the ancient world-few
and simple
by present-ilay
standards-used
the power of water
or the muscles- of hurians or ani_
mals.
The millstone is the classic example
of a machine
turned by
water;
its use was widespread
throughout
the preindustrial
world.
One can get some idea of the amount of diftculf work that the mill-
stone
-saved
by comparing it with the implements
used for grinding
or
pounding
corn in pre-Columbian
America,
where the whil had-not
*been
invented
when the firs
Europeans
arrived.
The industrial
revolution
began in England in the eighteenth
cenhrry,
when many machines were
being invented
ttrat woirld per_
form various
kinds of work more easily and eftciently. These e-arly
machines,
the_ beginning
of a flood of technologr that has since swept
over mankind
were generally
used in the manufacture
of textilels.
Power for them came from
steam, and tle energz for changing water
into steam came from buming wood
or coal. Coal, o.r" of th" thr""
fossil fuels, was the energr source
that made it possible for the indus_
trial revolution
to take place. It has only beeri since World War II
that oil has replaced
coal as our primary enerry source.
/
. .
The
_engrmous
Eowth
of the petroleum industry
has taken place
in
just
a little
more than a hundred years. The origin of the indttry
can in fact be dated to I85g, when the frst
underglound
oil well was
drilled in the United States in Titusville,
penrsylvania.
Before that
time, t}re petroleum
that had
been marketed-only
in small quan_
tities-came
from seepage in places where
pressure had forced oil to
leak out onto the surface of the ground.
Soine of these surface seep_
ages of oil had been known for hundreds
of years,
such as those around
Mosul in what is now Iraq.
_
The pioneer
oil well was brouglrt in at a timely moment in the
history of eners/. For many years prior to 1859, whale
oil had been
usrcd
_for
lamps,
But by f859, because
overly eager fuhermen
had
killed too many whales, not as much whale oil was ivailable. The first
important
commercial
product from
crude petroleum
was kerosene,
which quickly replaced
whale oil in the kerosene stoves that were also
developed
for heating purposes.
A by-product
of the distillation
of
petrcleum
in those early years
of the industry
was asphalt, which was
used for
paving streets. Another
by-product, ior whici no use could be
found" was gasoline.
After
the beginning
of the twentieth
cenhry, the demand for
peboleum
increased
enormously
as automobiles
came into wider and
PE-TROLEUM INDUSTRY
7
wider use. In 1900 the United States
produced 64 million barrels of
oil; by 1925
production had increased to 764 million barrels; by 1950
it was approximately
2 billion barrels.
A barrel is the most common
measure of oil; it contains
forty-two gallons.
Some of the early experimental
automobiles used steam- or bat-
tery-generated electricity. Gasoline turned out to be a more efficient
enerry source for the internal combustion
engine in automobiles.
Gas-
oline, once an unwanted by-product,
suddenly became the most popu-
lar fuel in the world.
Oil by-products
have also become more eficient and cheaper
to
use than othtr fu"Is, especially
coal. Heat for our homes, ofRces, and
schools,
for example,
is fumished
to a considerable
degree by oil
inltead of .oal, bil is now also used to power most forms of
transportation;
it has replaced coal in ships and trains-
almost
"u"ry*h"t
in the world. Oil is also used to lubricate many difierent
kinds of machines, including automobiles.
Without lubrication, the
moving parts of our machines
would quicHy
wear out'
Another principal source of energr in the modern world is elec-
tricity. Electricity,
however, does not exist in a r.rsable form in nature,
and therefore it must be generated.
Some electricity is produced
by
water power; most of it is produced by steam, but as we have already
noted, steam is the resr.rlt of changing
water to vapor by buming some
-==--
='-=--
-
1t-=_-F
An electric
generating plant. The barge is delivering oil that provides power for
the plant.
8
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
kind of fuel. Coal was used for this purpose by most electric power
plants rmtil only a few years ago; now oil is rxed in the majority of
generating
plants.
Coal had the original advantage of existing in large quantities
close to the earth's surface. In addition, the techniques for mining coal
were not new; they were essentially the same as those that had been
rsed for hundreds of years in the mining of metals. But a ton of coal
has the energy equivalent of less than four barrels of oil; furthermore,
it is much more difficult to transport. After 1859 the oil industry
quickly developed an extremely complex technology, first to find oil
beneath the earth and then to drill deeper and deeper wells to bring it
to the surface. At the same tirne, techniques were developed to take
advantage of the fact that petroleum was a liquid and thus could flow.
This involved the development o{ oil pipelines.
Another important factor in the growth of the oil indutry has
been the development of petrochemicals. Many products have been
created by chemists from petroleum. These include most of our mod-
em plastics and fertilizers. Indeed, the increase in agricultrual pro-
ductivity*also known as the green revolution-could
not have taken
place without petroleum-based chemicals, including not only those
that enrich the soil like fertilizers but also those that kill weeds,
insects, and other pests-herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides.
The greatest problem for the future of the oil industry is that
petroleum is not a renewable natural resource. All the petroleum tlat
exists, no matter whether it is hidden under the earth or the seas, was
created rnillions of years ago. As the use of oil has increased, so have
the predictiors that oil will soon be exhausted. Nevertheless,
improved techniques for exploration, drilling, and recovery of petro-
leum have kept the supply ahead of the world's consumption. The oil
industry, however, looking forward to the day when the supply of oil
may become exhausted, is engaged in research to find not only sub-
stitutes fff oil but also other sources of energr.
In the following units, we will discuss the major aspects of the oil
industry-exploration,
ddlling, recovery, transportation, and refining.
After we have acqrrired some knowledge about the difrerent phases of
the industry and the kind of work that is involved, we will discuss the
distinctive careers tJrat the industrv offers.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
9
Drccussion
l What enerry sources are
widely used in the modern world?
2. Why are petroleum, coal, and natural gas of primary importance
in the industrialized countries?
3. What are these energr sources called?
4. What are fossils? What is their relatiorship to oil, coal, and gas?
5. What is petroleum
largely composed of.)
6. Has oil only been used by mankind in the last two hundred years?
7. Where did most oil come from in the past? Give an example.
8. What are some kinds of oil that have been commercially
impor-
tant?
9. How does petroieum difier from other kinds of oil?
10. How did people distinguish petroleum
from other kinds
of oil
when it ffrst went on the market?
11. What has made petroleum so valuable since then? What is it
often popularly called?
12. Have human beings
always used energl on the same scale that we
'
do nowadays?
13. What was enerry almost entirely used for before the beginning of
the industrial
revolution?
14. What were the principal
frrels at that time?
]5_.
What happened in many
areas where civilization flourished?
16. What did the machines of the ancient
world use for power? What
is an example?
7
21.
22.
IO
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
17. How can you get an idea of the amount of work that was saved by
using the millstone?
18. Where
and when did the industrial revolution
begin? What were
the ffrst machines used for?
19. What
was the source of power for most of the first machines?
Where did t}te enerry to create this power come from?
20. How long did coal remain the principal energr source in the
world?
How long has it taken the oil industry to grow to its present size?
To what time, place, and event can the origin of the industry be
dated?
23. How much oil had been marketed
before that time? Where had
the oil come from? Give an example.
24. Why
was t}re ffrst oil well brought in at a timely moment in the
history
of energr?
25. What was the ffrst commercial product
to be made from crude
petroleum?
26. What were two by-products from the distillation
of petroleum?
What were
their uses?
-2J.
Why
did the demand for petroleum increase
enormously after the
beginning
of the twentieth century? Give figures
to show this
lncrease,
What
is the common unit of measure for oil?
Did
all early automobiles
use gasoline for fuel? Why did gasoline
win out over other flels?
What
are some places in which oil has replaced
coal as fuel?
\ryhy?
28.
29.
30.
32.
.lJ.
PEIIROI,EUM INDUSTRY
31. Why is oil used
for lubrication?
What is another
principal source
of enerry in the modern world?
Why must electricity be generated?
How is electricity
produced?
Which is used more often in electric
power plants
nowadaYs, coal or oil?
35. What original advantages
did coal have as a source of enerry?
36. In terms of barrels of oil, what is the energr equivalent of a ton of
coal?
What did the oil indusuy quicHy develop?
What further advantage
did petroleum
have?
What has been another factor in the growth of the oil industry?
What are some of tle products that have been created
from
petrochemicals?
41. What is tlre greatest problem for the future of the oil industry?
42, IJow has the
world's supply of oil been kept ahead of its con-
sumption?
4!. What kind of research is the oil industry engaged
in?
Review
A. FilI in the spaces in the following
sentences
with the appropriate
word or phrase.
1. Petroleum is derived
Jt.
38.
39.
40.
and
from two Greek
words that mean
t2
2.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
oil is petroleum
as it comes out of the
gound,
before it has been made into commercially
usable prod-
ucts.
separates lighter from heavier substances in a
mixture
by heating the substances.
does not exist in a usable form in nature but
irstead must be generated.
fuels are made up of tJre remains
of marine
plants
and animals tJrat existed milliorx
of years
ago.
A barrel,
the common unit of measure of oil, contains
_
gallors.
4.
5.
7.
- is a petroleum product that is used for light-
ing in lamps
and for heating in a special kind
of stove. It was
much used at the end of the nineteenth
century.
Most internal combustion
engines in automobiles
rse
as their fuel.
is a petroleum
product
which is used for pav-
ing streets.
10. Gasoline
and asphalt were originally
in the
process
by which kerosene was obtained from petroleum.
9.
are called fossil fuels.
12. Most of the plastics that are used today are made from
13. The presence of oil had been krrown for many centuries because
of
to the surface from rurderground
deposits.
14. It was necessarv to drill
beneath the surface
before petroleum
could be obtained in quantities that were com-
mercially
signiffcant.
t7.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
13
15. In an- engine, power comes from the
explosion of a mixture of fuel and air.
16. The ffnt real oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania in
is a common popular expression for petroleum
because it is zuch a valuable product.
18. The began in England in the eighteenth cen-
hrry with the invention of machines for the textile industry.
19. The is a term sometimes used for the increase
in agricultuml productivity, much of which has been carxed by
the use of products made from petrochemicals.
20. Since World War II, oil has passed coal as the world's primary
source of
-.
B. List all of tle products you can think of tlat are made from crude
oil. Indicate what their uses are. Which of them play an important
part in your daily life? In what way?
C, List all the products in your regular environment-your home,
your offce or place of work, your school, even among the clotl'res
you wear-which you think might be made from petrochemicals.
UNIT
TWO
EXPLORING
FOR
PETBOLEUM
Special
Terms
Geolog;r;
The
study,of
the
physical
features
of the earth
such
as rocks,
morntains,
and so on. A
geologist
is
a specialist
ln tlr" neld
of
geologr.
Sedimentary
Rockr
Rock
which was
formed
from
mud, sand,
and silt
(sediment)
that was
carried
down
to an"i;;;;l,
ir,J'nu*,
or
the
past'.Pressure
changed
the sediment
rrir r*r.]
p",."r""-
t.
-
round
only
in areas where
tbere
is sedimentarv
rock.
Igneous
Rockr
Rock that
was formed
""d";
;;i;;;
r,""ri,
",
i" uot_
canic
activity.
Porous:
Full
of
_tiny
holes
tlrat
permit
tlre passage
of air, water,
or
other
liquids.
Limestone,
sindstone,
"i.ra
Jif"_ia"
.ar.
aypr""l
porous
rocks
which
allow
oil to move
through
them.-
-
Fault:
A break
or fracture
in the
layers
"f
,*k
#i;;
;;;,s
surface,
often
the result
of an earthquaie.
Th"
,hiCl;-lry;i.iil*t
"r"
cause
oil to be tranned.
Anticline:
A place in
tlh'"
"art}',
surface
where
layers
of rock
have
formed
an arch or dome.
