By Tanguturi Naveen Kumar

B160650CE
 What Is Petroleum?

 Petroleum is a fossil fuel formed by the decomposition of organic matter

over millions of years in sedimentary rock under intense heat and pressure.

 Shows major influence on world politics and the global economy.

 The Oil & Gas Industry comprises two parts:

 Upstream –
the exploration and production sector of the industry
 Downstream–the sector which deals with refining and
processing of crude oil and gas products; their distribution an
d marketing
 As is known oil well drilling is a very costly gamble and the particular area
can not be used for drilling unless and until certain clear signs are
available.
1. Pre study of prospecting area

2. Propose mining right negotiation

3. Acquisition of mining right
4. Exploratory Survey
1.RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY
 These types of survey is conducted by trained geologists
 mapping of rock strata, exposed on the surface to find out their structure
which may indicate deep seated oil and gas traps.
 The physical nature of the formation indicates where the rocks were
deposited in the major marine basin and also provides information on
age.
2.GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
 Geological maps are reviewed in desk studies to identify major
sedimentary basins in the first stage of the search for hydrocarbon-bearing
rock formations.
 It is then possible to use aerial photography to identify interesting
landscape features such as faults or anticlines.
 Surface characteristics such as elevations, dips, outcrop strikes, lithological
changes can be mapped as clues to sub-surface characteristics.
3.REMOTE SENSING SURVEY
 Remote sensing is the process of detecting and monitoring an area's
physical characteristics by measuring its radiation reflected and emitted at
a distance from the target area.
 Remote sensors mounted on aircraft or on satellites gather data by sensing
the reflected energy from Earth
 The main applications are
1. Geological interpretation on a regional basis
2. Study of relationship between offshore data and onshore structural
features detected on satellite imagery
 Various geological features, stratigraphic boundaries, texture differences
in addition to morphology, vegetation, etc., can be detected with the help
of this technique. This aids in locating suitable structures for petroleum.
4. GRAVITY SURVEY
 The objective of exploration work is to identify variations with differences
in density distribution
 Gravity measurement changes in the gravitational field of the Earth caused
by differences in density of sub-surface rocks.
Applications:
1. Hydrocarbon exploration ƒ
2. Regional geological studies
MAGNETIC SURVEY
 The Magnetic Method depends upon measuring the variations in intensity
of the magnetic field which reflects the magnetic character of the various
rocks present
 An instrument called the Vertical Magnetometer is fly over the basin region
in an aircraft
 Sedimentary rocks are non-magnetic and hence any magnetic irregularities
are attributed to depth variations of basement rocks
5.SEISMIC SURVEY
 most successful and widely used geophysical tool in the history
of exploration
 based on the difference in propagation velocity through different
sub-surface strata of artificially induced elastic waves
 The Seismic Method is used to identify geological structures and
relies on different soundwave reflective properties on different
rock strata below terrestrial or ocean surfaces.
 An energy source transmits into the ground a pulse of acoustic
energy that travels into the ground as a wave. At each point
where there are various geological strata, a portion of the energy
is transferred within the earth to deeper layers, while the rest is
reflected back to the surface. Here this energy is picked up by a
series of sensitive receivers called geophones or seismometers
on land, or hydrophones submerged in water.
 At each point where there are various geological strata, a portion of the
energy is transferred within the earth to deeper layers, while the rest is
reflected back to the surface.
 Here this energy is picked up by a series of sensitive receivers called
geophones or seismometers on land, or hydrophones submerged in water.
 The only way to confirm the presence of hydrocarbons and the thickness and
internal pressure of a reservoir is to drill exploratory boreholes once a
promising geological location has been identified.

 Operations over water can be carried out using a variety of self-contained

mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) which can be selected depending on
water depth, seabed conditions and prevailing meteorological conditions-
particularly wind speed, wave height and current speed.

 Typically used offshore mobile platforms include jackups, semi-submersibles

and drillships, while barges can be used in shallow protected waters.
 The rig is normally dismantled after drilling and preliminary testing and
relocated to the next site.
 If commercial quantities of hydrocarbons have been found by exploratory
drilling, a wellhead valve assembly may be installed.

