scholarly journals The contribution of giant fields to United States oil production and reserves

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W. Schmoker
Author(s):  
S. A. Zolina ◽  
I. A. Kopytin ◽  
O. B. Reznikova

In 2018 the United States surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the largest world oil producer. The article focuses on the mechanisms through which the American shale revolution increasingly impacts functioning of the world oil market. The authors show that this impact is translated to the world oil market mainly through the trade and price channels. Lifting the ban on crude oil exports in December 2015 allowed the United States to increase rapidly supply of crude oil to the world oil market, the country’s share in the world crude oil exports reached 4,4% in 2018 and continues to rise. The U.S. share in the world petroleum products exports, on which the American oil sector places the main stake, reached 18%. In parallel with increasing oil production the U.S. considerably shrank crude oil import that forced many oil exporters to reorient to other markets. Due to high elasticity of tight oil production to the oil price increases oil from the U.S. has started to constrain the world oil price from above. According to the majority of authoritative forecasts, oil production in the U.S. will continue to increase at least until 2025. Since 2017 the tendency to the increasing expansion of supermajors into American unconventional oil sector has become noticeable, what will contribute to further strengthening of the U.S. position in the world oil market and accelerate its restructuring.  


1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Argyle Campbell

This survey has described the foreseeable environmental and economic impacts of enhanced oil-recovery (EOR) on U.S. oil production between 1980 and 2000. It has indicated that EOR production may be expected to rise from the approximately 4% of total U.S. oil production in 1980, to the projected approximations of 10.5% in 1985, 18.5% in 1990, 23% in 1995, and perhaps 30% in 2000. These percentages are substantial, particularly as this form of oil production has been, up until recently, quite limited. Many of the processes are still in the laboratory stage of development—particularly chemical and microbiological processes. With continued laboratory experimentation and field research, it is possible that the percentages could be even greater than the above suggestions as we reach into the 21st Century.The potential for EOR is very considerable and probably great, as it could involve some two-thirds of all the oil already identified in the United States and assumed to be unrecoverable by primary or secondary means. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has given important incentives to the EOR industry to make such increased production worth while through raising prices to compensate for the cost of equipment, and deducting expenditure on such equipment from a new ‘Windfall Profit Tax’.Along with EOR's economic potential, there are two major ecological dangers: air pollution through thermal processes, and ground-water pollution through chemical processes. It is essential to the well-being of the United States that clean air standards be adhered to, and that the equipment necessary to purify the air (particularly in California) be available and operate to reduce emissions.A great deal more research needs to be undertaken towards developing safeguards to ensure that drinkingwater is not contaminated by dangerous chemicals which may be used in ‘chemical flooding’ of depleted oil-wells. Many of these chemicals have merely ‘come out of the laboratory’ and are sold by chemical companies without sufficient field-testing. How far these chemicals could travel underground must still be determined. It is also important to ensure that carbon dioxide, fed into a geological formation, can be recaptured and re-injected without escaping into the atmosphere, where there is the potential danger of a global ‘greenhouse effect’ upon the world's temperature. Finally, it is important to safeguard the Earth against microbes which could be injected into its geological strata without sufficient knowledge of their impact on the ecology of the Earth. Thus, much environmental research will be called for with these new methods of producing oil for Man's use.This study has reviewed the four major methods of EOR that are currently being utilized or proposed— thermal processes, miscible and semi-miscible processes, chemical processes, and microbiological processes, and found that they could all have ongoing possibilities.Given appropriate environmental safeguards, EOR should become a major force in the production of energy for the United States over the next 20 years, and it seems reasonable to expect that much the same could apply to other parts of the world. However, it is important that safeguarding the environment should guide the DOE in terms of its incentive programmes for specific processes.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 595-601

On 2 November 1992, Iran filed an application instituting proceedings against the United States in respect of a dispute arising out of the attack on and the destruction of three offshore oil production complexes. In it, Iran contended that these acts constituted a fundamental breach of various provisions of the Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights between the United States and Iran, signed in 1955.


Nature Energy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 891-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Erickson ◽  
Adrian Down ◽  
Michael Lazarus ◽  
Doug Koplow

GeoArabia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moujahed I. Al-Husseini

ABSTRACT The Government of Iran estimates the country’s initial-oil-in-place and condensate-in-place are about 600 and 32 billion barrels (Gb), respectively. In 2004, the official estimate of the proved remaining recoverable oil and condensate reserves was about 132.5 Gb, of which crude oil accounted for about 108 Gb. Cumulative crude oil production is expected to cross the 60 Gb mark in 2007, implying that the estimated ultimate recoverable reserves of crude oil are about 168 Gb (cumulative production plus remaining reserves) and the total recovery factor is about 28%. The main Oligocene-Miocene Asmari and Cretaceous Bangestan (Ilam and Sarvak) reservoirs contain about 43% and 25%, respectively, of the total crude oil-in-place. Recovery factors for the Asmari range between about 10–60%, and for the Bangestan between 20–30%. Between 1974 and 2004 remaining recoverable reserves have increased from about 66 to 108 Gb, while the ultimate recoverable reserves have increased from 86 to 168 Gb. In contrast to 1974 when Iran’s production peaked at 6.0 Mb/d, production in 2005 averaged about 4.1 Mb/d. The 1974 peak occurred when production from most of the giant fields was ramped-up to very high but unsustainable levels. Current plans are to increase the crude oil production rate to 4.6 Mb/d by 2009. This is a significant challenge because this production capacity has to offset a reported total annual decline rate of 300–500,000 barrels/day (Kb/d). This high decline rate is attributed to the maturity of the giant fields, many of which attained their peaks in the 1970s and have produced about half or more of their estimated ultimate recoverable reserves. Therefore to achieve the 2009 production target within the next three years, Iran has to add about 680 Kb/d of capacity per year from its developed fields (infill drilling, recompletions, enhanced and improved oil recovery), while also adding net new surface facilities and well capacity from undeveloped fields and reservoirs.


Subject Outlook for the global ethanol industry. Significance Before the expansion of US domestic oil production, ethanol was thought to hold potential as a cheaper fuel. The drop in oil prices has resulted in abundant cheap gasoline, making ethanol less competitive in fuel blends. This has consequences for the ethanol industry, whose global output was 97 billion litres in 2015, with the United States (56%) and Brazil (24%) by far the largest producers. Impacts This year should see similar price action to that of 2015. Although below-average margins caused a rationing of production in early 2016, a rebound in margins is likely later this year. Lower prices will lead to additional forward ethanol exports, since corn plantings in the 2016-17 crop year could increase globally. Without a gasoline price rally, the best-case scenario is a low-to-flat price margin environment for ethanol.


Author(s):  
Christine Shearer

The ongoing, large demand for oil in the United States has helped push oil companies from onshore to offshore, increasing the complexity of the operations and the risks. This has been encouraged by US policy, which has historically encouraged an increase in both national oil demand and domestic oil production. This chapter focuses on expanded offshore oil drilling in the United States and its risks, highlighting the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil blowout. Such events are examples of explicitly “human-caused” disasters that nonetheless can be expected to increase as we resort to lower quality and harder to reach fossil fuels, offering an interesting example of Charles Perrow’s concept of “normal accidents.”


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