This
is another
typff;;i
'fJrmation
in
which
oil can
be trappsfl.
Sor,tg1nry""
f,,p:
A place
in- the earth's
surface
where
layers
of one
rond
ot rock
come
together,
trapping
a &fierent
kind
of,ock
Detween
tiem.
This is
another
type
of }ormation
in which
oil can
be found.
core:
A sample
of rocks
obtained
by
a drilr,
The
core
can be studied
for
the
types
of rocks
and for
Lvidence
olfo;ril;.
*"
"'
'
PE'IROLEUM INDUSTRY
A fault structure, An anticline.
A stratiSraphic trap.
Paleontologist: A person who has specialized in paleontologg, the
study of prehistoric life throug! tle evidence of fossils.
Geophpicist: A specialist in geophgsics, the science that deals with
ttre efiects of forces such as gravity or magnetism on tle earth.
Geophysics combines some of the &sciplines of geolory with
those of physics.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Gravimeter: A device which can measure the pull of the earth's grav-
ity. It can indicate what kinds of rocks may lie beneath the srr-
face.
Magnetometer: A device which can measure the strength of the
earth's magnetic field. It also indicates the kinds of rocks beneath
the surface.
Seismograph:
A device to measure the vibrations in the earth. It is
commonly used to detect and measure earthquakes, but it can
also be used to explore for oil.
Vocabulary
Practice
1, What does a geola$st specialize in?
2, What is sediment? What happens to sediment over a long period
of time?
3. What kind of rock is igrwou rock?
4. Is oil found in sedimentary or igneous rock?
5. What are porous rocks? What are some typical porous rocks?
6. What is a
fault?
7. What is an anthlinp?
8. What is a stratigaphic trap?
9. What is a core? What can be leamed from it?
10. What does a paleontologist specialize in?
ll, What does a geophysicist specialize in?
12. What does a graoi,meter measure? What can it indicate?
13. What does a mngnetoneter measuoe? What can it indicate?
14. What does a seismograph measure? What is it usually used for?
PE-TROLEIIM IND(ISTRY
Total discovered oil by the end of 1975.
Exploring lor Petroleum
Petroleum comes from the remains of marine plants and animals
w\ose bodies sank to the boqtom of ancient seas millions of years ago.
This organic matter was covered by deposits ofsand and mud beneath
which the marine fosils were changed into oil. Exactly what caused
the change to take place is not known. One theory is that the pressure
of the mud, which was itself becoming rock, caused the change.
Another tl-reory is that the mud carried bacteria which brought about
the change. '
The mud that settled above tlie newly formed oil and became
rock is called sadi mentary rockbecause of the layers of sedhnent that
characterize it. It is distinguished from igneous roclg which is pro-
duced by the action of intense heat and pressure, as in volcanic
eruptions.
Where oil had formed beneath the layers of sedimentary rock,
both gas and salt water were usually found with it. The salt water,
heavier than the oil, sank to the bottom, while the oil floated to the
TorAt DtscoveReo Ott
BtLuo t4Ef RtC TONS
BILLION AARRELS
20
10
55
ffirsg@
7;:^*-:'.:-'^-*---l's;+:-'
ffiffi
--'<a::.:-:-^:
nEsERvEs
END 1975,:
AF4ICA
/-
r8
PETRoLEUM INDUSTRY
top and into the pmous rocks nearby. These rocks, usually sandstone,
Iimestone,
or dolomite, permitted the oil to continue to move, since a
porous substance contains tiny holes that allow the movement of air or
water and other gases or liquids. The gas sometimes dissolved in the
oil or, being the lightest of the three substances, floated to t}re extreme
top.
During the passage of millions of years, many changes continued
to take place on earth. Mountains rose and fell; seas covered the land
and then withdrew again; and cracks or
/ozlts
developed in the earth's
cmst. As these changes occurred, layers of rock were pushed up or
down into various kinds of formatiors which trapped the oil beneath
the srrface. In general, these traps were formed at points where the
oil could no longer continue to move because it had run into a layer of
nonporous rock.
Three types of traps frequently contain pools of oil. One is called
art anticlhw, a formation in which layers of rock rose up to form an
arch or dome. When oil moves tbrough porous sandstone or limestone
into the anticUne, it is forced up into the top of the arch by water
pressure from below. When tle roof of the arch or dome is a layer of
nonporous
rock, the oil can no longer move and it is trapped there.
ln a
fault,
the crust of the earth has cracked and caused &fier-
ent layers of rock to slip. A layer of porous rock may then exist next to
a layer of derser, nonpororx rock. When the oil moving through the
porous rock comes to the dense rock, it has to stop. Water pressure
from behind will not allow it to move backward or to escape from the
tlap'
The third kind of oil pool formation is called a stratigraphic trap.
In this kind of formation, layers of derse rock are above and below a
layer of pororx rock, like the pieces of bread in a sandwich. Forces
within the earth sometimes press tlte layers of porous rock togetler at
one end or the other, or occasionally at both ends, thereby trapping a
layer of oil-bearing limestone or sandstone between them.
The people who try to determine where oil may be found are
called, geolngis*, who have either specialized in the study of earth
sciences or in gnlagy, the study of rocks, mountains, and other phpi-
cal features of the earth's surface. They look for the features that we
have described above-ffrst, the presence of sedimentary rocls; sec-
ond, nearby porous rocks; and third, the outward signs of traps where
oil may be prevented from moving any fi:rther.
A geologist examining laYers of
I
rock.
PEIROLEUM INDUSTRY
Examining cores of rock in a
laboratory.
In addition
to geologists,
PaIa-
ontologists
and geoPhAsicists
arc
also
involved in the search for oil.
Paleontologists
make a special study
of fossils.
The same cores that are
examined
for difierent tyPes of
rocks
can also be studied
for fossil
remains. In the cores there might be
traces
of bones or shells of the
marine animals
which form the raw
material
of petroleum.
In fact, they
are one of the best indications of the
possible
presence of oil under-
ground.
The fact tlrat most
Petroleum
is
underground
makes oil exploration
a
l9
Geologists
who work for oil companies
often explore the
terrain
where oil riay occur. Places such as canyors,
where di$erent layers of
rock are exposed,
often give clues to the possible presence
of oil'
Corag samples of rocks that have been brought up from below
the
surface by ipecial &ills, are often available for examination.
Geolo-
gists can abd work with aerial survey maps, which reveal many details
of rock structure.
ffff6ie.:o
Studying aerial surveY
maPs.
7
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
risky-business.
Except
for places
where
water
pressure
has
caused
oil to
seep
totlesurface.
the pools
ofpetroleum
are hidden
underground,
often
deep
within
Lhe earth.
The ffrst oil well was
only 6914 feet
dEep; by I950,
the
average
well was 4,000
feet deep;
arrd,ro*
-".ry
*"if. g. JJrv"
zo,oOo
feet
oreven_m.ore.
Geologists
can oniy."y
*t
"r"
oit lrlrvl""
foirna,
"
*"fl
mrct
be drilled
before
the
possibility
""r,
b""oir"
a certainty.
, ,
A,nother
group
of scientisis,
the
geophysicists,
are called
in to
help.
determine
the possibility
.
still
more
precisely.
Geophysics
is a
combination
."j ryA.g1l
and physics.
Geophysicisis
are
iarficuta.ly
concerned
with forces
such
as gravity
ani magnetism.'They
have
developed
several
devices
that Jeteci
the kind
of io.matiorx
that
exist
beneath
the surface
of the
earth.
Three
of tn"r"
a"r.i"o
or"
"orn_
monly
used
to explore
for oil.
The first is the graDimeter,
which
measrues
the
pull
of the earth,s
gravity.
Gravity
varies
a little from
one place
to another
depending
on
what
lies
ulder each
particular
spot.
A-dense
rock
like
gra;rit"
wo,rld
nave
a.greater
gavitational
pull
than
a porous
rock
like sandstone.
Thy,
,the
re_adings
from
the gravimeter
can indicate
what
kinds
of
rocks
lie
underground.
The
second
device
is the magnetometer,
which
measures
the
lTigth :l
,1" earth's
magnetic
ffeld
the force
that
-uL",
u
"o-p"r,
ry
r:t
I As with
gravity,
tlre densities
of rocks
underlying
the sur
tace reflect
changes in magnetism
that
can be read
with
this meter.
The
third device
is t\e sei.smograph,
which
measures
vibrations
in the earth.
It is the same irxtrument
ihat is used
to detect
and
mea_
zure
the inte-nsity_of
earthquakes.
In oil exploration,
it i,
"."a
io .""o.a
tne waves
ol small. man_made
earthquakes
created
by a blast of dyna_
,mi.te
buri:d
in the ground.
The waies
are reflectei
bv bouna".i",
,*ly":r
T"
rock layers
as shown
in the figure
on page
2i. The waves
mocate
the type
of structure,
such as an anticline,
'ihat
might
exist.
Thus.
additional
clues
about
the location
of oil can U" a"i"i_i""a.
_^^^ITl:-".,
only
clues. however.
The geologists,
paleontologisrs.
geophyslcists,
and tie people
who
work with
them can
suggest where
ort
may belound,
but only
the actual
drilling
of a well
ca"n"prove
the
accuracy
of their predictions.
As scientific
m;hods
of dete;m'ining
the
location
of oil fields
have
become
more sophisticated,
however,
the
possibility
of ffnding
new
oil fields
has increised.
Th;;;;;;;or
-or"
:li_TY:."p:.
despite
the fact
that^it
is an expensive
form
of gam_
Dtrng.
lt has become
necessary
to find
new petroleum
deDosits
to
replace
the
oil that has been cbnsumed
u,
"n "r,'"._i*."Jog'i"t"
Iry
"
world
that requires
more
and more
enerry.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
The use of a seismograph
in underground
exploration
for petrcleum'
Discussion
l. What does
Petroleum
come
from?
2. What happened
to this organic
matter?
3. What are the two theories
which attempt
to explain the change of
the organic
matter
to
Petroleum?
4. What happened
to the mud that
had buried
the new deposits
of
oil?
5. What characterizes
sedimentary
rock?
6. How is igneous
rock
Produced?
7. What was usuallY
found
with oil?
22
qETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
8. What happened
to the salt water
and the oil?
9. What kind of rocks are sandstone,
limestone,
and dolomite?
Why
did they permit the oil to move?
10. What happened
to the gas that was found with
the oil?
11. What
changes continued
to take place
on earth? Did
these
changes occur quickly?
12. How did oil get trapped beneath
the surface
of the earth?
13. In general,
where were the points
at which
oil was trapped?
14. How does oil get trapped in an anticline?
15. How does oil get
trapped in a fault?
Why can,t the oil move
back_
ward
to escape from the trap?
16. How does oil get trapped in a stratigaphic
trap?
17. Who
-
ar-e
,the
-people
who try to determine
where oil may be
found?
What have t}ley studied?
18. What
three sigrx
do they look for in particular?
19. What is one place on the eartJr's
surface tJrat may give clues to
the presence
of oil?
20. What
are cores? What
can tley reveal
to an oil geologist?
21. Why can a geologist
also work with aerial survey
maps?
22. What other,people
with scientiffc
training
are also engaged
in
exploration
for oil?
23. What have paleontologists
studied?
What
can they exarnine?
24. What is one of the best indications
of the possible
presence
of oil
underground?
PETROLEUM INDUSTNY
23
25. What makes oil exploration such a risky business?
26. Where are pools of petroleum hidden? How is their presence
sometimes
indicated on t}te surface?
27. How deep was the ffrst oil well? What was tle average depth in
1950? How deep are some wells nowadays?
28. What is the only thing that a geologist can suggest? What must be
done to determine if he is riglrtP
29. What have geophysicists specialized
in? Why are they called
in to
help explore for oil?
30. How is a gravimeter used to explore for oil?
31. How is a magnetometer
used to explore
for oil?