 If the well does not contain commercial hydrocarbon amounts, the site will
be decommissioned in a safe and stable condition and returned to its
original state or after use.
 In order to prevent upward migration of wellbore fluids, open rock
formations are sealed with cement plugs.
Appraisal
 More wells are drilled to determine the size and extent of the field when
exploratory drilling is successful.
 Wells drilled to measure the reserves of hydrocarbons found are called
wells appraisal.
 The purpose of the appraisal stage is to assess the size and nature of the
reservoir, determine the number of confirmation or appraisal wells
required, and whether further seismic work is required.
 From a single site, a variety of wells can be drilled, which enhances the
period the site is occupied.
 Deviated or directional drilling at an angle from a location adjacent to the
original discovery borehole can
be used to test certain sections
of the dam to minimize the foot print.
 Offshore oil rig platform is a large structure with facilities for well drilling to
explore, extract, store, and process petroleum and natural gas which lies in rock
formations beneath the seabed.
 Many oil platforms will also contain facilities to accommodate their workforce.
 Based on the water depth and condition of the offshore oil / gas field, different
types of offshore oil rigs and platforms are used.
 Drilling offshore for natural oil / gas, sometimes hundreds of miles away from
nearest land mass, presents a number of different challenges from onshore
drilling. The seabed can sometimes be thousands of feet below sea level when
drilling at sea.
Drilling barges
 Drilling barges are mostly used for drilling inland, shallow water.
 This typically occurs in lakes, swamps, rivers, and canals.
 Drilling barges are huge, floating platforms that have to be towed from site
to site by tugboat.
 Appropriate for still waters as
they can not withstand the
movement of water
encountered in large
open water situations.
For smaller, shallower offshore oil deposits that doesn’t require warrant a
permanent platform or for drilling exploratory wells.

