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re: Oil and gas folks please explain the whole oil /gas scarcity thing to me

Posted on 4/9/24 at 2:12 am to
Posted by Saunson69
Member since May 2023
1965 posts
Posted on 4/9/24 at 2:12 am to
quote:

The Earth's temperature gets too high and alters the oil... think asphalt... too long in a hot oven.


Oil does not turn into asphalt/heavier hydrocarbons the deeper it goes. It turns to natural gas. Experiences a chemical composition form pressure/temperature breaking down heavier hydrocarbons like octane, C8H18, to smaller hydrocarbons like methane, CH4. Haynesville is an example, 14,000 ft at places and 380 degrees, 12,000 PSI at those depths. Exploration companies go for nat gas sometimes bc their BOEPD is a lot higher than oil wells. A Haynesille well can IP at 25 MMCFD. That equals 4,167 BOEPD. An oil well in West Texas is really good if it IPs at 1,500 BOPD, or an equivalent 1,500 BOEPD. Maybe there's some nat gas associated but hard to sell nat gas out there, there's just so much and far from markets I hear. We were losing money on it, a lot. You get nearly 3x the energy or MMBTUs in a Haynesville well than a Permian well. It's just that nat gas is way cheaper so highly price dependent. Each dime increase or decrease in nat gas is huge.

The Eagle Ford is a perfect example. On its western edge, it's 5,000 ft deep and 100% oil. On its eastern edge, it's 13,000 ft and 100% gas. With a transition zone between.

Article explaining 2nd paragraph. This explains same thing. With higher temperature and longer dwell time, hydrocarbons are usually nat gas the deeper a reservoir gets while shallower formations are usually oil. Not always the case, but generally true.

LINK 1st paragraph. This explains it.

Scoop stack is 5,000 ft and oil. Majority of mom and pop stripper wells that are 500 to 1,500 ft deep are like 2 barrel a day wells. You seem them all over Caddo Lake, which btw is where the 1st ever offshore well was drilled in 1908. They got a little memorial out there for it.
This post was edited on 4/10/24 at 4:19 am
Posted by CitizenK
BR
Member since Aug 2019
9752 posts
Posted on 4/9/24 at 6:57 am to
quote:

The Eagle Ford is a perfect example. On its western edge, it's 5,000 ft deep and 100% oil.


56-60 API gravity is actually condensate and only called oil because of 1970's legislation. Small refineries have shutdown then torn down because it is uneconomical to refine without have a condensate splitter unit before the refinery.

The profit centers of a refinery dictate which crudes, or crude oil cocktails, can be used in them without going bankrupt.
Posted by CitizenK
BR
Member since Aug 2019
9752 posts
Posted on 4/9/24 at 7:05 am to
quote:

Oil does not turn into asphalt/heavier hydrocarbons the deeper it goes.


Depends on depth when it formed. There is plenty of tight shale oil in Nevada but to drill to 40,000 feet then run laterals to facture is not cost effective. FTR, the trap rock above these shale formations produced some might productive wells back in the day. The crude is around 12 API gravity and high in asphaltenes.
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