32. How is a seismogaph used to explore
for oil?
33. What proves the accuracy
of tlre clues provided by geologists and
ottrer people engaged in exploring for oil?
34. What has increased the possibility of ffnding new oil fields?
35. Why does the search for oil never stop?
Review
A. Fill in the spaces in the fcillowing sentences with the approPdate
word or phrase.
l. People who specialize
in studying the physical features
of ttre
earth such as rocks and mountains are called
--=-.
2. The for oil involves many difierent kinds of
scientists, yet their best predictions can only be guesses.
7
I
24
J.
4.
o.
Oil is always found in areas where there is
Earthquakes sometimes
cause a crack or fracture
in the surface
of
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
rock,
which was formed from mud, sand, and silt under pressure.
rock was formed
by intense heat and fire.
the earth that is called a
7.
A formation in which layers of rock have been pushed upward to
form an arch or dome is called an
-
When layers of rock come togetler, somewhat
like the pieces
of
bread in a sandwich, l^.ith
a layer of oil-bearing rock between
them, the formation is known
as a
9.
rock permits the movement
of gases and liq-
uids because it has tiny holes in it.
Water that is found with oil sinls to the bottom because the water
10.
ls
A
special drill can be studied for types of rocks
or for fossils.
has made a special study of fossils.
A
-.-
has made a special study of the efiects of
forces such as gravity
or magnetism on the earth.
than the oil.
brought up from below the surface by
measnres the force of magnetism.
11.
t2.
13. A
14. A
which measures vibrations within the
earth, can be used to detect earthquakes as well as oil formations.
15. A
measures
the force of gavitational pull.
I6.
rocks exert more gravitational pull than
porous rocks, which are lighter.
17. When
layers of porous and nonporous rocks meet, it is possible for
PETROI.EUM INDUSTRY
oil to be
move though
the nonporous
rock'
because it can no longer continue to
limestone, and dolomite are typical porous
rocls.
B. Look at tlre following diagrams.
Indicate whether oil might be
trapped in each of the formations
that is shown. If so, indicate
what the formation is called.
26
PETROLEUM
INDUSTI
4.
6.
7.
PETROLET]M INDT]STRY
8.
9.
10.
--Iy---'
r
UNIT THBEE
DRILLING FOR OIL
Special Terms
To Spud In: To be$n &illing an oil well.
Dry Hole: A well that does not ffnd oil. Often, many dry holes are
drilled before oil is discovered.
Derrick: A portable tower, usually built of steel with an open
framework, that holds the equipment and machines used to drill
an oil well.
Cable-tool Drilling: A system for drilling oil wells. A hole is punched
into the ground by dropping a cutting tool into dirt or rock.
Bitr A cutting tool.
Rotary Drilling: Another system for drilling oil wells. A cutting bit
drills the hole with a rotary or circular motion.
Casing: Pipe that is put inside the well as it is being drilled in order to
prevent contamiration of fresh water
fty
salt water, oil, and gas),
washout of the hole by drilling fluids, collapse of the hole, and so
forth.
String: Any pipe tlat is in the hole, including tubing or casing. The
string consists of many joints
of pipe, each of which is about
thirty feet long. Two, three, or four joints
at a time are called
dublzs, thribblzs, or
fourbles,
respectively.
Drilling Mud: A special mixture of water, clay, and chemicals used to
bring crushed rock to the surface during drilling. It also helps to
lubricate and cool the bit.
Rigr The special equipment for drilling an oil well.
Directional Drilling: A technique for drilling a well at an angle rather
than straiglrt down.
Gusher: A well in which underground pressure forces the oil out vio-
Iently and usually wastefully.
Drilling Pladorm: A large platform, like a man-made island, that is
used when drilling for oil in ofishore locations.
CAOWN
BLOCK
nuD
HOSE
'GILY
0ct<
DnAt'l
,latD
P01TAELE
DEn1rcK
t'laDE
4N
S EL
F- P40 PE L L E D
YlORKOVER
RIG
K,#t/{a
Drilling lor Oil
AJter the geologists and their assistants have decided where there
is likely to be oil, the actual drilling can begin. An exact place is
picked to spud in the well; that is, to begin drilling.
This begins one of the biggest, most exciting, and most expensive
gambling games in the world today. Have the geologists been right?
Will the drilling produce oil? Will all the money invested in the well,
often involving millions of dollars, return the investment, or will it be
a total loss? A large proportion of all the wells drilled are dry holes,
wells tlrat have not struck oil. This is particularly true in new oil
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Vocabulary Practice
When do oil workers spud in a well?
What is a drg Lnb? Why is it a problem in the oil industry?
What is a dcnick and, what is it used for?
What is the cutting tool that is used in drilling for oil called?
What is the difierence between cabb-tool and rotary ilrilling?
Wtnt is crcing? Why is it often necessary to use casing?
What is a string? ln what lengths do strings come?
What is ibilling muil?
'V,lhat
is it used for?
What does the word rig refer to?
How does directiorwl drilling difrer from the usual drilling
techniques?
What ts a gnhzr?
When is it necessary to we a ddlling pln{orm?
4.
5.
6.
9.
10.
.
PE-TROLEUM TNDTTSTRY 3I
FISHTAIL
ROLLER BIT
DIAMOND
DRILL BIT
Tlpical bits used in ddlling for oil. Each type is suitable for use in penetrating
difierent subsurface layers.
fields. The first producing well in Alberta, Canada, came in only after
thirty years of exploration and 133 dry holes. Obviously, in that case
the indicatiors of oil were strong enough to make it worthwhile to
continue the search.
When the spot to spud in the well has been selected, a portable
dct rhk is erected to hold all the equipment and machines that will be
used while the drilling is going on. The derrick is an open-work tower,
ordinarily made of steel. It is a symbol for both the oil industry and
tle search for petroleum. Today, most derricks can be erected in a few
houn.
Difierent techniques are used to drill an oil well. One of them,
cable-tool ilrilling is the same system that was used for digging the
first real oil well back in 1859, a system originally used for digging
wells for water. Basically, it involves punching a hole deeper and
deeper into the gound. A cutting tool, called a bit, on the end of a
drilling stem is raised and then allowed to fall; the bit cuts and crushes
the dirt or rock at the bottom of t}re well. When the stem and bit are
pulled up, the debris at the bottom of the well is removed. Then the
bit is dropped again to crush more rock, and the process is repeated
over and over again. Casing steel pipes that line the well for a variety
of reasors, is used.in all wells except those abandoned at very shallow
&pth..
7
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Cable-tool drilling is only used
when the well is shallow and when
there is hard rock to cut through.
Most modern wells are drilled by
tte rotarg drilling method. This.is
similar to the way in which a car-
penter drills a hole in a piece of
wood. A cutting bit drills with a cir-
cular or rotary motion, at the same
time pushing up the waste from the
drilling process.
Cable-tool drilling was derived
from the method for drilling wells
for water. Thanks to the rotary
method, both water and oil have
been discovered at great depth,s
beneath tle surface of the ground.
Great reservoirs of water have been
found by oil drillers below the sur-
faces of the deserts of Libya and
Saudi Arabia, two arid countries
which are large producers of oil.
Drilling an oil well requires a
great deal of expersive equipment.
The drilling bits, for example, are
specially designed for the different
kinds of urderground layers that
they have to cut through. And no
matter how strong or sharp they are,
they wear out sooner or later and
mrst be replaced. The lengths of
steel tube, that make up the drill
pipe are also expensive. The drill
pipes are lcrown as a Itrifl& consist-
ing of many sections of pipe
joined
together. Each pipe section is about
thirty feet long. Two sectiors, three
sectiors, or four sectiors at a time
are known x dubbq thribblps, or
fourblzs.
respectively. The casing Cable-tool drilling.
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
tlat lines the well is also called a
string.
Everything but the casi-ng is
considered part of the rig, a term
that refen to all of the special
equipment that is involved in drill-
ing the well. Each of the strings of
casing must fit within the one that
has previously been lowered into
the ground. They are like a tele-
scope that opens out; vrith the
casing for an oil well, the large end
is at the srrface. However, each
rew string almost always runs from
the bottom of the hole (at the time
the string was placed in the hole) all
the way to the surface. The use of
such casihg indicates that the ge-
olo$sts have had to make a fairly
exact estimate of the depth at which
oil should be found. Nonetleless,
there is always plenty of exha pipe
around in case they underestimated
the depttrs.
Mud also plays an important
part in rotary drilling. The mud,
however, is a special mixture of
water, clay, and chemicals that is
kaown as drilling nr.ad. It is pumped
down througlr the hollow center of
the drill pipe, and it helps to push
the debris from the drilling back to
the surface. It also helps to keep the
drill bit cool and lubricated.
The drilling mud brings frag-
ments of tle rock (called drill
*triog.) or other material to the
zurface from the bottom of the well.
Geologists can study these samples
to detect the presence of oil-bearing
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Directional drilling.
rocks or sands. Special bits can also bring up cores that the geologists
can study for further evidence of oil.
Most holes for oil wells are drilled straight down. However, a
technique known as directional drillinghas been developed to tap oil
pools which are under water, particularly in coastal areas. Directional
drilling has been used particularly in Califomia where many of the
ofishore oil deposits are near land. This drilling method is also used to
bring fires or gushers under control. Gushers are wells that shoot up
oil violently because of underground pressure. By means of directional
drilling, mud can be pumped into a gushing well or into one that is on
fire.
Directional drilling can be used to tap underwater oil deposits
near land. Nowadays, however, more and more exploration and drill-
ing are being carried on in deeper water farther from shore. For
instance, there are active oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico ofi Texas and
Louisiana in the United States, and in the North Sea off the northern
coast of Scotland. To drill for this oil, special drilling platfonrus mt:st
be built. They are really man-made islands which are able to resist the
battering from the seas that surround them, at the same time provid-
ing a base for all the equipment and workers employed in bringing in
the well.
The drilling platforms rest on long steel piers that are driven into
the sea bottom, often a hundred or more feet below the surface of the
water. They rise high out of the sea, high enough so that they stand
bl
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Iminoco Ofishore Drilling And Production Unit-Persian Gulf
above the waves even in the most violent storms. The platforms can
hold
all the equipment for drilling several wells; they also provide
Iiving
quarters for the people who are working on the wells. This is
another
kind of operation, incidentally, in which directional drilling is
fiequently
used. The cost of building the platform makes it necessary
that each one of tJrem is used to drill as many wells as possible.
Oil wells are also drilled in blazing deserts, in steaming
jungles,
and in the fiozen ground of the Arctic-in other words, wherever
there is evidence of substantial deposits of oil. Even under the best o{
cftcumstances, drilling for oil is a difficult
job
that calls for rugged
men
to carry it out. Under the di{ficult conditions of many new oil
fields, it can become even more demanding. If we believe the movies,
drilling
is the romantic part of the oil business, with a pot of gold
waiting
at the bottom of the well. The movies ordinarily forget
another aspect of the business-the frequent disappointment tlat can
await the drillers at the bottom of a dry hole.
Discussion
What is the first step in drilling for oil? When is this decided?
Why is drilling an oil well a big
gamble?
35
36 PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
3. Where is there a large proportion of dry holes? Give an example,
4. After the spot to spud in the well has been selected, what is done
next?
5. What is tlle derrick made of.) What does it hold?
6. When was cable-tool drilling first used to bring in an oil well?
Wtrat else had this system been used for?
7. How is a well drilled by the cable-tool drilling system?
8. What is casing? Where is it used?
L When is cable-tool drilling used nowadays?
10. How are most modern wells drilled?
11. How does the drilling work in the rotary method?
12. How and where has rotary drilling been usefr.rl in the discovery of
additional water supplies?
13. Why are the drilling bits expensive pieces of equipment?
14. What are steel tubes used for? In what form do they come?
15. What is the special equipment used to drill a well called?
16. In what way are the strings of casing like a telescope? Why must
they be in this form?
