Chapter 11Oil & Natural Gas Formation

Spindletop 1901

Salt under pressure like a lava lamp, bubbling upward, breaking and deforming the rocks above. Broken rocks act as effective traps for oil and gas.

Oil Reserves & Type

Natural Gas Reserves

Oil Refining - Distillation

Peak Oil?

Dependent On:•Technology•Consumption•Economics•Exploration

Oil production may peak 2010-2100 by 2020 seems likely

1936 – Saudi ArabiaYom Kippur War 1973OAPECStrategic Petroleum Reserve

?

Pipeline

Exxon ValdezLargest Oil Spill in the US: Alaska, 1989

Exxon Valdez

Largest Oil Spill in the US: Alaska, 1989

Pressure WashedDispersant - SolventsQuicker Picker-Uppers

Top 10 Oil Spills 1. Kuwait - 1991 - 520 million gallons

Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops.

2. Mexico - 1980 - 100 million gallons

An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year.

3. Trinidad and Tobago - 1979 - 90 million

oil tanker collided with another ship

4. Russia - 1994 - 84 million gallons

A broken pipeline in Russia leaked for eight months before it was noticed and repaired.

5. Persian Gulf - 1983 - 80 million gallons

A tanker collided with a drilling platform which, eventually, collapsed into the sea. The well continued to spill oil into the ocean for seven months before it was repaired.

6. South Africa - 1983 - 79 million gallons

A tanker cought fire

7. France - 1978 - 69 million gallons

A tanker in a severe storm,

8. Angola - 1991 - more than 51 million gallons

The tanker expolded

9. Italy - 1991 - 45 million gallons

The tanker exploded and sank off the coast of Italy and continued leaking it's oil into the ocean for 12 years.

10. Odyssey Oil Spill - 1988 - 40 million gallons

Exon Valdez: 10.8 Million Gallons

Deepwater Horizon BP: 206 Million Gallons

The Cost

The Immediate Impact - Estimated• 250,000 to as many as 500,000 seabirds

• 1,000 sea otters

• 300 harbor seals

• 250 bald eagles

• 22 orcas

• billions of salmon and herring eggs

• A fishery that fisherman say still has not recovered “2010”

•Otter populations still troubled “2012”

Future ReservesDeepwater

Horizon

ANWR & NPRADecember 2012: National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (23M acres) interior secretary Salazar announces 50/50 leasing and preservation

Estimated 900M barrels of oil (42 gallons)

USA uses 19M barrels daily

So the question is?

Fracking – Oil & Natural Gas

ND – Bracken Shale Formation18B Barrels Oil

PA & NY Marcellus Shale formation38TCF Gas84TCF Gas Wyoming

Fracking

Tar Sands Bitumen (asphalt or tar) - mixed with sand and clay.