Introduction to Petroleum Exploration

Introduction to Petroleum Drilling

Fundamentals of Oil & Gas Exploration

Fundamentals of Petroleum Drilling

Introduction to Petroleum Exploration (1 day)

Target audience

This one day course is designed for personnel who are involved with the exploration industry but have little or no exploration-specific technical background. This typically includes accounting and administration staff, technical support staff, and those in management or professional roles whose background is in a field other than Earth Science.

Course objectives

The course provides a complete overview of the business of petroleum exploration from acreage selection through to final discovery of an oil or gas field. It highlights the multi-disciplinary nature of the business, examines the tools and methods used in exploration, and provides an understanding of the technical terminology used.

Course outline

Participants will be exposed to the basic concepts of acreage management, exploration geology, petroleum geophysics, rotary drilling, and economics and risk assessment:

Acreage acquisition and legal aspects

• How and why exploration groups are put together
• How companies select and acquire exploration acreage
• Legal controls, obligations and responsibilities

Petroleum geology

• Why companies explore where they do
• Basic geological principles
• Where oil and gas come from
• How oil and gas fields are found

Petroleum geophysics

• How explorers determine what it looks like deep within the earth
• How seismic acquisition and processing work
• What seismic tells us and how we use it to find prospects

Exploration drilling overview

• Types of drilling rigs
• How rotary wells are drilled
• Information obtained from wells
• What happens after the well is drilled

Economics and risk

• Why do we drill so many dry holes
• Differences between technical success and commercial success
• How do we handle the risks involved
• The “Exploration Game” A fun opportunity to draw the learnings of the day together

 

Introduction to Petroleum Drilling (1 day)

Target audience

This one day course is designed for personnel who work in the exploration industry but have little or no exploration-specific technical background. This typically includes accounting and administration staff, technical support staff, and those in management or professional roles whose background is in a field other than Earth Science.

It is an ideal add-on for those who have previously attended the Introduction to Petroleum Exploration Short Course and would like a more detailed understanding of the drilling process. However, that is not a pre-requisite as both courses are entirely self-contained.

Course objectives

The drilling of an oil well is seen as the culmination of the exploration process, but to the lay person it is a mysterious and complex undertaking which has a language all of its own. This course highlights the multi-disciplinary nature of the business, examines the tools and methods used in exploration drilling, and provides an understanding of the technical terminology and jargon used.

Course outline

The course covers such topics as:

Rules and regulations

• The historical record and current activity levels
• Who controls the drilling process: safety and environmental constraints
• Reporting requirements

Pre-drill preparations

• How companies select a drilling location
• Rig types and their selection
• Well planning, procedures and costs

Drilling the well

• Components of a rig – hoisting, circulating, rotating and control systems
• The mechanics of making hole
• Special techniques – deviated and horizontal drilling

Evaluating the well

• Cuttings and core analysis
• Oil and gas shows, sampling, testing
• Basic wireline logs, measurement while drilling
• What it all means – interpreting the results

What can go wrong

• Kicks, blowouts and oil spills
• Loss of hole, loss of equipment and fishing
• Completion and abandonment
• The “Drilling Game” – just for fun: drill your own well and gain an appreciation of some of the uncertainties and risks involved

Fundamentals of Oil & Gas Exploration (2 days)

Target audience

This two day course is designed for people who can spare a little more time or are seeking more information than can be absorbed in the one day Introduction to Petroleum Exploration course. It is suitable for the same audience: those who have little or no exploration-specific technical background, such as administration staff, accountants and lawyers, technical support staff, brokers, and those in management or professional roles whose background is in a field other than Earth Science.

Course objectives

During this course you will be able to identify the various acreage acquisition methods available and the legal processes involved in exploration; gain an overview of petroleum geology, geophysics, and drilling; understand exploration terminology and gain an overview of the technical processes involved; better visualise various exploration equipment and technology and understand the major cost components; and appreciate the technical and economic risks involved in petroleum exploration.

The course provides a detailed overview of the business of petroleum exploration from acreage selection through to final discovery of an oil or gas field. It highlights the multi-disciplinary nature of the business, examines the tools and methods used in exploration, and provides an understanding of the technical and economic risks involved. A number of simple yet interesting hands-on activities are used to clarify important concepts and to enhance participant learning. These exercises are graduated and non-competitive ensuring all partipants achieve their own learning objectives.