17. What do the geologists have to estimate quite accurately? Is extra
pipe kept available anyway?
18. How does mud also play a special part in rotary drilling? Is this
ordinary mud?
19. What does the &illing mud push to the surface? What can
geologists learn from these drill cuttings and other materials?
25.
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
g7
S. How are cores obtained? What are they used for?
91. How are most wells drilled?
?2. Why has directional drilling been developed?
23. Where has directional drilling recently been used? Why?
24 What are grshers? How is directional drilling used to bring them
under control?
What other accidents can directional drilling control?
Where is more and more drilling being carried on nowadays?
Give examples. If you know of other examples besides those men-
tioned in the reading, tell where they are located.
What must be built in order to drill for ofthore oil?
What
are drilling platforms? What do they provide?
What do the drilling platforms rest on? How deep are they?
Why do the platforms rise high out of the sea?
What can the platforms hold?
Where
are oil wells drilled?
Why does it often take rugged people to carry out the drillingP
Why does drilling often seem to be tJre most romantic
part of the
oil business?
35, Why are the drillers frequently disappointed?
27.
28.
29.
fl).
31.
32.
33.
u.
T
38
Review
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
: with
A. Fill in the spaces in the following sentences with the appropriate
word or phrase.
l. In
-=-.-
drilling, a hole is punched or pounded into
the ground with special cutting tools.
2. The cutting tools that are used in drilling are called
3. In
-_---
drilling, a circular motion like the one a
carpenter
uses to make a hole in a piece of wood is used to pene_
hate the gound.
4.
-
drilling is usually used nowadays only for
wells near the surface of the ground.
drilling is rxed for most wells nowadays
becarse they go to great depths or through layers of hard roci.
When a well does not produce oil, it is called a_-
7. When a well is being drilled, a
is used to hold
all the equipment and machines.
8. When the sides of a well might cave in, it is necessary to use steel
9. All the equipment tsed for drilling a well is called the
drilling is often used to drill for oil which is
underwater
but near the shore.
ll. A string with two sections of pipe is a
I0.
three sections, a
and with foru sections, a
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
12. When drilling takes
39
place offshore, it is necessary to build a
which can withstand violent storms at sea.
13. In a
------.'----''-. _
the oil is forced out violently by under-
ground pressure, and a great deal of oil may be lost.
14. Drilling is a special mixture of water, clay,
and chemicals that is used in rotary drilling.
15. When wells are being drilled from a platform in the sea,
drilling is often used because it is necessary
to rxe the platform for as many wells as possible.
B. Summarize in your own words the two principal kinds of modern
drilling techniques that are used in finding oil wells. Explain the
conditiom under which each kind of system would most probably
be used.
C. Explain the advantages in using directional drilling. What are the
conditiors in which directional drilling would most probably be
used?
D. Describe the principal pieces of equipment that would be
included in an oil drilling rig. Why would machines be a necessary
part of the rig? How would a rotary drilling rig differ flom a
cable-tool drilling rig?
r
I
UNIT FOUR
RECOVERING THE OIL
Special Terms
OiI Reservoir: Sand or porous rock saturated with oil. This is
always a more accurate description of most petroleum deposits
than oil pool.
Driver Natural pressure which forces oil to the zurface.
Dissolved-gas Drive: Pressure from gas dissolved in oil. The dissolved
gas expands and forces the oil to move.
Gas-cap Driver Pressure {rom a large amount of gas abooa the oil. The
gas expands and forces the oil to move.
Water Drive: Pressure from water belou: the oil that forces the oil to
move.
Christmas Tree: A system of valves to cortrol the rate of flow at the
surface of a particular well.
Secondary Recoveryr Reworking an oil field to recover oil that pre-
viously could not be brought to the surface.
Proved Reserves: The amount of oil already discovered that will be
recovered by known technology.
IJltimate Resources: The amount of oil believed to be in the ground
based on estimates by oil geologists. Both proved reserves and
ultimate resources are measrued in barrels of oi1.
Vocabulary Practice
1. What is a more appropriate name for most petroleum deposits than
oil pool?
PEIROLEUM INDUSTRY
2. How is the term d,rioe used in the petroleum industry?
3. What ts a dissoloed-gas d,rioe?
4. What is a gas-cap drioe?
5. What is a uater drioe?
6. In tlre petroleum industry, what does a Cfuistnus tree rcfet to?
7. What s snond,ary recooery?
8. What are prooed, reseroes?
9. What are ultimate resources?
A Christmas tree-the pipes and valves that mark the locatioD of most wells after
they have been brought in.
'..-:-=:,===:--
7l*r'a4t
7
I
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Recovering the Oil
We have nsed the ter:rr oil pools to refer to deposits of petroleum
as though there were underground lakes of oil. A more accurate term,
however, is one that is often used in the petroleum industry: oil
resensoirs. The deposits are, in other words, more often like piles of
sand or porous rock that have been saturated with oil. Oil does not
really flow rapidly through sand or rock, of course; it must be forced
to move. There are three kinds of natural driaes, as the forces that
carse the oil to move are called. Each drive involves the gas and water
that are almost always found with oil, as we have previously
observed.
Dissolved-gas drive.
First is the dissoloed-gas drdoz. Dissolved gas is mixed with the
oil. As it expands, it exerts a pressure which pushes the oil through
rock or sand. Recovery is low when this type of drive is encoun-
tered.
Second is the gas-cap ilrioe. Cas has not only dissolved in the oil;
a large amount of it has formed above the oil. As the gas expands, it
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
43
4
Gas-caP drive'
forces the oil to move through the rock or sand' Recovery is generally
somewhat higher
with this kind of drive.
Third is the oatar driog in which there is a large amount of water
below the oil. Pressure forces the water upward
into the oil-bearing
rock or sand and moves the oil ahead of it. It generally recovers
more
oil than the other two drives.
If reservoir pressure is not high enough
for the oil and water that
flow into the well to be pushed all the way to the surface,
then
pumping is necessary. This is more expensive
than when natural
drives
are
fresent,
since power for the pumping
must b-e su-pplied.
r-In
the early days of the oil industry,
new wells often came
in as
gushers. In these
wells great undergound
pressure forced
the oil
ipward without any coniro! and it was necessary
to wait until the
piessure dropped enough
for the oil to flow at a normal
rate before
a"y of it
"oid
b"
recovered. Of course, a great deal of oil was
wasted
when a wtlll gushed in this waY.
Today, gieat care is taken to prevent
gushers' They are
indeed
quite rare, tianks to the use of modern
technologlr'
The petroleum
i"a*t y toa"y i. very concerned
about
acquiring the greatest possible
anount of oil from each deposit
without unnecessary
waste'
\
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
-Weter
drive.
The steps for the recovery of the oil begin as soon as a new well is
spudded in. Geologists study the indications for the presence of the oil
itself. [,ater, petroleum engineers try to predict the kind of drive that
will be present. With the aid of computers, they can determine how a
deposit will behave under the efiects of the difierent techniques that
can b used to make the oil flow to tlre surface.
At the head of most wells is a device that is called a Christmas
tree. TLlrk is really a system of valves that controls the amount of oil
which is allowed to flow to the surface. The Christmas tree directs the
oil into the storage tanlcs, where it is kept until it is shipped to its next
destination.
After a well has been brought in, the derrick is usually pulled
down, only to be put up at the spot where another well is to be
drilled. The valves of the Christmas tree and the pipes leading from it
will probably be the only sign left that there is a producing oil well in
the neighborhood. This is quite difierent from many of the older
pictures of oil fields, with derricks crowded together, often only a few
feet apart. In fact, in a modern ffeld the wells are usually spaced quite
-__
l--
_
---
I
-
-
--
t- -
---
__
:
:L=t.-
PE-TROLEUM INDUSTRY
45
far apart, since it is more profitable to recover the same amount of oil
with fewer wells.
As more oil is removed from the field, the pressure of the original
drive gradually decreases. Sometimes the natural pressure drops to a
point where no more oil can be recovered from the deposit. Nowa-
days, variors methods in addition to pumping are used to keep these
deposits producing
if there is an indication that more oil can be
recovered.
One technique is to pump water into the oil-bearing formation,
pushing or displacing the oil ahead of it toward the production
wells.
This system restores water drive. Another technique that will restore
natural pressure to the formation is to pump gas back into the oil-
bearing layer.
Wells occasionally become blocked by pieces of asphalt, wax, or
other solid material. In this case, the obstruction
can be &ssolved
by
pumping an acid into the well. Another technique involves pumping
water and sand into the well under high pressure.
All of these techniques have enormously increased the amount of
oil tiat can be recovered. In the early days of the industry, as much as
75 percent of the oil had to be left in the ground. With more modern
methods, the figure has been reduced to 50 percent or even less. Many
fields that had been abandoned have been brought back into produc-
tion. When a field is reworked in this way, it is called secondary
recoDery.
In addition to secondary recovery, the increased technical ability
of modern oilmen has led to the discovery of deposits at levels trnder-
neath existing
fields. It is now possible to bring in producing wells
more than 20,000 feet below the stuface of the earth!
The corstantly rising demand for oil and the world's increasing
dependence on oil as an enerry source have made efficient recovery
more and more important. The economic
forces are the same as those
that have led to deeper drilling and geater exploration for under-
water oil deposits. Oil is indeed black gold; every drop of it is precious
in today's world.
More efficient recovery techniques have led to an increase in the
proaed resenses of petroleum, although they continue to dwindle when
expressed in terms of annual consumption.
Prot'dd reserves refers to
the amount of oil in the ground that wil be recovered by known
technology. Illtimate resources refers to the amount of oil that has
been discovered. The estimates of proved reserves and ultimate
r
46
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
resour_ ces are usually given in barrels of oil. Together, they represent
an
-educated
guess as to the amount of oil stili present beneath the
zurface of the earth.
Estimated proved reserves of major oil-producing groups in billions of barrels
fanuary
1975).
Discussion
l. What does the rse of the term odl pooh suggest?
2. What are deposits of petroleum more often like? What term is
med to refer to them?
3. Why must oil be forced to move if it is to be recovered from the
ground?
What are the forces called that cause oil to move? How many
kinds of them are there?
What do the drives involve?
Describe dissolved-gas drive. Is recovery high with this drive?
4.
5.
6.
i,IDDLE EAST
coMtltuNtsT
COUNTRIES
WESTERN
HEMISPHERE
AFRICA
wd,,,,o
HNffi U"
EUR.PE
& ,u.o
AsrA-PAcrFrc
M ,,.o
PE'TROLEUM INDUSTRY
47
7. Describe gas-cap drive. Which leads to higher recovery,
dissolved-gas drive or gas-cap &ive?
8. Describe water drive.
9. What must be done if reservoir
pressure is not higb enough?
f0. Why is pumping
more expersive than a natural drive?
11. What often happened to new wells in the early days
of the
industry?
12. What forced the oil upward
in a gusher?
13. When could
oil be recovered from a gusher?
14. Was any waste involved
with gushers?
15. Why are
gushers uncommon
nowadays?
16. What is the petroleum
industry
very concemed
about today?
17. When do the steps for recovery of oil from a new well begin?
18. What do
geologists and petroleum
engineers study and try to
predict?
.19.
What is the system of valves at the heads of most wells called?
What does it do?
20. Where does the Christmas
tree direct the oil?
21. What usually happers to the derrick after a well has been brought
mi
22. What sign is left that there is an oil well in the neighborhood?
23. In a modem oil field, why are the wells usually spaced quite
far
apart?
24. What happens
as more oil is taken out of a field? How low can the
pressure drop?
,I8
PETROI,EUM INDUSTRY
25, Is it pocsible to recover any more oil when the pressure is low?
26. What is one technique to get more oil from a ffeld?
27. What natural drive is restored when water is pumped into an oil-
bearing formation?