The rig's floating platform is

towed into position by barges,
then lowers its support legs
down to the sea floor, raising
the rig above the water's
surface.
The platform can
then be adjusted to varying
heights along its tall legs,
essentially using the same
principle employed by a tire jack
 safer than some other types of moveable rigs, such as drilling barges, since
their surface facilities are elevated from the water and less susceptible to
waves and weather.
Fixed platforms
 Anchored directly into the seabed, fixed-platform rigs consist of a tall, steel
structure known as a "jacket" that rises up from the ocean to support a
surface deck.
 The jacket provides the rig's sturdy base and holds everything else out of
the water, while the drilling modules and crew quarters are located on the
surface deck.
 Fixed platforms offer stability but no mobility, and today they're primarily
used to tap moderately shallow, long-term oil deposits.
 They can drill about 1,500 feet below the surface
 But they're costly to build, so they usually require a large oil discovery to
justify their construction.
 Compliant-tower rigs are similar to fixed platforms, since both are
anchored to the seabed and hold most of their equipment above the surface.
 But compliant towers are taller and narrower, and unlike fixed platforms,
they sway with the wind and water almost as if they were floating.
 This is possible because their jackets are
broken into two or more sections,
with the lower part serving as the
base for the upper jacket and surface
facilities.
 This lets compliant towers operate at
greater depths than platform rigs,
potentially up to 3,000 feet below
the surface.
 Submersible rigs are like jackup rigs, but ideal for shallow water, since
they come into contact with the ocean or lake bed.
 The lower hull works much like the outer hull in a submarine–the lower
hull is filled with air when the platform is moved from one place to
another–making the entire platform buoyant.
 When the rig is placed over the drill site, the air is released from the lower
hull and the rig is submerged on the floor of the sea or river.
 This type of rig has the advantage of mobility in the water
 Due to small water plane area , they are weight sensitive. Flood warning
systems are required to be in-place.
 ƒTopside facilities , no. of risers etc. have to fixed at pre-design stage.
 ƒUsed for Ultra deep water. ƒSemi-submersibles are held in place by anchors
connected to a catenary mooring system.
 Column pontoon junctions and
bracing attract large loads.
 It is possible to reach depths of
up to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) safely
and easily.
 Another rig that can drill beyond a mile is the tension-leg platform, which
consists of a floating surface structure held in place by taut, vertical
tendons connected to the sea floor.
 These legs allow for significant
side to side movement (up to 20 feet),
with little vertical movement.
 Tension leg platforms can operate
as deep as 7,000 feet.
 One of the largest offshore platforms in use is Spar platforms.
 Concept of a large diameter single vertical cylinder supporting deck.
 The tube does not extend all the way to the seafloor, but instead a set of
cables and lines are anchored to the bottom.
 Used for Ultra deep water depth of 2300m.
 The centerof buoyancy is considerably
above centerof gravity, making
Spar quite stable.
 Floating production systems are essentially semi-submersible drilling rigs,
as discussed above, except that they contain petroleum production
equipment, as well as drilling equipment.
 Ships can also be used as floating production systems. The platforms can
be kept in place through large, heavy anchors, or through the dynamic
positioning system used by drillships.
 With a floating production system, once the drilling has been completed,
the wellhead is actually attached to the seafloor, instead of up on the
platform.
 The extracted petroleum is transported via risers from this wellhead to the
production facilities on the semi-submersible platform
 can operate in water depths of up to 6,000 feet
 Ship-shape platforms are called Floating Production, Storage and
Offloading (FPSO) facilities. ƒ
 FPSOs have integral oil storage capability inside their hull. This avoids a
long and expensive pipeline to shore. ƒ
 Can explore in remote and deep water and also in marginal wells, where
building fixed platform and piping is technically and economically not
feasible
 Smaller shuttle tankers may be used to transport the hydrocarbons to an
onshore processing facility.
 FPSOs can be fixed in position or comprise multiple mooring lines
meeting at a single point. The single point mooring allows the tanker to
weathervane to achieve an optimal orientation with regard to the prevailing
environmental conditions.
 Soil analysis is another critical part of the design of offshore structures.
 Because it is the soil that ultimately resists the enormous forces and
movements present in the piling, at the bottom of the ocean, created by the
presence of the platform in the storm conditions.
 The under seabed soil normally can be clay, sand, silt, or a mixture of
these.
 Each project must acquire a site-specific soil report showing the soil
stratification and its characteristics for load bearing in tension and
compression, shear resistance, and load-deflection characteristics of axially
and laterally loaded piles.
 Water depth is considered shallow if the seabed depth does not exceed
about 500 meters.
1.SPUDCANS
 A spudcan is the term used on the jack-up platform for the base cones.
 The spudcans are the inverted cones mounted at the base of the jack-up
that
 when deployed in ocean bed systems,
provide stability for lateral forces on
the jack-up rig.
 Piles are slender columnar elements in a foundation which have the
function of transferring load from the superstructure through weak
compressible strata or through water, onto stiffer or more compact and less
compressible soils or onto rock.
 In shallow water, the connection is typically made by a steel lattice
structure commonly called a jacket. This is the most used structure for
fixed offshore platforms. Piles can also be used as anchors in moored
floating facilities