Course outline

The course covers such topics as:

The Field Development Lifecycle

• Understand the 'big picture' of exploration, appraisal and field development

Acreage acquisition and legal issues

• How exploration groups are put together (joint ventures, floats, operators, non-operators)
• How companies acquire exploration acreage (permits, open acreage, lease sales, cash bids, work programs, farmins, joint ventures)
• Legal obligations and moral responsibilities
• Ownership of hydrocarbon reserves (national policies)
• The control and award of hydrocarbon concessions
• Overview of various petroleum licensing systems (NOCs, PSCs)
• Unitisation and equity re-determination

Participant Exercise - understanding a farmin

Petroleum geology

• Why companies explore where they do (rock types and properties, geological models, prospectivity, )
• Where oil and gas come from (source, seal, reservoir, generation, migration, trapping mechanisms)

Participant Exercise - Determining depositional histories

• How oil and gas fields are found (basin analysis, regional studies, play concepts, prospect generation)
• Petroleum geophysics (gravity, magnetics, seismic)
• How explorers determine what it looks like below the surface of the earth (remote sensing)
• How seismic works (acquisition, processing, 2D and 3D surveys)
• What seismic tells us (interpretation, mapping, hydrocarbon indicators)

Participant Exercise - Time to depth conversion

Exploration drilling overview

• Types of drilling rigs (land rigs, jackups, drill ships, semi-submersibles)
• How rotary wells are drilled (hoisting, rotating, circulation, control systems)
• Information obtained from wells (cuttings, cores, logs, well seismic)
• What happens after the well is drilled (abandon, suspend, test, complete)

Understanding various roles in E&P activities

• Understanding the E&P organisation chart
• Overview of contractors’ roles in E&P activities

Understanding E&P reports

Economics and exploration risk fundamentals

• Why we drill so many dry holes (outcomes, prospect risking and ranking)
• Difference between technical success and commercial success (costs, prices, infrastructure)
• How we handle the risks involved (geological risk - POS, commercial risk – EMV)

Participant Exercise: "Where's the Prospect?" A fun opportunity to draw the learnings of the day together based on real life exploration scenarios

 

Fundamentals of Petroleum Drilling (2 days)

Target audience

This two day course is designed for personnel who work in the exploration industry and would like more information, or simply more time to assimilate the information, than is available in the one-day Introduction to Oil and Gas Drilling short course. It is suitable for those who have little or no exploration-specific technical background, such as administration staff, technical support staff, and those in management or professional roles whose background is in a field other than Earth Science. It is also useful for exploration personnel who would like to gain a better understanding of the drilling side of the business.

Course objectives

This two day course provides a detailed review of drilling procedures, the terminology used, the cost components and the latest developments driving this activity:

Participants will gain a comprehensive overview of drilling activities from pre-drilling preparation through to actual drilling of a well, well evaluations and post drilling activities. They will develop an appreciation of drilling terminology, jargon and equipment as well as current drilling processes within both onshore and offshore environments, and use the knowledge gained to participate in a range of simple yet practical, hands-on activities.

Course outline

Overview of drilling activities

• The historical record and current worldwide activity levels
• Rules and regulations
• Who controls the drilling process; safety and environmental constraints
• Reporting requirements

Participant Exercise: Interpreting drilling reports

Pre-drill preparations

• How companies select a drilling location
• Rig types and selection
• Well planning, procedures and budgets

Participant Exercise: Time versus depth and well prognosis

Understanding the various roles in drilling activities

• Understanding the drilling project group
• Overview of contractors and their roles

Drilling the well

• Components of a rig – hoisting, circulating, rotating and control systems
• The mechanics of making hole
• Special techniques - deviated and horizontal drilling; deepwater drilling

Evaluating the well

• Cuttings and core analysis
• Oil and gas shows, sampling, testing
• Basic wireline logs, measurement while drilling

Participant Exercise: Making sense of simple well logs

• What it all means – interpreting the results

Participant Exercise: Principles of well correlation

• Overview of well completions
• Overview of post drilling activities

• Workovers and intervention

What can go wrong

• Kicks, blowouts and oil spills
• Loss of hole, loss of equipment and fishing
• Case history - methods used to control and repair wells

"There she blows" - A desk-top exercise to drill your own well and gain an appreciation of some of the risks involved