28. What is another technique that can be rxed to recover more oil?
29. When an oil well becomes blocked, what is one technique for
reopening the well?
30. What is a second technique for opening up a blocked well?
31, How does the amount of oil that can be recovered today difier
fiom tle amormt that could be recovered in the early days of the
industy?
32. What expression is used for an oil field for additional
recovery?
33. What else has the increased technical ability of modem oilmen
ld to? How deep can wells be drilled today?
34 Why has the technologr of eficient recovery become more
important?
35. What else have these economic forces led to?
36. Why is oil indeed black gold?
37. What are the estimates called that refer to the oil remaining in
the ground that win be recovered by lmown technology?
38. How do proved reserves difier from ultimate resources?
39. How are both of them measured?
<lO. What do both proved reserves and ultimate resources together
represent?
PETROI,EUM INDUSTRY
Review
A. Fill in the spaces in the following sentences with the aPPropriate
word or phrase.
l. A natural
is a force that can cause oil to move
ahead of it by exerting pressure.
2. Oil is a better description of a petroleum
deposit tlan oil pool.
In a gas-cap drive, the gas is
dl.
In a water drive, the water is
oil.
5.A
drive does
not lead to the recovery of as
much oil as a gas-cap drive.
6. When resewoir pressure is not very high,
be used to bring the oil to the surface.
7. The system of valves to control the fow of oil at the head
of a
well is linown as a
---.
8.A
which forces oil to the surface without any
control, is very wastefirl.
The reworking of oil ffelds that were at one time considered to
be
used up is lnown as
The amount of oil remaining in the
ground that will be recovered
by known technologyr is called
refers to the amount of oil that has been
discovered.
Producing wells can nowadays be brought
in at depths of
the deposit of
the deposit of
must
11.
12.
or even more.
PETROIII]M INDUSTRY
13. Both proved reserves and ultimate resources are usually
$ven
in
terms of of oil.
14. Ttre value of oil has made techniques of eficient
more and more important in the oil industry today.
B. Look at tle diagrams below. Then tell what kind'of drive is
prment, if any, or whether tlere is an obstruction present. If there
is no natural drive, tell what might be done to bring the oil to the
ground.
2.
51
6.
7.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
-lr
I
'4"%,
----
=------,A.-
t-=-a-=--:{}=i
-_---LJ
:
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
8.
Y'
UNIT FIVE
TRA'VSPOBTING OIL
Special Terms
Tank: Any large container for holding or transporting a liquid or a
gas. Tanks of one kind or anotler are used both for storing and
transporting petroleum and its products.
Tank Car: A railroad freight car specially designed with a tank for
transporting petroleum.
Pipeline: A system designed to transport a liquid or a gas through
pipes.
Flow Line: A pipeline running from a well to a larger line in the
field.
Gathering Line: A pipeline running from the storage tanl<s in the field
to a major pipeline.
Trunk Liner A major pipeline connecting the oil field with a refinery
or shipping point.
Pig: A device to clean a pipeline. It is forced along by the pressure or
flow of the oil.
Pipeline Walker: A person who patrols the pipeline to look for signs of
leaks. Nowadays, much of the
"walking" is done from low-flflng
airplanes.
Product Pipeline: A pipeline that carries ffnished petroleum prod-
ucts-such as
gasoline-from the refinery to the points where it
can be distributed to customers.
Tankerr
A ship specially designed to transport petroleum and petro-
leum products. Some tankers are enormous, weighing as much as
500,000 tons.
PETROLEUM INDT]STEY
Barge: A flat-bottomed boat desigred primarily for use on inland
waterways such as rivers or canals. Many barges have been
adapted to carry oil or petroleum products.
Tank Truck: An automobile truck designed to carry petroleum prod-
ucts. It is ordinarily used to deliver products to customers.
Vocabulary
Practice
l. What is a /ank? In what forms of oil transportation
does the word
tank appear?
What are some of the difierent kinds oI pipellnzs?
What is a pig used for?
What does a pi.pelirle ualker look for? Does he always
.,walk"?'
How does a product pipeline &fier from a crude oil pipeline?
What is a barge? What do many of them carry?
Transporting
Oil
One of the most remarkable aspects of the oil industry has been
tlie speed with which it has developed the technology to increase the
world's supply of oil. We have already noted the great advances that
have been made in drilling both deeper wells and wells in difficult
terrain. We have also observed that technical advances have made it
possible to recover even larger amounts of oil from existing deposits.
One of the areas in which the technical advances have'been most
spectacular is in the trarsportation of petroleum and petroleum prod-
ucts. Many oil fields have been discovered in places that are far from
the point at which the oil will be refined and used. One has only to
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Main oil movements by sea (1975)
think of oil deposits on the shores of the Arctic Ocean or in the
jungles
on the interior slope of the Amazon basin to realize the difficulties
that are involved in getting the oil from the well to the consumer.
In fact, the dificulty was present at the world's ffrst producing
well, the one near Titusville, Perursylvania, which we mentioned in
Unit One. There were no railroads in that area in 1859, and no roads
were good enough to get the oil out. In addition, the cost of hauling
banels with teams of horses or mules turned out to be much too high.
The first solution was to ship the oil, already placed in barrels, on
barges down a small stream to the Ohio River. This, however, was
very hazardous. There were many accidents and a great deal of oil
was lost. When the railroad eventually reached Titusville, special
freiglrt cars-those that we now call tank cars-were soon designed to
transport the oil to market.
Meanwhile, steel pipes that would carry the oil were being
developed. These were the first oil pipelines, which took advantage of
the fact that oi} is a liquid. The idea of a pipeline was not new; water
had been transported through pipes for hundreds of years. The oil
56
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
A railroad tank car.
pipelines were not accepted without a struggle, however. Some men
whohad beer hauling the oil up to that time used explosives to blow
up the newly laid lines! In the long run, howevei, the pipelines
offered so many advantages that they won out. The 6rst .""1 lorrg_
distance pipeline was built in l87g in
pennsylvania.
It was later
extended to New York harbor at Bayonne, New
Jersey,
which is still
an important storage, refining, and shipping center.
-
It is t}le liquid state of oil that ofiers the great advantage over
coal as the primary energy source in today's industrialized woild. No
matter how abundant coal is, it is bulky and heavy and therefore diffi_
cult to ship. Oil can flow through pipelines to tire market at a rela_
tively low cost. Of course, the oil must be pumped because the
pipelines go up and down hills.
There are several kinds of pipelines. Fbu lines run from the well
to a large line in the ffeld which is called a gathering line. The oil is
then carried into a trunk line. The trunl lines traniport the oil to
refineries or to storage areas, usually at ports so that the oil can be
transshipped
by water. The diameters of pipelines vary from about an
PETROLEUM INDUSTNY
Pipelines crossing a desert,
A ditching m4chine, used to dig a trench for a pipeline.
58
pETRoLEUM
INDUSTRY
inch for a flow Iine to as much ds forty-eight inches for one of the
major tnurl lines.
The first step in building a pipeline is to plan and survey the
route. The survefng can be done not only on the ground but from ttre
air. Then the construction crews come in with bulldozers that clear
and level tle route and ditching machines that dig a trench for the
line if it is going to run underground
Some pipelines run above the surface, especially in rugged or
uninhabited areas, but many others run beneath the ground. Ilrr-f"r--
ing country with open ffelds, there may be no surface indication at all
of the black stream of oil under the gowing crops. However, the
pipelines are marked by pumping stations at an uu"tage distance of
about seventy-ffve miles-closer together in mountainous areas, far-
ther apart in flat countryside. Special equipment may also be neces-
sary for some pipelines; in Alaska, for instance, special heating
devices are required to keep ttre oil from freezing in the interse cold.
A pig, used to clean a pipeline.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
59
Pipelines are cleaned by a device called' a pig' This mechanism
has metal blades that scrape the inside of the pipe to keep it clear of
the tar-Iike substance that forms in it. The pressure of the oil itself
forces the pig to move through the pipe. The pig can only go from one
pumping station to the next, where it is taken out and cleaned.
The pipelines must be constantly checked. Each section is
patrolled by t pipeline ualker who looks for evidence of a leak or
other damage in the line. It is possible to smell escaping gas or to
detect spots where seepage has occurred. Nowadays, many
"walkers"
do their irspecting from low-flying airplanes, since traces o{ seepage
can be seen from the air.
So far, we have been describing crude oil pipelines, the lines that
are used to carry unrefined petroleum from the wells to refineries or
shipping points. In recent years, another type of pipeline has been
developed that carries finished products flom the refineries to distribu-
tion centers. It is called re product pipeline. Strange as it may seem,
products as difierent as gasoline, benzene, or kerosene can be
carried
in the same pipeline with only a very small amount of mixing. In part,
this is possible because the density of each of these products is
&fierent, and as a result there is relatively little contamination at the
interfuce btween the two products.
The rate of flow and the location
of each product can be calculated
by computers according
to each
product's dersity.
Typical distribution of petroleum products io a product pipeline.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
The trarsportation of oil has also led to the spectacular devel-
opment of giant ships, the largest ships that have ever sailed the
ocears of the world. In the last few years, since it has been necessary
to ship oil from the Middle East-one of the world's largest oil produc-
ing regions-around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, ttrese
tankers have grown to almost unbelievable proportions. They weiglr
as much as 500,000 tons. Monsters weiglring 200,000 or 250,000 tons,
which would have seemed impossible not many years ago, have
become common.
A tarker.
The ffrst ship specifcally designed to carry oil was built in 1886.
Its dislinctive feature, and that of every tanker built since then, is that
the metal plates of the ship serve also as the walls for the tanks to hold
the oil. The outer design of tankers has changed and 6e machinery
and controls have become enormously more sophisticated but the
basic principle of their corstruction has remained the same.
The zupertankers that sail the seas today have so many &f,erent
compartments that they can carry crude oil and ffnished products at
the same time, or even crude oil from several sources, which may be
different chemical mixturqs. The crew's quarters and the bridge, irom
which the captain controls the navigation of the ship, form an island-
often as high as a skyscraper-at the back of the ship. Extending for-
ward is a vait expanse of deck, where there are pipes and valveJ that
are rsed to load and unload the tanls and to maintain steady pressure.
OUAAEBS AXD
El'lGll{E asEA
CARGO TANK COMPARTMENTS
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Looking forward toward the bow of a modern supertanker.
On many of these huge ships, computers
keep track of and perhaps
supervise both the loading operation
and tie navigation.
Some of the tankers are so large, they cannot bring tieir cargo of
oil into a conventional port. There are, for example, no ports on the
East Coast of the United States that can handle tle supertankers.
To
take care of these giant ships, special offshore facilities have been
built where the ships can load and unload. These ofishore sites use
-
-
- ---:,--
=--..'...
-
-
-
-'---:
/l
--<
=*---
-2
----\--<
=<5
t
1t
FLOATING
UNDERWATER
HOSE
An offshore anchorage for a supertanker.
1T
il
i
i;i
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
underwater pipelines to transport the oil to or from tle storage areas
on shore.
Other special types of carriers
have been developed for the trans-
portation of oil or oil products. On
water, special barges are used for
transporting oil on sheltered or in-
land waterways like lakes, rivers, or
canals. They are built on the same
principle as the supertankers-the
wall of the ship is also the wall of
the oil tanks. The oil barges are a
much more common sigbt on tbe in-
land waterways of Europe than in
the United States, where much of
the petroleum is transported by
pipeline.
On land, we have already men-
tioned the tank cars that were de;
veloped early in the history of the
oil industry to transport petroleum
by rail. Today, one of the familiar
sights on our highways is the tank
tnrcl<, v\icb is a special kind of au-
tomobile used to carry petroleum or
petroleum products,
The tank truck is ordinarily
used for short-haul transportation-
distances of a few hundred miles at
the most. It usually carries oil prod-
ucts from the reffnery to the distrib-
utor or from the distributor to the
customer. It is, in otler words, the
last link in the chain of trans-
portation tlat transports oil from a
ffeld in Alaska" let us say, to the man
who needs gasoline for his car in
Omaha" Nebraska.