 There are two construction methods used for piles
1. DRIVEN PILES
2. GROUTED PILES
DRIVEN PILES GROUTED PILES
 Gravity base structures (GBS) are designed to be founded at or just below
the seafloor, transferring their loads to the soil by means of shallow
footings.
 Usually these structures are made of reinforced and prestressed concrete,
but some were built of steel or a hybrid of concrete and steel.
 These structures have a large base “footprint” with purpose of minimizing
soil-bearing loads.
 An important advantage of these
solutionsis the possibility of oil storage
within the base structure, i.e.
the base operates both as foundation
and storage facility.
 Water depths in excess of 500 m are considered to be “deep”, and “ultra-
deep” when greater than 1000 m.
 Clearly, at these great depths it becomes increasingly impracticable to build
load transfer structures such as jackets or gravity based structures.
 Therefore, different foundation solutions have been adopted, i.e. anchors
with mooring systems.
 There is a vast range of solutions which are sub-divided between gravity
anchors and embedded anchors.
 several types of anchors were created to be attached to mooring systems,
there are two main types of mooring:
1. GRAVITY ANCHORS
2. PILE ANCHORS
 Normally, an anchoring system is required to provide resistance forces with
both cyclic and static components, which are primarily horizontal.
 Gravity anchors consist of heavy-weight steel structures (box or grill),
filled or coated with granular filling (i.e. rock-filled or heavier material
such as iron ore) and placed on the sea bed.
 Simply put the structural component first, then add the bulk fill.
 Pile anchors have a similar behavior to pile foundations (i.e. small skin
friction formed in calcareous soil), but unique are the method of
construction and the capabilities they need to withstand.
 hydraulic hammers to operate in deep waters with higher power, so that the
driving of the piles is not a problem
 Many aspects of the offshore drilling process can cause environmental
impacts, from locating the oil, to drilling and pumping the oil to the
surface, to the infrastructure required to drill and transport it.
1.Locating the oil
 Seismic surveys have been reported to impact fish and marine life.
 Whales in particular are extremely sensitive to the seismic waves generated
when searching for oil and gas deposits in the sea bed.
 It is also reported to impair the health and hearing of fish.
2. Effects on the ocean floor
 Physically, offshore drilling disrupts the habitat of the seafloor and the
oceanic community.
 There are many drilling components that leave a lasting effect on the
ocean floor between the physical footprint of the drill rig, undersea
pipes, dredging ship channels, and the cuttings and other drilling debris.
3.Water pollution
 There are two main sources of water pollution from offshore drilling:
drilling fluid and oil spills and leaks.
 Firstly, the drilling fluid is claimed to be toxic to marine life. This fluid,
used to lubricate, cool and regulate pressure when drilling, contains
petroleum products and heavy metals.
 Reported impacts include affecting the health and reproduction of
marine life, reducing the populations of bottom-dwelling creatures and
biomagnifying toxic substances in the food chain.
 The effects from large offshore oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon
catastophe are twofold;
 we must consider the effect of the oil spill itself and the effects of
cleanup efforts. When a large amount of oil spills into a body of water,
the oil spreads mainly onto the surface of the water and can either remain
cohesive or break up due to wave action.
 Over time, the oil may degrade naturally by weathering, the effects of
sunlight, or be broken down by microorganisms. If the oil spill reaches
the shore, then terrestrial environments will also be contaminated.
 Oil spills are extremely detrimental to fisheries and wildlife in both
coastal and marine environments, due to the toxicity of the oil and its
lasting impacts on the food chain.
 Apart from simply stopping the drilling, there are ways to guard against
some of the negative environmental impacts of offshore oil drilling:
1. Before starting the oil exploration, apply a thorough environmental
assessment process. Sophisticated analyzes will be required for projects
in ecologically sensitive areas.
2. Use alternative solutions to standard marine-safer seismic surveys.
3. Use low aquatic toxicity and high biodegradability drilling fluids.
4. Create a detailed waste management plan to ensure proper waste
disposal.
5. Ensure the adequacy and enforcement of environmental health and
safety standards to help prevent oil spills
 Energy conservation
 Alternative sources of energy
 Each platform/rig type is chosen mainly due to water depth
considerations, and due to the deck equipment necessary to perform
its service.
1. For water depths up to 150 m, tender rig or Jack-up rig for
drilling and template (Jacket) for oil/gas extraction.
2. For water depths between 150 m and 300m, semi-submersible rig
for drilling and template (jacket) platform for oil/gas extraction.
3. For water depths between 300 m and 400m, semi-submersible rig
for drilling and guyed-tower platforms for oil/gas extraction.
4. For water depths between 400 m and 1800m, semi-submersible
rig for drilling and Tension leg platform or semi-submersible
platform for oil/gas extraction.
5. For water depths more than 1800 m, drillship rig for drilling and
tension leg, subsea system or spar platforms for oil/gas extraction.
 There's no easy answer to the offshore oil drilling debate.
 It evident that drilling offshore has a very negative impact on the
environment.
 Even if the day-to day activities have small impact on environment the
major threat is due to the potential oil spill.
 They seem to be a necessary evil for now. We still need fossil fuels until we
can increase fuel efficiency standards and grow our network of alternative
energy sources.
 That means that, for now, all we can do is conserve energy as well as we
can, ensure that drilling operations climate, health and safety levels are as
good as they can possibly be and hope for the best.