Offshore Petroleum Drilling and Production

Sukumar Laik

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781498717175
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Industrial & Technical Chemistry

The key focus of the book is on engineering aspects of the subject field

Updated, comprehensive text covering offshore drilling, production and field development and offers complete coverage of offshore oil and gas operations.

Also, key maintenance issues like pigging, corrosion, subsidence are discussed.

1Introduction

1.1Historical Background

The history of the petroleum (oil and gas) industry dates to the period before the Christian era when mostly oil and gas shows at or near the ground surface were found. Gradually as the importance of petroleum grew, especially after the invention of the internal combustion engine, efforts were put to go below the ground to find this important mineral and thereafter modern history began. With time as society started to depend on this source of energy, the search also continued and after some period it went beyond the land surface and ventured into water (seas and oceans). Hence, to go into the detailed history of the development of the petroleum industry, we discuss broadly the following: (1) era of surface oil and gas shows, (2) onshore oil and gas industry and (3) offshore oil and gas industry including the genesis of offshore development.

1.1.1Era of Surface Oil and Gas Shows

• Oil in antiquity–Though the modern oil industry is only 160 years old, our early ancestors seem to have taken to collection of crude and asphalt from surface oil seepage from the early days presumably long before the Christian Era. It is well known that in several regions, particularly in the Middle Eastern countries and in Pakistan (formerly North-West India), Egypt, Peru and Mexico, asphalt was used as mortar for water-proofing and building purposes. The archaeological evidence indicates that some of the buildings were constructed about 6000 years ago. There are worldwide records of the heavy residue of bitumen from oil seepages being used for repairing boats and furniture, for treatment of leather and sometimes for embalming. According to the available records, in several cities along the Red Sea oil had been used for lighting during antiquity.
• Oil for warfare–There are numerous very ancient instances of the use of burning oil during wars. The use of petroleum products in naval warfare also goes back to antiquity. It was well known that a mixture of naphtha and quicklime was a powerful incendiary when wetted with water. The Arabs had special army units for finding naphtha-filled hand grenades. Crude was also used by some tribes for preparing war paint.
• Worshipping at gas shows–There are innumerable instances during the period before the Christian Era of the ‘Eternal Fires’ from ignition of escaping natural gas becoming objects of worship, particularly in the region surrounding the Caspian Sea; of these, the alters of the fire worshipers in Iran are the most famous. The Jawalamukhi Temple in the Kangra District, India modernised only a few centuries ago, is a more recent instance.
• Early methods of collecting oil–It is believed that the technology of collecting oil and bitumen was known before historic times. The Greeks recovered oil by fishing for it in water pools with floating oil; the precious liquid adhering to the branches of some flowering shrubs was collected in cisterns. In other countries, oil was collected from the oil-covered waters either directly in buckets or pots or by dipping blankets, feather bunches, tree branches, linen towels and so on; then, the oil was wrung out into suitable containers.
• Oil as medicine–It is not known as to when use of crude oil was extended to medical purposes. Between tenth to sixteenth century, the oil from seepages was extensively used as an ointment for the treatment of rheumatism, burns, sprains and so on, and for treating sores on horses. Marco Polo’s writings (thirteenth century) indicate that in the Baku region, the local residents drank oil as medicine. Early in the nineteenth century, a small trade was established in the United States for utilisation of oil to alleviate and cure allergies in the human body.
• Oil for lighting and heating–Petroleum (derived from two Greek words petre and elation [rock + oil] or from the Latin oleum) or rock oil, as it was then called, has served humankind as a source of lighting (e.g. Samaritan oil lamp, Figure 1.1) and heating from random occurrences that came naturally to the surface in salt wells or that were expressly obtained from small wells made by hand, in parts of Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages. From the record it is found that a druggist Krier, in Pittsburgh, had an excess production of crude oil beyond that needed for medicinal purposes. He therefore erected a homemade still and refined oil, selling the products for illuminating purposes. Distillation of petroleum was described by the Persian alchemist Mohammad bin Zakariya, Razi (Rhazes). There was production of chemicals such as kerosene in the alembic (al-ambiq), which was mainly used for kerosene lamps. Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available in Western Europe by the twelfth century. It has also been present in Romania since the thirteenth century. In 1745, under the Empress Elisabeth of Russia through the process of distillation of the ‘rock oil’ (petroleum) a ...