Al oil barge used for transporting
petroleum products on inland
waterways.
:_:]]Er.lA
>---5.re=={Z
:F
A tank tmck.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Discussion
L What is one of
industry?
the most remarkable aspects of the petroleum
2. What particular technical advances have we already noted?
3. In what area have there been spectacular technical advances?
4. Where have many oil fields been discovered? Give exarnples. If
you know of other examples besides those given in tl-re reading
tell what they are.
5. What difficulties were encountered at the first producing oil well?
Where was that well?
What method of trarsportation turned out to be too expemive?
What method was then tried to get the oil out? Why wasn't this
very successful?
What was done when the railroad finally reached Titusville?
What experiments in bansporting oil were being made at the
same time?
10. What did the pipelines take advantage ofl)
II. Was the idea of pipelines new?
12. What struggle accompanied the first attempts to build pipelines?
13. Why did pipelines win out in the long run?
14. When and where was the fust real long-distance pipeline built?
15. Why does oil have an advantage over coal as an enerry source?
16. Why must oil be pumped through pipelines?
6.
8.
9.
u
17.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
What are the pipelines that run from the well into larger lines in
the ffeld called?
18. What are the lines that connect these larger lines with the major
pipelines called?
19. What are tle major lines that transport oil to refineries or
Sippiog points called?
20. Why is oil shipped to
ports?
21. How large may the difierent kinds of pipelines be?
22. What is the ffrst step in building a pipeline? How can this be
done?
23. What do construction crews do with bulldozers and ditching
machines?
Where do some pipelines run above the ground?
Where
are many other pipelines? What indication may there be
of these lines?
What is the average distance between pumping statiors? Where
are they closer? Where are they farther apart?
What is an example of special equipment that may be necessary
for a pipeline?
How are pipelines
cleaned?
What forces the pipeline cleaning device to move through the
pipe?
How far can the cleaning device travel?
By whom are the pipelines constantly checked? What do these
people look for?
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
25.
30.
31.
PSTROLEUM
INDUSTRY
32. What are some
42.
43.
44.
ways in which they can detect damage to the
pipeline?
33. Why is it possible to do some of this work from the air?
34. What kinds of pipelines
have been described
up to this point in
the reading?
35. What other type of pipeline
has been developed
in recent years?
36. What can be done witl difierent
kinds of products
in the same
pipeline?
37. What makes it possible
for computers
to compute the rate of flow
and the location
of difierent
products?
38. What spectacular
development has the transportation of oil led
to?
39. To what size have tankers
grown in recent years?
40. What has caused the growth of tankers
in recent years?
41. When was the first ship designed speciffcally
to carry oil?
What
was distinctive
about its design?
How has the design of tankers changed
since then?
Why do supertankers today
have many difierent compartments?
Where are the crew's quarters and the bridge? What is the bridge
of a ship?
What extends forward from the bridge and the crew's
quarters?
How are the navigation and the loading operation performed
on
many of the big tankers?
47. What is an example of an area where the tankers cannot
be
handled?
45.
46.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
What has been done in some places to ta"ke care of these giant
ships?
49. How are pipelines used in cormection with these offshore anchor-
ages?
50. Where do barges usually operate?
51. On what principle have the barges been adapted to carry oil?
52. Why are barges a more common siglrt in Europe than in tle
United States?
53. What is a familiar sight on our highways?
54. What is the tank truck ordinarily used for?
55. From whom to whom does the tank truck usually carry oil prod-
ucts?
Review
A. Fill in the spaces in the following sentences witl the appropriate
word or phrase.
l.
-
can be used to transport liquids or gases such
as water, petroleum, or natural gas.
lines are those that connect oil fields with
reffneries, shipping points, or storage areas.
lines connect wells with larger lines in the
ffeld.
4. Because pipelines travel up and down hills, the oil must be
5. A trunk pipeline has a larger diameter than
lines or lines.
PETROIEUM 1NDUSTRY
6.A line connects the flow lines with maior lines
7.
8.
9.
10.
that transport oil to reffneries or storage areas.
is used to transport oil on railroads.
is used to transport oil on the highways.
checks for sigs of escaping gas or seepage
from undergrormd lines.
The
-
tlat cleans the pipeline is carried along
by the flow of the oil.
11. A
is a seagoing ship that is used to transport
petroleum and petroleum products.
12. Many
that operate on inland waterways
have
been specially desigred to carry oil.
13. Kerosene, gasoline, and heating oil can all be trarsported together
lna
from the refinery to the distributor.
stations are found at an average distance of
seventy-five miles apart along a pipeline.
15. The of a pipeline may be anywhere from one
t4.
to forty-eight inches.
B. Look at the pictures or diagrams below, and then explain
what
part each of them plays in the transportation of oil or oil products'
If the device shown has a pa-rticular name, mention what
it is.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
--=-:-
-'
PE"TROLEUM INDUSTRY
UNIT SIX
REFINING
OIL
Special Terms
Reffnery:-The industrial plant in which oil is ref,neil-processed
and
puriffed-into
commercially usable products. The process itseH is
c led refning
Atomsr Ttre small particles of matter that make up the chemical ele-
ments such as hy&ogen and carbon.
Moleculesr The smallest units in combinations of atoms. A molecule
of table salt, for example, contains one atom of sodium and one
atom of chlorine.
Compound/Mixture:
A compound is a combination of atoms which
are chemically joined
together into molecules, like water (two
atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen) or salt. A mixture com_
bines several difierent molecr:Ies which are zot chemically joined
together. Salt water is a mixture of molecules of salt and water.
Hydrocarbons: Substances made up of molecules formed from hydro-
gen and carbon. Crude peboleum is a mixture of several difier_
ent hydrocarbons,
Fraction: The amount of each of the difierent hydrocarbon
com_
pounds in a mixture of crude oil. For example
,
a
fraaion
oI the
hydrocarbons
makes up gasoline, and anotlier
fritian
makes up
kerosene. This is also known as a cat
Fractionating
Tower: A cylin&ical tower at a reffnery which is used
to separate t}le difrerent fractiorx of crude petroleum.
Distillation: The process of separating lighter moiecules from heavier
molecules in a mixture by heating the mixture.
Sulfrr; A chemical which is often present as an impurity in crude oil,
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Sweet OiL Oil vrith a low sulfir content.
Sour Oil: Oil with a higb rulfur content.
Cracking: The proces of breaking down the heavy molecules of some
hydrocarbons into lighter molecules.
Thermal Cracking: Cracking by the use of heat and pressure.
Catalytic Cracking: Cracking with tle aid of a catalgst, a substance
which speeds up a chemical change without udergoing any
change itself.
Petuochemicals: Chemicals derived from petroleum which are used to
form new zubstances such as tle synthetic, or man-made, plas-
tics.
Herbicide, Pesticide, Insecticide: The suffx
-ci.d'e meats something
that kills. A hefuicide kills weeds; a pesticide kills pests; an
insecticitle kills irlrsects. All of tlese substances are widely used in
modem agriculture.
Vocabulary Practice
L What does refning mean? Where is it done?
2. What are some of the chemical elements? What are the
small
particles of matter that make them up?
3. What is a mol,ecubT Give an example.
4. What is the difference between a cunpound and a mixture? Give
examples of each.
5. What elements is crude petroleum made up of.) Is crude petro-
leum a mixhrre or a compound?
6. What is a
fractiort?
What else is it sometimes called?
7. What k r
fractiotnting
tutser
lused
fot?
8. What ts d.istilhtion?
9. What is the difierence between sueet and. smtr oil? Is it good to
l:eve sulfur in the oil or not?
10.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
What is cracki,ng?
What is the difrerence between thermal cratking and catalgtic
crackinS
Where do petrochernicals come from? What are they used for?
What does the suftx -ciile indicate? Give examples of words that
include this suIfix,
Retining Oil
One of the most distinctive and at the same time most character-
istic sights of the industrial age is the oil refinery. It is a bewildering
scene of differently colored pipes, flames shooting into the sky, and all
kinds of forms such as cylinders, spheres, and towers. An unpleas-
An oil reffnery.
PETROLEUM
{NDUSTRT
73
ant smell usually
hangs
over the entire
area'
The entire complex
is
*"a"
"p
of the
"ppata't,s
in which
petroleum
is heated' cooled'
pres-
surized,- and
mlxed to make products
that the consumer
can use'
Crude
oil is a raw material,
like iron ore, which must
be pro-
cessed before
it can be rsed. In fact, there
are several
.difierent
pro-
;; ,ht""gh
which oil can be passed,
but together
they are
called
refining.
Crude
oil is a mixtue of a number
of difierent
chemicals
that are
c lei hgdrocarbons
because
they are composed
of atoms
of hydrogen
and
"a.ion.
The atoms
are
joined together
into molecules'
the
com-
p",-j.
"t
*ftl"ft are the smallest
physical
units of. a particular
sub-
i*". Uyatog""
and carbon
canloin
together
into many difierent
""*p""",i.
*tift difierent
moleculai
struciures'
They can form small'
lis# molecules
which are
gases, heavier
molecules
which are liquids'
n.?"" fr"""i".
molecules"which
are
solids or semisolids
like asphalt
*a *"*. The
least complex
hy&ocarbons,
those
with the
fewest
"to.r
u"a therefore
the
liglrtesi
weights,
make
up products
such as
;;;;1t""
**1" .or"
"o-pi"t
and heavier
molecules
make up prod-
ucts like lubricating
oil.
The mixtue
of crude
oil contains
frattiorc
of the
difierent
hydrocarbon
molecules,
that
is, a certain
amount
of each
of.them'
A
fiaction of the molecules
is contained
in gasoline,
for example'
and a
fraction of the molecules
is contained
in Leating oil' In ad&tion'
the
crude oil mixture
usually
contains
impurities
of one kind or
.another'
d;;iA"
most common
ancl least
deilrable
of these is the chemical'
r"ff',t. Ol
with a low sulfur content
is c led sueet oil" and oil
with a
high sulfur
content
is called
sozr oil'
The refining
process
separates
the difierent
fractions of molecules
in the crude
oil mixture
into usable
products'
It also
removes
the
impurities
from the oil.
The first step
is called d'istillntion'
The oil is heated to a high
temperature
in cl s of pipe that
pass over a furnace' Then
the oil is
plpfu into a tall cylintler
-that
is called
a
fractionating
touar'
All but
ih! heat iest molecules
change
into a vapor or a gas The
gas rises
through a series of levels
in the tower'
Those nearest the bottom'
*h"."-th"
oil enters, are t}te hottest,
and those nearest the top
are the
"oolot.
A. the vapors
rise, they condense-that
is, they turn into liq-
Jds again-at
a
farticular
temperature
at a particular
level
in the
tower.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Gasoline, the lightest of the
major petroleum products, collects
at the top levels, with kerosene
below it and heating and lubricating
oils flrther down. At the bottom are
solids and semisolids such as
asphalt and tar. The impurities that
have been removed by the dis-
tillation process also collect at the
bottom,
where they can be
removed. Each level in the tower is
known as a
fraction
or czt Pipes
Iead off from each level of the
fractionating tower so that each cut
can be further refined or processed,
if necessary.
When the oil industry got its
start, the product in greatest
demand was kerosene. Then the
automobile came along and the
public wanted gasoline. Since only
about 20 percent of crude oil can be
refined into gasoline by distillation,
the oil indrstry chemists had to ffnd
a process by which more gasoline
could be created from the other
petroleum products that were not in
such geat demand.
