Follow that Pipeline

So… where does this Crude Oil come from, anyway?

It is generally believed that that crude oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants (called biomass) that lived millions of years ago.  Over these years, the biomass was covered by layers of mud, silt, and sand that formed into sedimentary rock.  Geologic heat and the pressure of the overlying rock turned the biomass into a hydrocarbon-rich liquid that we call crude oil, and eventually forced it into porous rock strata called reservoirs.

How do you locate the Oil and extract it from the ground and into barrels?

To identify a prospective site for oil production, companies use a variety of techniques, including core sampling — physically removing and testing a cross section of the rock — and seismic testing, where the return vibrations from a man-made shockwave are measured and calibrated.  After these exploratory tests, companies must then drill to confirm the presence of oil or gas.  A “dry hole” is an unsuccessful well – one where the drilling did not find oil or gas, or not enough to be economically worth producing.  A successful well may contain either oil or gas, and often both, because the gas is dissolved in the oil.  When gas is present in oil, it is extracted from the liquid at the surface in a process separate from oil production.

After a successful well identifies the presence of oil and/or gas, additional wells are drilled to test the production conditions and determine the boundaries of the reservoir.  Finally, production or “development” wells are put in place, along with tanks, pipelines, and gas processing plants, so the oil can be produced, moved to market, and sold.  Once extracted, the crude oil must be refined into usable products.

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