The process tlat they devised
is called cracking. Cracking means
breaking down the heavy molecules
of such
petroleum products as kero-
sene or lubricating oil into the
lighter molecules of gasoline.
There are two basic kinds of
cracking, thermal cracking and,
catalytic cracking. The first uses
heat and pressure to bring about the
A fractionating tower at an oil reffnery.
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
75
desired changes
in molecular
structure.
The second
takes advantage
of
a catalust. a"chemical
which causes or
qreeds up a chemical
change
withoui being
changed
itself. Througlr
a process
c led hydrocracHng
the amount Jf g"tot-io"
that can be obtained
from crude oil has been
increased to more
thar 80
Percent.
Cracking
also permits
the
industry
to adjust
to seasonal.changes
in demand.
in the ittm-"r,
for example,
when the weather
is warm'
less heating oil and more gasoline
are tumed
out by the refinery'
In
the
winterihe
ratio can bJ changed
to meet
the demand for heating
oil.
After the basic
fractionating
or cracking
process,
further
reffning
takes olace. oarticularly
of
gasoline products'
Again, tlere are several
gasoliires *"h
".
t"gt-tl"t, high-test,
special,
etc' Whatever the
names
iray be, they
indicate
that one kind of
gasoline will vaporize
more
u'"Uy'""a'"m"iently
than another
kind; in other
words'
it has a
lightei
molecule
thai hus beett obtained
by an additional
cracking
piocess. Airplane
gasoline
is an
almost
entirely artiffcial
creation'
ii*" th"
tt^ition oimolecules
in a crude
oil mixture
that can be rsed
for this purpose
is very small.
Refirr"rie.
ure u bewildering
complex
of shapes,
pipes' valves'
col-
ors, and odors'
They
are usually
connected
with large
storage areas
ani with port and shipplng
facliitles
ln spite of this complexity'
how-
ever, not
'many
p"opli
wotk
in a refinery because
it is one of
the most
hishiv automated
oi all industrial
operations'
A few workers at a cen-
fif L.""f
panel can make sure that oll
flows steadily into
t]re reffn-
ery, goes through
the various
processes'
and comes
out as the com-
mlrcial
products
that will be sent to market'
Chemistry
has played an essential
part
in the develo-pment
of the
."finiog pro"e*.
It
^has
also created
an entire,
new indts'slry
'
petto-
"l*"lioi.
These are chemicals
which are derived
from petroleum'
itr"
-ot""ut"t
of hydrocarbon
that make
up petroleum
can be
"hang"a
i.t various ways so that entirely
new substances
are
formed'
Ato*-,
""tt
b" tdd"d o. t"ke.t a*"y
from the molecule'
The molecules
"1" "f""
be rearranged
into diiferent
shapes-from
a cluster'
for
example,
to a chain.
6ther chemicals,
frequently
cblorine
or fluorine'
can b'e introduced
into the molecule
to change
its properties
still fur-
ther.
Many products
which we are all familiar
with are made
from
p.t och"irii.ls.
They include
several difierent
kinds of synthetic
plas-
iics which seem to be everywhere
today-in
our homes, our cars'
and
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
our clothes. Synthetic fabrics such as nylon and dacron are made from
petrochemicals. Many of tle products made from petrochemicals
are
substitutes for such natural substances as cotton, silk, wood, rubber,
and so on.
One area in which
petrochemicals have played an important part
is agriculture. The so-called green revolution, which has produced
higlrer yielils of many crops, depends on three factors, and two of
them involve petroleum. One factor involves t}re mechanization
of
farming with the rxe of machines such as tractors and harvesters,
which of course use petroleum products for fuel. A second
factor
involves enriching the soil with fertilizers while at the same time con-
trolling weeds and various types of pests that can eat the crops
before
they are harvested. Most of the fertilizers, weed-killers
(herbicides)'
pest-killers (pesticides), and irsect-killers
(irsecticides) used in mod-
em agriculture are made from petrochemicals.
Only in the third fac-
tor in the green revolution, the development of new types of seeds
that bring a higher yield, do oil products not play a significant part.
In
just
a little over a hundred years, oil and oil products
have
assumed a central place in industrialized socief. One reason, as we
have observed, is that oil is a liquid, which has made it a relatively
cheap source of enerry.
The second reason is tle chemistry of oil,
which has made it possible to create a rich diversity of products from
crude petroleum.
Discussion
I. In what way is the sigbt of a refinery bewildering?
2. What is an entire
refinery complex
made up oP
3. How is crude petroleum
like iron ore?
4. k there only one process through which oil passes?
5. What is crude oil?
6. How can the molecules of hydrocarbors difier from each other?
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
77
7. What do the
lightest molecules
{orm? What
do heavier
molecules
form?
8.
What does the mixture
of crude
oil contain?
Give
an example'
9. What else does
the mixture usually
contain?
10.
What is a common
impurity
in crude oil? What terms are
used
that describe
oil
with this impurity?
Il.
What two things does the refining
process
do?
12. What is the first step in the
reffning process?
13. How is the oil heated?
14.
Where is the oil piped after
it has been
heated?
15. What happens
to the heaviest
molecules
in the mixture?
16. Througlr
what does the
gas rise? Which are the hottest and
which
are the coolest?
17.
What happens to the vapon
as they
rise?
18. Why does gasoline collect
at the top
levels? What is below
it?
19.
What collects
at the bottom
of the fractionating
tower?
20, What is each
level in the tower
called?
21.
Why do pipes lead ofi from each level of the fractionating
tower?
22. What product
was in greatest
demand
in the early davs of the
industry?
23. What changed
Public
demand?
24. Why did oil
industry chemists
have to find new processes?
78
25.
26.
27.
TETROLEUM INDUSTRY
What process did tiey devise? What does this process do?
How does thermal cracking bring about a change in molecular
structue?
How does catalytic cracking bring about such a change?
What has been accomplished by hydrocracking?
What else does cracking permit the industry to do?
What different kinds of gasoline
are there? How do they difier
from each other?
Why is airplane gasoline almost entirely an artifcial creation?
What are reffneries rsually connected to?
Why don't many people work in a refinery?
What are a few workers at a control panel able to do?
What new indushy has chemistry created?
Why can entirely new substances be made from the petrochemi-
cals? How?
What are some of the products that are made from petrochemi-
cals?
For what are they often substitutes?
What is an area in which petrochemicals have played an impor-
tant part?
What
are the tlree major factors on which the geen revolution
depends?
Which of them involve petroleum products?
What has happened wittr oil in only a little over a hundred yearsP
What two reasons are there for the importance of oil?
30.
31.
32.
34.
,t).
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
4t.
42.
79
2.
PE"TROLEUM
INDUSTRY
Review
A. Fill in the spaces
in the following
sentences
with the appropriate
word or phrase.
l. Ina
crude
oil is processed into commercially
usable products.
are formed from atoms
of hydrogen and
car-
bon.
3. Crude oil is a
4. When atoms
are combined
together
they form
like those that
make up salt or water.
5. In a mixture of crude oil, there is a
of each of
the difierent chemical
substances
that make up the mixture'
is a process of heating
a substance
so as to
separate liglter molecules
from heavier ones'
7.
The difierent
substances
in
petroleum are separated from
each
other in a
tower.
8. The
molecules
rise to the top of the tower
ru urv rvr
ones
remain closer to the bottom.
top
and the
9. Sulfu is often
Present
as an
in oil.
of many difierent
substances.
6.
10.
11.
12.
oil has a lower percentage
of sulfur
than
oil.
is a process
which changes
ttre molecular
structure
of a substance by breaking
it down'
uses heat and pressure
to break
down
molecular structure.
13. A
is a substance
which causes or speeds
up
chemical
cracking
changes without
ttrat uses one
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
being changed itself. The kind of
of these substances is called
15.
16.
14. The sufix -cida indicates something that
herbicide
weeds.
materials are created by man.
are derived from petroleum and are used to
create new substances.
17. When the automobile came into wide use,
became the peholeum product for which there was ttre greatest
demand.
18. Each level of a fractionating tower is known as a
ora
19. The
qasoline
used in
artiffcial product.
is an almost entirelv
20.
-
made from petrochemicals is used to make
the.soil richer so that there will.be a higler
leld
of crops.
B. Give a summary in your own words of the refining process by
which the difierent fractions in a mixture of crude oil are sepa-
rated from each other.
C. Explain what cracking is and how it is done. What advantages has
cracking given to the oil industry?
D. Explain what petrochemicals are. How can they be changed into
{
new substances? Give examples of substances which you tlink are
made from petrochemicals. What importance do ttre petrochem-
icals have in the modern world?
UNIT SEVEN
CAREERS
IN THE
PETNOLEUM
INDUSTRY
Special
Terms
Petroleum
Engineer:
A person
who deals
with engineering
problems
special
to"the oil industry,
an)'where
from &illing
a well through
all production
and field treating'
Seismic
'shooter:
An expert
in explosives
who works with the crew
that takes readings
from a seismograph'
Roustabout/Roughn.ik
Ro tob^,tt
are unskilled
or semiskilled
*.r.k"J. *h"o assist
with
general operatiorx
in the oil
field'
Ru"tghnzcks
work on clrilling
rigs Most members
of the
rig crew
are roughnecks.
Tool Pushen
The head of a drilling
crew'
Drillerr
The man in charge of the drilling
operation'
Derrickman:
The man
who controls
the top of the drill pipe
as it is
removed
from the hole and
stacked upright
in the derrick'
Welderr
The
man who
joins togetler
two pieces
of metal
after
applylng
heat to them.
S*"itctt"r,
fn"e man overseeing
the fflling of ffeld storage tanks'
When
-
a tank is full, he switchJs
valves, tuming
production'
into
other
tanks. If the
facility has only pumping
wells, he is called a
pumper.
Cag:.:r L' gage is a meter. The
gager's primary
duty is to keep
track of
the oil inventory.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Well Pullerr The man who operates a pulling rig in order to remove
tubular goods from wells.
Deck Crew: Merchant seamen who are responsible for the navigation
and general operation of a ship.
Engine Crew: Merchant seamen who are responsible for the engines
that supply a ship with power.
Stillman: A refinery employee who is in charge of the distillation pro-
cess.
Puriffcation Operator: The person who controls the equipment that
separates the difierent vapors during refining.
Absorption Operator:
The person in charge of the next step in refin-
ing, the condensation
of the vapors.
Treaterr The person responsible for removing impurities from petro-
leum products.
Safety Inspector: A reffnery employee whose many duties include
checking for dangerous levels of gas that might cause an
explosion.
Organic Chemistry:
The branch of chemistry that deals
with carbon
compounds found in living organisms.
Vocabulary Practice
l. What does a petuoleurn engineer specialize in?
2. What is the explosives expert on a seismograph crew called?
3. What is a rutstabout? Where do roustabouts work?
4. What is a rurg!rcck? Where do roughnecks work?
5. Who is the head of a drilling crew?
6. Who is in charge of the drilling operaUon?
7. What is a il.enickma.n?
8. What dcns a uelder do?
83
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
9. What does a suitcher
do?
A.
PumPer?
10. What ls a gage?
11, Who keeps track
of the oil inventory?
12. What does a uell
Pullzr
do?
13.
What is the difierence
between
the dnck creu and the engine
creu on a sbiP?
14. Who is in charge
of the distillation
process?
15. Who controls
the equipment
that separates
the difierent
vapors
during
reffning?
16.
Who is in charge
of the condensation
of the vapors?
17. Who is responsible
for removing
impurities
from petroleum
products?
18.
Who checks
for levels of
gas that
miglrt cause explosions
in a
reffnery?
Careers
in the Petroleum
IndustrY
The petroleum
industry
is one of the
giants of today's
world' Like
all large industrial
enterprises,
it employs
milliors of people
who do
-uny
'difi"r"nt
kinds of iork' There are management
people
at the
top
who control
the policies of the company
and see that-they
are
ca'rried out.
There is- also a large nurnber
of ffnancial and
clerical
employees
in corporate
or
regiJnal offices.
At the marketing
level'
t-ik
'drit
e.s deliver
gasoline
to fflling stations
where attendants
p"-p i into the
"orio."r.'
cars. In other
words'
hundreds
of
li?;i""; kinds of
jobs are directly
or indirectly
connected-
with oil'
Many of them
utilize the same skilis
that
would be required
for similar
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Men working witl a rotary drill.
work in other industries, including managers, office workers, account-
ants, and salesmen. Some positions, on the other hand, require special
skills or training that are distinctive to the oil industry.
Many of these
jobs vary according to the difrerent phases of the
industry. The jobs
in exploration, for irstance, are quite difierent from
those in drilling or recovery. Throughout the industry there is a great
deal of emphasis on scientiffc and technical skills. As an example,
people called petrobm, engineers specialize in some of the engi-
neering problems tlat arise in the oil industry. In a ffeld where
drilling is taking place, they may supervise the drilling of a number of
different wells. In recolery, they may devise new systems for getting
more oil out of the ground. In refining, chemical or refining engineers
work to improve the layout and systems that are used.
We have already mentioned that three scientific specialties, geol-
ogy, geophysics, and paleontologr, play an important part in the
search for oil. To qualify for work in these specialties, it is necessary
to have a university degree in the subject; in fact, an advanced degree
(master's
or doctorate) is preferred. Specialized courses in the geolory
of petroleum are offered by many rmiversities.
Anyone who wants to work as a petroleum geologist should not
expect to get a comfortable desk
job.
While some of the geologist's
job
involves paperwork, such as examining survey maps, a great deal of
time must be spent in the field. Conditions in areas where the search
for oil is being carried on can be extremely rugged-we have already
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
R5
mentioned
that
oil exploration
has
led to the
shores
of the
Arctic
6;;
i;.It"
Sahara,
6 the
jungles of the
Amazon'
even beneath
the
*"i"r,
"f
aft" sea.
The oil compinies
do the best
they can under
these
;;;;;;;;t
i;'provlde
comfortable
living
accommodations'
but the
;iliiJ
;;"
ofi",t
.,""tly
impossible
to overcome'
A crew
taking
;;;;H;
a seismograph,
for example'
may
be away
from
their
fro-"
f,"r"
for several
diysln
a row
in dlfficult
terrain
with only
what
thev can
carry
in their trucks
to rely on
-?h"?*
*it"'*o.i.l,t
tt't" e*plo'aiion
and
drilling
phases
of
the oil
induslrvcanalsoexpecltobemovedaroundfrequently-fromone
il;;i;;;ilr.
ivtt".,
"
potential
deposit
has been analvzed
geo-
il;i;;;;a
well has'been
bro"ght
lo' then
it is time
for the
crews to move
on to some other
area'
- -
fu;; onlv is the
work
itsel{ often
performed
under diffcult
condi-
ai"*,'i",
ii'it
"iso
physically
tiring
and
dangerous'
For all
of t}ese
reasons,
the oil companies
prefer
to"hire
young'
single
men for
jobs in
the oil ffelds.
*.'
,t.no"f
,ft" specialized
jobs in oil
exploration
are
those among
the crews
ih"t
obt"in
seismic
readings'
A crew
includes
a
saisrdc
;;;;
il";;"
;o sets ofi the
blastlhat
wiII create
the
waves
that
"il";;il;;;h
records'
The seismic
shooter
must be an expert
in
l"f.ri-t"t-,t"'",ft"r
member
of the crew
dritls
the hole in
which
the
..iloriu"
is to be
placed. Actually,
not all of tle seismic
crews
use
;;i;";.
to creaie
vibrations
in the earth'
However'
altemative
mithods
will not be
discussed
here.
When
the exPloration
has
been
completed
and a location
has
been
decif,ed
on to sPud
in a new
well, it
is time for the drilling
crew to move
n.
Roughwcks
and
roustabouts'
unskilled
and
semiskilled
laborers'
then
move
in. TheY
Perform
a great
deal
of the hard
PhYsical
labor
in
the fields
and on
the drilling
rigs'
Thev earn Dromotion
through
exPe-
,i"rr'ce o, sinioritY,
or bY attending
apprentice
programs
that teach
the
skiils
required
by
welders' electri-
cians, ca:rpenters,
or other
special-
ized workers.
A drilling crew at
work.
A derricknan.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
The boss of the drilling crew is
called, a tool pushuf. In addition, the
crew will include the drill.er, who is
in charge of the drilling operation.
Another important member of the
crew is the dertichutn, who is
stationed in tl-re derrick to control
the top of the drill pipe. Other
skilled workers may work with the
crew, such as weld.ers, who join
pipes or other pieces of metal toge-
ther after applying heat to them
with a blowtorch.
It is easy to pictue drilling as
an adventurous occupation, but it is
rugged work often carried on in
very ruggd country. It does ofier
the opportunity to move about from
one place to another after a rela-
tively short period of time, which
may be an incentive to many young
men. It should be remembered,
however, that drilling is a very
dangerous business, with one of ttre
higlest accident rates in industry.
Some of the specialized work-
ers in the recovery phase of the oil
indnstry are known as punper4
suitchprs, gagers, arlLd aell pullers. L
switcher is in charge of directing oil
into field storage tanks, switching
valves when a tank is full. If a
facility only produces oil by pump-
ing wells, tlre person who does this is called a pumper. A gager reads
gages, or meters, that both measure the oil flowing from the well and
control the pressure of the drive. The well pullers operate pulling rigs
in order to remove tubular goods from wells.
Tte transportation of oil also requires many difierent kinds of
workers. The construction crews that build pipelines work under
A welder,
j-M
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
many of the same difEculties
and with many of the same dangers in
theii
iobs
as the drilling crews;
tiat is, they
perform
Physically
d"-aoding
work in terrain that often presents
many natural hazards
and problJms-mountains,
deserts,
frozen wastelands,
and rivers tiat
may^food.
Once the pipeline
has been put in operation,
it must be
maintained by the
-"t
*ho work in the pumping
stations and by the
litle u:alkars,
who patrol the line on foot or by airplane to find any
indications
of breaks or other damage
to the line. Any escape of gas
from the line can be very dangerous,
since it can result in a
violent
explosion.
--
The men who work on tie tankers
at sea have signed on as crew-
men according to the regulations of the merchant marine in the coun-
try whose flag ls flown by the particular
ship. There ar two
groups,
*. a"a, crerI, in charge
of the navigation and
general operation
of
the ship, ard the engine
creu, in cltarge of the engi:res
which zupp1y
po*", io, tle ship. On a tanker, the deck crew
is also resporsible
for
the loading and uiloading
operations
and for cleaning the tanks where
the oil is stored.
The new supertankers
ofier
special problems
in navigation
because of their
enormous size' Therefore,
some of the oil companies
and shipping
lines have set up special
schools to familiarize
deck
offi""rr'*itli
tl"se ships' These schools
are open only to qualiffed
oftcers in the merchant
marine.
Training a crew to navigate
a srpertanker'
r
1
I
I
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
The next phase of the oil indrxtry is reffning, which also employs
many specialized workers. In a refinery there are stillmen, who are in
charge of the distilling processl puri.fi,cation operafors, who control the
equipment that separates the different vapors that result from dis-
tillation; absorption operators, who control the condersation of the
vapors into liqxidst treaters, who are in charge of removing impudties;
and, safety inspectors, whose many duties include making tests to
assure that dangerous levels of gas are not present at any point in the
refining process. In most cases, these workers control a group of
meters or valves which they must watch constantly to make sure that
all the various processes in the reffnery continue in an orderly
mannel.
Throughout this book we have frequently called attention to the
chemistry of petroleum and its importance in deriving usable prod-
ucts from crude oil. We have also pointed out that entirely new prod-
ucts can be derived from petroleum by chemical processes. The oil
industry is engaged in continuing research both to improve refining
techniques and to create new petrochemical compounds. This means
of course that the oil companies employ many chemists and chemical
engineers. The particular branch of chemistry they specialize in is
organic chemistry, which deals wit}l compourds that include the ele-
ment carbon, found in living organisms. The employment of people
with training in chemistry is another example of the healy reliance of
the oil industry
on science and tecbnologr.
These are some of the specialized
jobs
that are available in the
oil industry. They are often dangerous, but they also offer adventure
and high pay to the young men who go into them.
The major employers in the oil industry are the big international
companies which carry on operations of all types all over the world.
In addition, there are a number of oil companies organized on a
national basis in the oil-producing countries and operated by their
governments. Smaller companies also specialize in one phase or
another of the many complex operations in which the industry is
involved. Some companies perform drilling, others build pipelines,
and others handle difficult recovery operations. Any one of them will
ofier many opportunities to a young man who is looking for tough,
hard work and adventure.
PETROLEUM
INDUSTRY
Drccussion
1.
2.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Does the
oil industry
employ
only a few people for a few
jobs?
Who are the people at the toP?
Where do many financial and clerical workers work in the oil
industry?
Who are some of the employees at the marketing level?
What skills are utilized by many oil industry employees?
What do
others require?
Are
jobs in all phases of the oil industry the same?
What is there an emphasis on throughout the industry?
What are some of tlte concenu of petroleum engineers in regard
to drilling and recovery?
9. What three scientific specialties
play an important
Part
in the
search
for oil?
10. What
is necessary
to qualify for work in these specialties?
Where
are these courses ofiered?
ff. Why shouldn't
a person
who wants a career in oil exploration
"*p""t
"
comfortable
desk
job? WiIl any of the work be paper-
work?
12.
What are the conditions
under
which a seismographic
crew may
have to work?
13.
Why can people
in exploration
and drilling expect to be
moved
around?
14.
Is work in exploration
and drilling
safe and
easy?
15.
What kind of people do the oil companies
prefer to hire for
jobs
in the oil fields?
16. What does a seismic
shooter do? What must he be?
17. Do seismic
crews always
use explosives?
18. When is it time for the drilling crew to move in?
19.
What
is the difierence
between
a roughneck and a roustabout?
20. How
do roustabouts
and roughnecks
eam prornotion?
21. What does the tool
Prxher
do?
22. Who is another
persoir
who will be included in the drilling crew?
23. What does t}e derrickman
do?
24, What does a welder
do?
25. Why is it easy to pictue
drilling as an adventurous occupation?
26. What else should be
remembered
about drilling?
27. Who are some of the specialized
workers in the recovery
phase of
the oil industry?
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Review
A. Fill in the spaces in the following sentences with the appropriate
word or phrase.
l.A is an explosives expert who works on an
exploration crew.
2.
People called
engmeers
work to improve the layout and systems usecl in refining.
industrv.
has one of the highest accident rates in
is a
young worker without any special skills
who is getting started as part of the rig crew.
5. The boss of a drilling crew is known as a
6. Drillers, derrickmen, and tool
pushers are all part of the
crew.
oversees the filling of field storage tanks.
is resporuible for checking the meters that
4,4
7.4
8.A
show the
pressure of a natural drive for an oil well.
9.A
wells.
10. The rnan in charge
is called on to remove tubular
goods from
of tl-re distillation process in a refinery is
The
14.
15.
known as a
and operators control
of the vapors in a
separation into vapors and the condensation
refinery.
12. A is the person who is in charge of removing
impurities from petroleum products.
13. A safety inspector checks for dangerous levels of
that could cause an explosion.
A safety inspector works in a
crew on a tanker is resporsible for load-
ing and rmloading the tanks and also for cleaning them.
What are some of the specialized
jobs
in the oil industry which
require a scientiffc background?
What would t}re educational qual-
iffcations for these
jobs
be?
What are some of the specialized
jobs in the oil industry
which
require a technical background? What training
would be neces-
sary for these
jobs?
C.
ISB
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